So my weekend of going to the U.S. to watch a couple of baseball games also turned into a minor study of different types of 'transportation'!
First up we had the 8 hour flight across the Atlantic. I'd managed to get a bulkhead seat when I did online check-in, so I had plenty of legroom and no seat in front to recline back in to me. Also I lucked out by not having a baby using the bassinet thingy. In fact I'm not sure there were any babies on the flight at all, which was pretty surprising given how busy it was (20 people 'left behind' according to one of the cabin crew). I think the only thing of any vague interest that happened on the flight was when an Indian woman fainted in the toilet. Her husband/son had helped her to the toilet and kind of left her to do her 'business'. When he came back to check on her she sort of fell out the toilet in a state of partial undress. There then followed a bit of mild panic from various passengers and she was laid out in the aisle and eventually came around. The crew were pretty calm and almost blase about it, so I guess it's not that rare an occurrence.
We landed a few minutes ahead of schedule at Newark Airport. The queue for immigration was nonexistent and I didn't even get any 'tricky' questions from the Immigration Officer. Once I was through immigration I breezed through the baggage reclaim area (hand luggage only), past customs and out in to the arrival hall. From there I had a short wait before the Marriott hotel shuttle picked me up and took me the half a mile or so to the hotel.
After a short nights sleep I was out of the hotel by 6am. Once again it was the shuttle back to the airport. However, I wasn't about to catch a flight, but instead I got on a coach to take me to Manhattan. When Cliff and I did this trip last year the coach journey took about 45 minutes, so I'd factored that in to my 'planning'. What I hadn't thought about was that at 6am on a Saturday morning there really wasn't much traffic about. As a result it must've taken about 25 minutes to get from the airport to Grand Central Station. After having a tasty bagel for breakfast there wasn't a great deal to do apart from get from Manhattan to La Guardia Airport. I had a choice -- I could get a cab, or save a bit cash and take a combination of Subway and Bus. I went for the Subway and Bus combo. I took the Subway 'uptown' to 125th Street and then caught the M60 bus to the airport.
Once again I had allowed too much time for the trip, and I found my self in the US Airways terminal at about 8.30am. My flight wasn't until 11am! So I had a fair chunk of time to kill. I wandered around the other terminals, browsed in Borders and then finally cleared security and headed for the US Airways Club -- the 'lounge' that my Singapore Airlines Elite Gold status gets me access to. I wish I hadn't bothered. There were plenty of seats, but that's really all it had going for it. I read for a bit and then it was time for me to find my gate and catch my flight to Washington D.C. At first I inadvertently joined the queue for a flight going to Pittsburgh, but thankfully realised my mistake and found the queue for the flight to D.C. Boarding was bit chaotic, with people with boarding passes for later flights trying to get on (maybe that's what I should've tried).
It was another full flight, and after a short time waiting in the 'queue' of planes to take off, we got airborne and headed South. The actual flight time was an almost embarrassing 35 minutes. I thought that this being a domestic US flight there would be no inflight 'service' but they did serve drinks and pretzels. I don't know how the flight attendants managed to get to everyone in the time they time between climbing after take-off and approaching Washington.
I was out of the airport terminal at Reagan National Airport in no time at all and made my way to the Metro station a short walk from the terminal building. I had a bit of a frustrating wait for a train as there was some engineering works and trains in both directions were sharing the same track. Once a train did turn up it was only a handful of stops before I arrived at the station closest to my hotel. I walked to my hotel stopping off to buy some T-Shirts from City Sports and to get a beast of a hamburger from Fuddruckers.
I dumped my stuff at my hotel and walked the mile or so to Union Station to catch an Amtrak train to Baltimore (the train actually went all the way up to Boston). I timed it pretty well and didn't have to wait long before the train was ready to go. The journey to Baltimore took about 40 minutes. Once at Baltimore's Penn Station I caught the Light Rail train to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the really cool home of the Baltimore Orioles.
The trip back to Washington after the game was again a combination of Light Rail and Amtrak. However this time I got the Light Rail train to Baltimore Airport and picked up the Amtrak train from there (it meant I could stay longer at the Baseball). I had a bit of a snooze on the train, but fortunately the train terminated in Washington, so there was no danger of me falling asleep and waking up in little old Redneck, South Carolina.
I was up bright and early on Sunday morning. I paid a visit to Starbucks to kick start my system before embarking on my first mission of the day. That mission was to get to FedEx Kinkos and check-in for my return flight back to Heathrow. Fortunately FedEx Kinkos was just around the corner, so I got online and checked-in with no problem and once again snagged a bulkhead seat with plenty of legroom. I also took the opportunity to check-in for my flight back to New York.
