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| Van New York 2009 |
New York had been on our 'wish list' of places to go to for a long time, but it never came to a reality. A very affordable flight from AirBerlin and Jos turning 40 this year provided enough 'excuse' to finally do it.
How disappointing it was when AirBerlin announced cancelling their flights to New York, a dream fell apart. But luckily only for a few days. Through Orbitz Petra soon found an offer almost as good as with AB: Brussels - Amsterdam - New York, outbound with KLM/Air France & New York - Brussels with Delta Airlines.
And than the hotel. Tripadvisor, as always, showed again to be a very good guide. After looking at the pro's and con's of several options we choose the New York Palace. From there on the Euro/Dollar exchange rate helped us improve our deal (as the booking was easy to cancel - for free). Our final booking was including Executive Lounge, money very well spent retrospectively.
All set, the trip could start!
Thursday February 19th
Leaving home early, trying to avoid the traffic jams around Brussels. We flew to Amsterdam with
KLM (1724). Since we only had an hour and a half to transfer in Amsterdam, and knowing from past experience that flights to the US tend to close boarding early and take quite some time to board (security checks), we were not too pleased with the 'missing' passenger that caused quite a delay leaving Brussels. Fortunately he showed up before they found his luggage, so we could take off.
At Amsterdam boarding was fast and smooth, no security interview at all (!). Must have been due to recent mandatory filling out of all your details on the web [ESTA].
After a smooth flight [KLM641] we arrived in New York on time.
The pre-booked hotel transfer with Super Shuttle took us to the hotel in an hour and a half. Mainly the traffic jam to cross the bridge from Queens to Manhattan was root cause to that.
At the New York Palace we were offered room 3117. Thirty First floor with a direct view on the famous St. Patricks Cathedral.
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| Van New York 2009 |
Although we had been mailing the hotel for this favour, not having paid for it (on the hotels website, rooms with this view are almost double priced!) we felt very lucky to actually have been given this room.
Our next positive surprise was the Executive Lounge. Although we couldn't access it that night (re-carpeting), we had a good taster of what it was like, as we were offered a 'dinner snack menu' and drinks for free in the down stairs bar&restaurant. Exactly what we needed after a long exhausting trip.
Finally, a nice bed to sleep in :-)
Friday February 20th
On our first day in New York we decided to explore. On foot of course, as NY is the only city on the US where a car is not mandatory for transportation. From Petra's 'research' it was clear that the best views are on the roof of the Rockefeller building, better known as Top Of The Rock. It may not be as high as the Empire State Building, but here you have a view ON the Empire State Building! We decided to buy tickets for the evening as well, so we could see NY by night later that day.
Stunning views from Top of the Rock, where pictures a are better than words.
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| Van New York 2009 |
From there we walked Down Town on 5th Avenue, looking for a shop that didn't exist. We continued until we reach NY's oldest, and one of it's best known skyscrapers: The Flatiron. Pretty strange to see that the first skyscraper had such an odd shape.
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| Van New York 2009 |
We decided that 22nd street was far enough (we started at 53rd!), and returned towards Up Town. We walked over Broadway to Macy's. Macy's, a must do according the city guides we brought along. But what a disappointment in reality, old and run down. The 'promised' high end atmosphere was nowhere to be found. After browsing through Victoria's Secret we walked on to Time Square and finally back to the hotel.
Let's see what this lounge really has to offer. The breakfast may have been good (next to the American Breakfast standard of scrambled eggs, bacon, baked potato, French toast and cornflakes, lots of food for a hungry bear: Blue Berries, Strawberries, Raspberries, ..... ).
Not bad, not bad at all. Manhattan Clam Chowder, wraps, sandwiches, etc, etc. A good idea to have come back and check this out!
After lunch we decided to offset Macy's with a look in the real high end candy store: Saks. The opposite to Macy's and THE place to go to see what may be just a little bit too expense. Never seen so many designers together under one roof. Not to speak about the shoe department, more looked like a museum.
From there we walked toward Central Park as Petra really wanted to see the NY Marlies Dekkers store, located in the New York Plaza Hotel. Knowing before we left to NY that this was on our 'To Do List", we had a "Speaking of the Devil" moment when arriving in JFK International Airport the previous day. Marlies (yes, THE) was standing in front of us at the US Border at Immigration. Unfortunately she was already AT the officers desk, so you can't say hi.
The shop clearly showed that the concept is similar world wide, as it looked like the store in Maastricht (which we like better). Although the shop is a little tucked away, it is for sure a great accomplishment to have a store in NY, in such a High End and famous hotel!
Back to the hotel for our 'lounge' dinner. After which we went back to the Top of the Rock for night view over Manhattan.
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| Van New York 2009 |
Just before calling it a day, we had a last stop at the lounge to taste the deserts and have a nice glass of wine. The end of a nice, but cold, day in NY.
Saturday February 21stHaving walked all Friday (enough), we now chose traveling using the Subway today. Also because the plan was to go to The Statue of Liberty, and that was simply too far to walk. Getting onat Lexinton and 51st, we took 6 and 4 to get to Bowling Green. We walked up to Clinton Castle, from where the Ferry brought us to Liberty Island.
Beautiful blue skies during this time of the year means that it was cold, very cold. On the Ferry the camera froze up several times. Luckily not constant, so there are some nice pictures.
