A late night with stage door crowds at the theatre, followed by a fairly early breakfast to spend a little time with the others and we were preparing to leave New York. Just one last visit to Central Park….
What an interesting place it is – something for everyone: shady trees for shelter, a bowls green, playgrounds, lakes, vistas for artists, cyclists, musicians, joggers, horse carriages for those who want to see everything without too much exercise,dogs and their walkers, even a puppeteer! And lots of ‘people watching’ as we strolled and struggled not to get lost! It’s a huge space for a city park.
Right by the zoo
Sadly, it was soon time to return to the hotel and prepare to checkout, share a taxi to Times Square with Holly and Hannah who were off to a theatre tour, and make our way to Penn Station to board the train to Washington. Tickets were booked but had to be validated and the website had suggested very limited amounts of luggage so we were a bit concerned…. but, in fact, train travel here is both easier and more pleasant than in the UK. The trains are clean and the stations have waiting areas for different services. Amtrack provide well for their customers and we had comfortable places to wait in both cities.The tracks are underground: a great way to save space in city centres. And the Red Cap porters make sure that passengers who ask for their help with baggage are first on to the train and helped to seats. Super! We used them just to make sure we got to the right place but it meant we were able to sit very near the luggage storage area in the car so it was never out of our sight. And the racks are huge!!
Three and a half hours later we arrived in Union Station, Washington D.C. to get to know another city, very different from New York. Another hop on, hop off experience was ahead, but first it was a taxi to the hotel and a good night’s sleep. First sight? The impressive Capitol building.
Living the Journey 