I walked to the Metro station and got the train back to the airport -- fortunately no engineering works today. The airport was pretty quiet. I grabbed a bite to eat and then it wasn't long before my flight was called for boarding.
We arrived back at La Guardia airport a little ahead of a schedule and again I was able to whizz through the airport. Being as I had such success previously I went for the Bus and Subway option to get from La Guardia to Midtown Manhattan. This time it wasn't as smooth as the bus seemed to stop every 500 metres to let people off and on. Nevermind -- I got to 125th Street in the end and took the Subway downtown to Grand Central Station. I made my way to the Grand Hyatt as this is where I planned to dump my bags whilst I went to the Yankees game. Things didn't go particularly well with the 'bell hop' guy wanted to know what room I'd stayed in and started going on about 9/11 etc. I blagged it and eventually he relented and stored my bag for me. So much for his security spiel.
The subway back uptown to Yankee Stadium was absolutely rammed -- on a par with the MTR in Hong Kong at rush hour.
After being nicely roasted in the sun at the game I went downtown to South St Seaport to do a spot of shopping. I then had a leisurely stroll, via a Starbucks, through Chinatown, SoHo and TriBeCa. My feet were starting to complain a bit by now so I jumped on the Subway at Astor Place and took the train back to Grand Central Station. I picked my bag up from the hotel, had a tasty burrito from Chipotle and got the coach back to Newark Airport. The coach journey was made better as I sipped surreptitiously from a couple of cans of Coors Lite.
At the airport I had a longer than expected wait for the hotel shuttle, but this did give me the opportunity to eavesdrop on a pilot wittering on about how he'd changed 'majors' at college so he could get in to flying, and how he now earned less than his previous job but that the conditions were much better. I was a bit concerned when he started talking about his life insurance policy!
At the hotel it was a case of shower, pack and then sleep.
I was out of the hotel by 6.00am and walked straight onto a shuttle bus which left straight away. The airport was pretty quiet, and despite having already checked in I still had to go to the check-in desk so that BA could check my passport and take the little green departure card thing.
There is bugger all to do at the terminal that BA uses at Newark (Cliff and I learnt this last year), so I took the 'airtrain' to Terminal C to 'have a look around' -- this didn't take long. I got the 'airtrain' back to the BA terminal, cleared security and then waited to board the flight.
The flight back wasn't totally full. I had hoped that the seat next to me would be free, but in the end someone did sit down in it. It's a pity that they smelt a little bit as though their clothes either needed a wash or a good 'airing'! It wasn't an overpowering or 'dirty' smell, but every now and then I'd catch a hint of something stale or musty. Again the flight was pretty routine, and this time there weren't any fainting Indians to liven things up.
The subway back uptown to Yankee Stadium was absolutely rammed -- on a par with the MTR in Hong Kong at rush hour.
After being nicely roasted in the sun at the game I went downtown to South St Seaport to do a spot of shopping. I then had a leisurely stroll, via a Starbucks, through Chinatown, SoHo and TriBeCa. My feet were starting to complain a bit by now so I jumped on the Subway at Astor Place and took the train back to Grand Central Station. I picked my bag up from the hotel, had a tasty burrito from Chipotle and got the coach back to Newark Airport. The coach journey was made better as I sipped surreptitiously from a couple of cans of Coors Lite.
At the airport I had a longer than expected wait for the hotel shuttle, but this did give me the opportunity to eavesdrop on a pilot wittering on about how he'd changed 'majors' at college so he could get in to flying, and how he now earned less than his previous job but that the conditions were much better. I was a bit concerned when he started talking about his life insurance policy!
At the hotel it was a case of shower, pack and then sleep.
I was out of the hotel by 6.00am and walked straight onto a shuttle bus which left straight away. The airport was pretty quiet, and despite having already checked in I still had to go to the check-in desk so that BA could check my passport and take the little green departure card thing.
There is bugger all to do at the terminal that BA uses at Newark (Cliff and I learnt this last year), so I took the 'airtrain' to Terminal C to 'have a look around' -- this didn't take long. I got the 'airtrain' back to the BA terminal, cleared security and then waited to board the flight.
The flight back wasn't totally full. I had hoped that the seat next to me would be free, but in the end someone did sit down in it. It's a pity that they smelt a little bit as though their clothes either needed a wash or a good 'airing'! It wasn't an overpowering or 'dirty' smell, but every now and then I'd catch a hint of something stale or musty. Again the flight was pretty routine, and this time there weren't any fainting Indians to liven things up.
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