mybigadventures.com

We got up at about 8:30 AM, in preparation for our train at 11:02 AM to New York. We sorted out the rest of our stuff and headed down to breakfast, to take advantage of it before we left. I had fruit and a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and Ben had two chocolatines. We gathered together our stuff and then got a taxi to the station. The taxi driver was very friendly and was chatting eagerly to us, mainly about football. The taxi to the station was about $12, but, as the driver was so friendly, we tipped him quite happily.

We got into the station and went up to the ticket office to enquire about our tickets – we apparently had reserved seats, but we had no idea how to find them! Seemingly, there are five ‘reserved’ coaches, so you just got on and found a seat. Easy. And it actually was! We had to wait at the ‘gate’, like in airports, where we had to wait. A queue quickly started to form by the gate, and then suddenly, we were released onto the platform. We found a seat, hooked onto the free Wi-Fi and off we went! Caught up on some journal, did a bit of Skype-ing, ate the Subway that we bought in the station and, three and half hours later, rolled into Penn Station, New York. Love Amtrak trains!

We were further surprised to find our hotel to be - literally - a few minutes walk from the station. We hadn’t even broken a sweat walking there in the bright sunshine. Result! Checked in and went up to our room. It must be our lucky day as our room with merely metres away from the lift. Perhaps our smallest room so far with just a double bed, but it will do!

And so our New York adventure begins...

We began by walking up 7th Avenue, walking past the Pennsylvania Hotel that Ben and his family stayed in, when they came a few years ago. We popped into Macy’s to have a look around. Unsurprisingly, they are renovating, so it was completely baffling - we had no idea how to get from floor to floor, let alone different departments! Managed to find our way to their gift section after a while and browsed for potential gifts.

Then, we made our way out and carried on up 7th Avenue, crossing onto Broadway. Came out in Times Square and admired the lights and dazzling adverts. Went into Toys “R” Us – they have a ferris wheel just inside the door, with life-size toy cars to ride in – amazing! We then went in a few ‘tat’ shops in search of sew-on badges, but it wasn’t a very successful search. We only found a couple of quite basic ones. In the square itself, we noticed that some staged seating had been set up (facing the New Year’s Eve Ball side of the square) and, at the back, there was an interactive scream for you to pose in front of, but we just sat and people watched from the steps. It was a good point to take photos from, although people did keep standing in the way!

Decided to move on, after a while. Went into Hershey’s, as I wanted to try some of their chocolate. We bought a small selection box, as small bars don’t seem to be their thing, but after the first one, we weren’t convinced about the taste!

Made our way from there to the Rockefeller Centre – it took a bit of finding, despite it being a huge building! When we finally found the building itself, we were at the wrong side! Typical! Found the ticket office and bought the ‘Sun and Stars’ ticket, for $40 per person. This meant that we got to go up twice, once in the day and once at night, over a 24 hour period. As it was nearly 7 PM, we were aiming to see a bit of sun and stars, and then again tomorrow! We had to wait a while for our timed ticket, but once through security, the journey up was really quick. The elevator shaft was lit up, so you could see where you were going, which was pretty exciting.

Once out of the lift, we went up a further two floors and, then, we were at the top. It was spectacular from the top! We could see or miles – Central Park to the North and the Empire State building to the south, with the Statue of Liberty in the distance. We stayed up there until about dusk, so the colours began to soften and everything began to look hazy and ethereal. The views were amazing!

Starting to feel both weary and peckish, we headed down to ground level. We had picked up a coupon for TGI Friday’s (15% off), so we headed in that direction. It was allegedly their ‘grand opening’, but it appeared to be a well-settled restaurant. However, the food was good – we had potato skins with cheese and bacon to share, and then I had a bacon cheeseburger and Ben had chicken and tomato pasta. The service was pretty poor, though, as they tried to bring our mains out before our appetizer and, consequently, our mains sat on a hot plate for a while. We were a bit disgruntled about it so left a minimal tip (the whole tip thing  continues to be both baffling and irritating).

Turned our tired footsteps towards our hotel and turned in, feeling very weary.

Woke up quite late today - the hotel room has Japanese-style shutters and curtains so is quite dark. Comfy and cosy though! Threw some clothes on and went down to the Starbucks beneath the hotel. Bought hot teas (I still find it weird to have to ask for ‘hot’ tea) and had a breakfast sandwich each - sausage, egg and cheese in an English style muffin. Just under $10. Sat at our leisure for a while, before going back up and showering.

Dithered about what to do today - we had planned to have a look around the local area today, but as we had a bit of a look last night, we thought we’d investigate Hollywood instead. Went down to use the Internet to look at the availability of tickets for the Warner Brothers tour. Managed to get two tickets for 4:30 PM today ($110, including admin costs, for two tickets). We sorted ourselves out with passports as ID, and then went to the car. It was costing $30 per day to use the hotel car park, so we thought we might also check out the parking competition later.

Drove towards Hollywood. For a short journey, it took a long time, and included a fraught journey on the I-101 towards Hollywood! Used the SatNav to find some parking - a little expensive at $10 flat rate (particularly because there was no ‘in and out’), but we didn’t know an alternative. But, it was super-handy for the Walk of Fame, so it’s all relative…

Wandered along the boulevard, checking out the stars on the Hall of Fame. Walk past Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, and had a picture taken with Johnny Depp and Russell Crowe! Had a look at the Chinese Theatre, which is very attractive, with lots of decorations and celebrity handprints in the cement at the front - including a Harry Potter ensemble! Walked as far as the stars went and then headed back, in search of the elusive Hollywood sign. We had already had a bit of a wander up Highland Avenue, as allegedy you can see the sign where Highland meets Hollywood Boulevard - but we couldn’t see it. However, on this corner there is a shopping centre-type place, so we thought you might be able to see it from there. I asked the security guard and, yes, it could be seen from here - three floors up - so we did find it! Looks just as you might expect - it was quite hazy in the heat - but I guess it feels like proper LA now we’ve seen the Hollywood sign! We took quite a few photos and admired it for a while.

