Brotherly Love Is Temporarily French

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I wasn't up that early in the morning, however whilst the others were showering and getting ready (I had already showered myself, just in case you're thinking I'm a slob) I walked around to get some final some photos. Philadelphia apparently means "city of brotherly love" and one of the sculptures to see is the "love" sculpture. After searching where it should have been I was advised that it has been taken away temporarily whilst the square it was in is being landscaped. There is a French "Amor" one near by if, by some chance, that is supposed to be any kind of substitute.

Once we were sorted, we set about driving to New York. Our satnav badly let us down on the way to Philadelphia so this time we decided to ignore it and blindly followed the Interstate 95. As before it kept trying to force us onto Route 1, which is a lot more sedate so we ignored it. We have no idea what happened, but we eventually found ourselves going back the way we had came and had to take some serious corrective action before we ended up back in D.C..

It was quite exciting to spot the New York skyline in the distance and then go across from New Jersey to New York through the Lincoln Tunnel. We had decided that we would not keep the car whilst we were in New York as we would not need it and it would cost a lot of money to park, so after dropping my wife and daughter and all our bags at the hotel, my son and I set about driving to JFK airport where we needed to drop-off the car.

A bucket list of brave, reckless and courageous things to do in your life can contain many things, such a skydiving, abseiling, bungie-jumping and white-water rafting. Then, if you are really, really brave there is driving in Manhattan. I can tick that off the list, but I was a nervous wreck by the time I got to the rental car drop-off. Of course you always drive according to the rules of the road you are driving on, I used my car-horn continuously, needlessly and obnoxiously the whole way.

One slight complication, went through the Queens Midtown Tunnel on the way and we briefly saw one (and I mean one) warning sign that they log the number plates of anyone who has not paid a toll. I'll have to set to now and see if I need to and can pay the toll charge online before we get fined.

It had cost us $40 for all the petrol for all our driving. I'd probably get about half a tank for that in the UK.

All the terminals, the rental car area, the long-term carparks and the nearly Subway stations are now all linked by the "air train". It cost $5 per person though, which seems a bit steep. We then got the Subway back to Manhattan, although we suddenly found that (due to some maintenance works apparently) the train suddenly and randomly changed to a different line and we were no longer going through the stations we were expecting.

We got to the hotel to discover that it was not our hotel anymore. Apparently the room was beyond small, so my wife had moved to a different hotel about five streets away, which, given all the bags involved, had been somewhat traumatic, although it had kept them both away from the shops. We are both going to need a drink tonight, which, by the way, is more than my son can have. At nineteen he is used to having been able to drink in the UK for nearly two years, however you need to be 21 in US.

The window from our hotel room does have a fantastic view of the Empire State Building however.

Our daughter really wanted to go to Planet Hollywood. We went there when we were in New York in the winter a couple of years ago and the queue was down the stairs, out the door and down the street, so we were not expecting to be eating for quite a while. This time however, there was no queue.

My daughter loves the atmosphere in there, with all the screens and the loud music. It was all very loud for me, but she would not let me ask for the music to be turned-down. Although I changed my mind and she was less than impressed when my favourite "True" by the legends who are Spandau Ballet came on.

We finished quite early and, despite it being Sunday, everywhere was still open and busy so my wife and daughter went off shopping. My son and I walked to Trump Tower to see if anything had changed now that he is president. The path by the front of the building was still open, however the path and road down the side were closed and there were concrete barricades all round it to stop any rogue vehicles getting anywhere near it.

Last time we were in New York we met "Mr Weed" who was quite open about needing money to buy weed (see The Cool Side of New York). Things aren't much different now as, just south of Times Square, was a mobile weed van, with its music blasting out and quite a crowd of eager shoppers.

We got back to the hotel to find that my wife and daughter were still out shopping - how concerned should I be?

The political crisis seems to be carrying on and apparently people are now actively talking about the 25th amendment. Interesting times. Clearly, there's no place for a brotherly love sign in Washington DC, be it in English or French.

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Photos

City Hall
The statue of William Penn a top the City Hall.

Love
The city of brotherly love has temporality gone French.

New York Here We Come
Approaching on the New Jersey freeway.

Hotel Room View
The Empire State Building, as seen from our hotel room.

Weed World Van
Lots of different varieties to choose from!

Trump Tower Security
Barricades and security around the Trump Tower.