USA Sept 2014 New York to Seattle by train

Sunday 14 September 2014

The Eurodam arrived in New York just before dawn. I had room service brekkie in the cabin. I was scheduled to leave the ship at 9.30 am but there was a hold up with the Immigration process so that I left the ship at 10.45 am. 

 Once off the ship I was very quick and I was in a Cab and arrived at the Holiday Inn at 11.25 am.

 I was met by my good friends Marg and Harriet from the Statendam Panama cruise from about 5 years ago.

 They had arranged their week long trip to New York to coincide with my 2 day visit and be my tour guides. I only had time to put my bags in the room and we were in a cab to St Patrick's Cathedral for the midday mass.

New York seems to be a city of scaffolding as there is much work going on and this included St Pat’s. The mass was drowned out by the noise of a dust extractor. I could not get over how big the crowd was as this huge Cathedral was packed. We did a quick tour of the church after the Mass.

Then it was off to the Broadway production of Wicked. Well this show was fantastic brilliant great and if you haven't guessed I really enjoyed it and would love to see it again. The final song ‘For Good’ bought a very loud standing ovation.

From there we went to a great Italian restaurant for dinner not far from our hotel. The meal  and service was excellent. We called it a night about 10.30 pm.

Monday 15 September 2015.

 

I got down to brekkie just after 8 am to find the ladies had just about finished there’s. I had a quick brekkie and met Marg and Harriet at 9.30 am for the Days sight seeing.

 Our first stop was at St Pauls church which was the assembly point for the 9/11 Memorial Tour.

This tour was a very sombre experience and our tour guide was involved at the nearby hospital so it was all from the heart. The actual site of the former towers where the Ground Zero Memorial is is a credit to those who planned it.

We then visited the underground museum which was awesome and one had to see to believe the power of the explosion. I will let the photos do the talking.

Then we set off to Central Park to have lunch at the Boat House. Walking through Central Park on such a sunny day was a beaut experience. The place was so alive with tourists and folk exercising and enjoying themselves . 

The Boat House Restaurant was a fantastic with the lake outside and folk enjoying themselves in row boats. The late lunch was excellent.

 

We headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to the Empire State Building, Wow so many people queued up for the process of getting tickets and the security checks. It was well over an hour from the time we entered the building to when we got to the top. The views were great and the night lights of this huge city put on a beaut show.

We ‘had a late dinner at D.J Reynolds an Irish Pub and Bar not far from our Hotel. I had a pint of Guinness as well. I had the squid which was excellent. 

The music was drowned out by the large sports TV screens.

It was after 11 pm by the time we got back to the hotel and may I say exhausted.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

We woke to a rainy New York morning and had a late brekkie at 8.30 am. I finished my repacking and then put my bags in the girls room and then did the check out process. We then headed over to the  Lincoln Center for the preforming Arts where we did a tour of parts of the complex. 

This was a great experience and we even saw some rehearsals. Everything was so big and the sound acoustics were brilliant.

Then it was back to the Hotel for a quick lunch , pick up my bags and get a cab to the Penn  Amtrak station to catch the train. 

Boy oh boy what a huge place this was  so a policeman directed me to the Red Cap guys and next thing I knew was that I was checked in and waiting in the Amtrak lounge where there was free wifi.

My new best friend Red Cap Freddie came back later to take me down to the train and put me in my cabin. 

What a surprise the couple in the next cabin will also be going on the Amsterdam so we had heaps to chat about. I went to dinner with them.

Maria the cabin attendant is spoiling me serving me coffee and fruit juice. Its now 10 pm so I think I will turn in for the night, The good thing about this cabin is that it has its own toilet so I won't have to go down the hallway during the night.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

I awoke about 4.30 am for a bathroom visit to find the train was not moving and we seemed to be stopped in the middle of nowhere. I went back to sleep and woke in time to go to brekkie with Steve and Rose to find the train was still stopped and we were 4 hours behind schedule.

As the day went on because of track work we were going slow or stopping and of course everyone was starting to worry if they were going to make connections in Chicago.  Our connection was leaving for Seattle at 2.45pm and at that time they were feeding us hamburgers for lunch on the train. To cut a long story short we arrived over 6 hours late and 2 hours after our connecting train had left.

Rush, rush,panic, panic when we arrived Rose ran ahead to get to the customer service office first to find out our alternative options for travel to Seattle while Steve and I caught up with the luggage. Rose did a good job and was first in line and we were put on tomorrows train and given accommodation for the night in a fantastic hotel about an hours drive away. We sat on a shuttle coach for an hour to wait for the other passengers to be processed.