Time was marching on a bit so we decided we ought to head off to catch our Warner Brothers tour. It was just as well we left in plenty of time - traffic was a little slow, but that was nothing compared to the complete lack of signs or anything helpful when we were approaching the place! We could see the logo and the film posters - but no entrance. Our SatNav seemed unable to locate either road required by the directions on the ticket confirmation! Very frustrating! Ended up asking a local, who set us on the right track. We made it with minutes to spare!

We passed through security, where we chatted with very friendly security staff and then we joined a short queue to actually pick up our tickets. With minutes before our tour began, the only two people serving seem to be dealing with issues and consequently we were standing there for a while. Luckily, this didn’t seem to be a big problem (the timing) and we got onto the tour and into the auditorium for the pre-tour film, in the nick of time.

The film was an introduction to the history of the company; neither of us realised there were four brothers originally, starting the company so that was a fun fact. They also shared loads of clips from films and shows that have been made, to tickle the taste buds, as it were! We then went off in smaller groups to do the golf-buggy-tour bit. Our tour guide was called Noah, and you had to love his enthusiasm! He was very good at his job. He drove us (a group of nine) around various sets and streets that are permanent fixtures - and also many ‘everyday’ parts of the site that are always left neutral to be dressed as required. There were several highlights: we went into a museum of artefacts from different shows/films and they had an array of Harry Potter stuff, including the Marauders Map, one of Arogog’s descendants, Hermione’s frozen body from ‘The Chamber of Secrets’, and a little Dobby. Also, they had costumes and props from ‘Hart of Dixie’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, the new ‘Batman’, ‘Chuck’ and ‘The Hangover’ films to name but a few. We also went to see some cars being stored; the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter, several Batmobiles, and Clint Eastwood’s car from Gran Torino. At another point, we went to see the Central Perk set from ‘Friends’ - the original - and we sat on the sofa for a photo. The two final highlights of the day were seeing Leonard from ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and the filming of ‘Hart of Dixie’! So exciting! At least, we’re fairly certain it was Leonard, and, as for the filming, Noah told is it was filming for ‘The Mentalist’, but all the props were from the set of ‘Hart of Dixie’, and we are fans, so we know!

I’ve  just thought - we also went into a soundstage, set up for filming ‘Marley and Mike’ - a new sitcom and Noah explained how it all worked. A five-day schedule for sitcoms - reading, rehearsing, and then filming, with the networks being involved to veto the scripts. So, all in all, a fun afternoon session! We bought our souvenir photo, taken in front of a green screen; it seemed quite a bargain at only $5.40. We also bought a ‘Big Bang Theory’ T-shirt each, as a souvenir. He he! So cool!

It was getting on when we came out so we located a restaurant through the SatNav - ‘Bob’s Big Boys’. In true American style, we had vast portions - Ben had a Big Boy Special - a little like a big Mac - and I had what turned out to be a burger covered in chilli. Tasty, but there was a lot of it! I took some of mine home in a doggy bag!

We headed off, back to the hotel. Traffic was heavy on I-101, so it took longer than expected. Got back to Little Tokyo and started to look for alternative parking, but found nothing. One car park closed in 30 minutes and didn’t do overnight parking - given that it was already 11:30 PM, it was odd that they thought we wanted to park for only 30 minutes! At 11:30 PM?! Gave up and parked in the hotel car park instead.

Today we decided to visit Eastern State Penitentiary, which was once famed for its progressive system of imprisonment but is now a crumbling ruin. We booked tickets online,, to avoid queuing and also to get a slightly cheaper rate. Even better, we had a coupon to get a further two dollars off - winner, winner! We also discovered that there is a really useful bus that operates around Philly - the 'Phlash' - primarily for tourists, I think, but it loops the city, stopping at key tourist hotspots and single tickets are only a dollar! A day of bargains so far. It conveniently stopped outside the prison so we were soon 'in the clink' and getting our audio tour started. 

The audio tour covered the most significant features of the prison - it was designed to promote 'penitence' hence being named a 'penitentiary' and it was all about completely isolating the prisoners. They had their own cells, their own yard (open to the elements) and were not released from cells at all. Theoretically, it was to encourage reflection and repentence. Over the years, as the war on crime picked up in the States and masses of people were being incarcerated, they had to extend the prison, so things changed gradually. But there is a lot of the original prison structure to have an idea of what it must have been like, although it is beginning to disintegrate and crumble away. It is really quite eerie in some parts. 

From there we wandered towards Fairmont park, immortalised because of the 'Rocky' steps that lead up to the Philadelphia museum of art that's near the bottom of the park. We walked up the steps - we could have run to be like Rocky, but no! - and had a little sit on a bench at the top. It started to rain a little bit so we had to put ponchos on but it passed over, so we 'de-ponchoed'. We decided to walk into the rest of the park and, as we were going down the steps, it started to rain again, so we 're-ponchoed'. But this time, it didn't stop. In fact, it rained more. And more. We ended up having to rush back up the steps and under the shelter of the museum, running through the flash flood water so we were pretty soaked by the time we got there. Thankfully it passed over again, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We waited for the Phlash again and were lucky to get on it before the heavens opened. It was a deluge! The bus saved us a fair bit of walking but we still had to walk a bit and the bus also stopped just before a river running down the street - so any part of our feet that weren't wet before, were certainly wet now! When we got back to the hotel, we muct have resembled drowned rats!

Ended up ordering Dominos for tea, rather than face the rain again.