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| Van New York 2009 |
After taking in the views on Manhattan, we entered the Statue itself. Obviously the security measures had been stepped up significantly due to Nine Eleven. Entering the Statue makes boarding a plane look easy! It took about an hour to get through all security to finally get in. And then it is today only possible to enter up to the Statues supporting base, the actual Statue is still closed for the public.
As we just missed the Ferry coming down a little too late, we decided to quickly take a bite at the local 'restaurant'. Yuk, , not a good idea. Fast food worst case.
Next stop: Ellis Island. This has been the main entrance for all immigrants to the US in late 1800 and early 1900. Very interesting for Americans, not too interesting for us. Anyway, like all Americans we also checked the names engraved at Ellis Island, but we couldn't find our family names anywhere. Obviously our families stayed in Europe.
After having seen historical must do's we took the subway to SoHo. What a nice place with nice small shops. Quite difference from Up Town where our hotel was located.
The NY guide books we brought advised us to have lunch/dinner at
Lupa. And what a good advise that was. Gnocchi, Spaghetti and Saltimbuca was our, very very, good choice. A feast (despite of the European speed of serving: we were hungry).
After a quick tour through SoHo we went back to the Hotel to get the cold out of our bones with a warm bath. Evening at the lounge, reviewing the day and planning the next over a good glass of red wine and a taste of the wonderful deserts.
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| Van New York 2009 |
Sunday February 22nd
We still had a few things on our list of things to see: Brooklyn Bridge and Ground Zero. Going Down Town we experienced the inefficiency of the NY subway (or was it just a Sunday, or maybe us?). We had to get from an express train onto a local train to get to Ground Zero, which never seemed to arrive. So we decided to go to the Brooklyn Bridge first.
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| Van New York 2009 |
From there we went to Ground Zero on foot. Strange place. You expect a huge open space in the middle of a skyscraper forest, but in reality it didn't look that big. To think that two such huge buildings have stood there AND collapsed there! As there is actually nothing to see and since, knowing what happened there, the place still gives you a strange feeling (going there as a tourist), we decided to move on: back to SoHo as we enjoyed it so much the day before.
This resulted in subway disaster two. Firstly, many subways around Ground Zero are out of order. This shouldn't be a surprise, but it is not indicated clearly* and as a tourist one doesn't know which is and which isn't. Than after finally found one that was operated, it only was for local trains. Which, again, were scares.
* New York subways & streets: we assumed a busy city as New York, where millions of tourists room, would have a well indicated and modern subway. What a contrary to the actual situation. Subway entrances are not indicated (like London, Hong Kong, etc), you simply stumble over a whole in the pavement: hey a subway entrance. And the subway itself looks very old and run down once you go under ground.
Another contrast to expectations was how busy the city was. Where one is warned by the guide books to avoid certain hours due to loads of pedestrians, and clogged up traffic, we had the impression that one could blindfolded cross the streets. Go to London and you learn what busy is. It underlines that busy is a state of mind (only).
In the afternoon we had a nice stroll up and down 5th and 6th street, taking in and checking out the shops and atmosphere. In the evening we went back to the hotel lounge to enjoy the first part of the Academy Awards.
Monday February 23rd
A very nice long weekend break was nearing its end. This afternoon would be picked up to leave for the airport. As the whether had returned to the beautiful blue skies of the first two days without the biting cold wind, we walked further North this morning to enjoy the views on New York from the famous Central Park. This must be a very relaxing place for all people living on Manhattan, especially in summer when one can lay in the sun.
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| Van New York 2009 |
At 14:25 hours we were picked up to leave for JFK Airport. Our flight Delta Airlines (DL140) left from Terminal 3. This terminal makes Antwerp airport look modern. My god, this couldn't be the US, it more felt like Kazachstan! Due to the intensive security measures we had to check in AT LEAST three hours before the flight. Within less than 15min after saying goodbye to the driver from Super Shuttle we arrived at our gate (?).
With so much time to waste and an 'airport shopping list' in our head, we desperately looked for the Duty Free Shopping zone: a kiosk is bigger.
As we had noticed that Terminal 4 was significant bigger and the majority of the international flights left here, we asked the Information desk whether we could go there and shop. Sure, was the answer. With high hopes we went to Terminal 4 and found the shopping paradise we anticipated to find on an international airport as big as JFK. What a disappointment it was to hear at the check out, after finding exactly what we were looking for, at a very good price AND with a sensational free gift, that the shops in Terminal 4 can only sell to people flying from Terminal 4 as they can only do Gate delivery at Terminal 4.
Not amused we returned to Terminal 3, empty handed.
Smiles returned back on our face when we understood that our flight was almost empty (114 seats unassigned on a Boeing 757). Everybody could take three seats and so we did.
Tuesday February 24th
Despite of the short flight (6 and bit hours), we arrived after 'good' night sleep in Brussels. Time to pick up the car and drive home back to our cats.
A wonderful long weekend break had ended.
During the May Bank Holiday Weekend we flew for a short weekend break to 
And what a habitat that is. Madagascar is a world on its own, and has been for millions of years. We were looking forward to new 'experience of a lifetime'. How shocking and disappointing it was to learn a few weeks later about the political roller coaster Madagascar had become. Hoping for the best we waited for the situation to calm down the next few months. But the longer we waited the more it became clear, the issues in Madagascar will not be solved overnight.