I had arranged to meet my good friend John Sparky Nolan at the station during the time we were scheduled to be there for the connection. On arrival Rose lent me her mobile phone to call John and he said he and Carla would meet me at the hotel and we would go out for dinner.

What a bonus this mess up turned out to be. John, Carla and I had a great time and even though it was 4 years since my last visit to Chicago it seemed it was like only last week when we got started talking.

Of course Sparky and I had our traditional pint of Guinness. It is always beaut to catch up with good friends.

I had to contact my Seattle hotel to cancel the first nights accommodation so Sparky lent me his phone.

I got back to this great hotel about 11.30pm and got a good night sleep.

Tomorrow we have to go back to the train station and leave for Seattle 24 hours after our original scheduled departure.

Thursday 18 September 2014  

                                                                                             

After a very good nights sleep I went down to brekkie with Steve and Rose in the hotel dining room. Many of our displaced train passengers were already there and I must say the mood was bright and cheerful compared with last night.

I caught up with emails and FB and packed up again to be down to catch the shuttle to the Railway station by 10.30 am. Everyone was there and we were away by 11pm.

We checked in at the Amtrak Lounge lounge and were enjoying coffee and snacks by mid day. There was free wifi so we had no problems in filling in the 2 hours before boarding the train.

Because we had to have our sleepers rescheduled we were allocated in the crew car which was great as we didn't have to share the shower and toilets with many other people. There were only 6 of us upstairs in this car.

We had an hilarious time at dinner as another bloke joined our table and sat beside me.  Well he mumbled and didn't open his mouth when he spoke. I couldn't hear a word he said as the two ladies behind me were in fine form trying to outdo each other. Anyway the bloke was facing Rose and Steve who would acknowledge what he was mumbling by nodding and grinning. This bloke looked like he was on a day pass from some 'one flew over the cuckoo  nest' type institution. When we got back to our carriage I told Steve and Rose I hadn't heard what the bloke had said. With that we all burst out laughing as they also couldn't make out anything he was saying.

Joanne our cabin attendant came along and made up our beds just after 9.30 pm. I fell asleep some time later watching an episode of Mrs Browns Boys on the lap top.

Friday 19 September 2014

I only had one trip down the passageway to the loo during the night and it was still dark when I got up at 6.15 am after a good nights sleep.

We went to early brekkie at 6.45am and we were seated with a guy from Wales, so we had a great conversation. Convicts and the cricket were only mentioned once. The omelette was a good one and as it is a full train they were putting us under pressure to leave as there was a long line waiting to get into the Dining car.

After brekkie I had a nice hot shower and shave and felt a million dollars. Not long after this we had a 15 minute stop at the little town of Minot, North Dakota which was a beaut opportunity to stretch the legs and take some photos.

I watched a movie and then it was time to go to lunch. The chicken was very good and most enjoyable. We were joined by an American Guy that looked like an over age hippie, but he was good to talk with.

We went through Chief Sitting Bull country as we went from North Dakota to Montana. This area seems to have more cattle and sheep farms.

At dinner we had a table for 3 which suited us very well. 

The steak seemed to be the best choice followed by strawberry cheese cake. The clocks went back an hour resulting in me going to bed too early at what was now 8.30 pm local time.

Saturday 20 September 2014

I was up very early so had my shower before brekkie at about 6 am. It was still dark outside and we went to the dining car about 6.45 am. The sun was coming up by then, the colours on the ranges and the changing autumn (fall) leaves caused by the rays of sun was a great sight as we crossed over the Rockies.

The trip along the coast line for the final part of the journey was a big contrast from the Rockies.

The train arrived on time and after getting a cab I was settled into the Holiday Inn an hour after getting off the train.

After a nice hot shower I set out on a walkabout tour of the nearby area, shopping for supplies at Walgreen and also finding a beaut place to have a late lunch.

I really felt tired so I thought I would just have dinner and a drink in the hotel complex after I had a little nanna nap. 

 Well I had an unexpected long nap and woke up at 2am so that solved the dinner choices as I will have to wait until brekkie now.

Sunday 21 September 2014

I got out of bed just before 4 am and did a bit of work on the laptop, banking and emails etc. Today is the day I join the Ms Amsterdam for the 31 day cruise to Hong Kong.

I repacked and OMG I have so many dirty clothes so the ships laundry will be busy just from me when I get on.

The hot brekkie at the Holiday Inn was excellent and set me up for the day. At 10.30 am I took the Hotel’s shuttle to the Cruise Terminal to check in for the cruise.