New York and home

Photo at the top me on Empire state building with Central Park in the background.
The one below is me at Rockefeller center

(Long blog)


I'm back folks. I haven't had the opportunity to write while I was gone because the cost to use internet was so high. Besides I haven't had that much time to sit down and write either.

OK I will take it from the beginnning. We started out delayed from Stockholm and arrived in Heathrow with just 45 minutes left before our next flight. We ran through terminal 5, through security, on the little train that takes you to the B-gate, up to the gate and immediately onto the plane. We came just minutes before it closed.
Up and away in economy, which I have never flown in before to USA, sitting at the last seats in the plane with a wall behind. The person in front of me layed back her seat which made me cramped like in a little box. Thus we sat for 8 hours. Horrible! I will never ever fly economy again at least not with BA (more information later).

We landed at Newark and didn't clear customs until over an hour after landing because there were so many coming at that time of the day 1.30PM. After clearing we went down to fetch our bags. No bags! Last baggage had already come and we found two reps for BA telling us that our luggage was on the next flight and would arrive at 6.30PM (probably because of the delay from Stockholm) so we had to find BA's office, which wasn't easy, and there we gave our hotelname and I said I had to have my luggage the same night since I had my medicine in there which I have to take at night. They promised me it would be at the hotel the same night.

When we arrive at the New York Helmsley to check in I told the very nice checkin staff what had happened and they also promised that as soon as the bags arrived we would have them delivered to our room. She also upgraded our room which was very nice and we ended up at the 29th floor with view both of the Chrysler buildning as well as UN building and we could even see a glimpse of Hudson river. Two big and high beds (we had to jump up on them) very comfortable.

Do you think we got the luggage that night? Of course not! So that night I had the most cramp I have had since I started medication :-( I'm very angry at BA and I wrote them a complaint that Friday which they haven't answered yet - one week later. That is Customer relations for you :-(

Did I say our limo stood us up? Oh yes, so we had to take a taxi from the airport because they hadn't waited long enough. But I'm not the one to just let things go. So I emailed our travel agency telling them what have happened and suggested they should contact the limoservice and tell them we could have to ride to JFK instead. On Monday the day before we should go home I received a fax that a limo would fetch us at our hotel and take us to JFK.

Next day Mamma Mia at night. What a show that is! I loved it. The theater was beautiful and the audience on top. They were singing and dancing at the end except for the three girls next to us especially the one next to me who slept through the whole thing. Too much boose there.
Lena on the cruise on Hudson river with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

We of course "did" Time square several times. We went both to Planet Hollywood and Hard rock café. We bought a sightseeing pass for 72 hours with that we went on the hop on hop off buses both downtown Manhattan, uptown Manhattan and everything between. We went on a cruise on Hudson River on a marvellous sunny but cold day. -10C in the morning when we walked from our hotel at one end of Manhatten to the other end, 2.5km in the morning. Then for a 2-hour cruise where we saw both the place where the plane landed, ground zero, statue of Liberty, Ellis island, Staten island ferry, Brooklyn bridge and more.
We also took a night tour downtown and over to Brooklyn which also was freezing. Luckily I had a wollen scarf which we sat on, otherwise we would have gotten cystitis :-)
We went up the Empire state building and saw Manhattan from the top. We went uptown and saw Trump tower, Dakota building and the place where John Lennon was shot and where Yoko Ono still lives. We saw Harlem and Bill Clinton's office there. We went both to Macy's and Bloomingdales. We saw Firestations and hockeystores and above all we walked and then we walked a bit more. I don't know how many miles (and that's not English miles) we walked but every night my feet, legs and back hurt but we found this wonderful musclepain relief balm which I lubricated every evening and in the morning it was gone.

We ate twice at a very nice cosy Italian family restaurant near our hotel which I can recommend. Not the biggest menue but the dishes were very very good and the pasta cooked to perfection. Try the chicken with parmesan and tomatoe sauce. The name is Dean's pizzeria & restaurant located on 801 Second avenue almost in the corner of E42nd street.

Our journey back home started with the limo we were promised - A black very comfy Lincoln with a supernice driver that drove us through Queens.
The plane left on time and we even arrived at Heathrow earlier than we should. After a 4 hour wait there we finally boarded our plane home a very old 767 which took us home safely and we landed on time and our bags came!!

Thanks L for a wonderful week. Thanks H for fetching us at the airport.

Today I had a note from the postoffice that I had a parcel to fetch and I went down and I was so curious and when I opened it J and M had sent me fresh walnuts (love it) and also BBQ seasoning and sauce, a brooch and my favourite chocolate. I was so happy and glad so thank you.

Now it's back to normal again - oh almost normal. Tomorrow Greek dinner in Uppsala with K and J. Saturday dinner at I and K's house to see their new kitchen and on Sunday I go to Gothenburg.

Good thing I don't work now. I don't know how I would find time otherwise :-)

See you folks.