New York, New York

June 5th:

Neil outside our train car. Nancy at Penn Station--NYC. Neil in our train room.

--------------------------

A new cure for insomnia: A train ride in your own little comfy bunk provides hours of sleep in one stretch. Didn't even notice the stops.....

Meals in the dining car are provided with our tickets. The waiters in the dining car run at top speed. Actually the meal reminded me a eating at a public school.....get your food, eat it quickly, and get out. Our second cup of coffee was delivered in a to go cup. I think that was notice to leave; however the food was good.

At some of the stops we were invited to go stand on the platform for a breath of fresh air. During one of our breaks we visited with a couple from England who are heading back to England on the Queen Mary. This was the third couple that we met who are doing the same thing. One of them told us that were quite a few people in the sleeper cars headed for the Queen Mary. It seems that there are a lot of people who don't like to fly.

We ate lunch with a very young couple. They were from Buffalo where he is a new cargo pilot and she is a manager for a store that specializes in cosmetics. They came to Buffalo from California where they grew up. Their families were from Mexico and from the Phillapines. They were headed to New York, Barcelona, and South Africa for the World Cup Soccer games. They were delightful.

An interesting development: Our train arrived an hour early. Apparently this has been happening more frequently because of the economy...there are fewer freights to hold up the passenger trains. A very nice fellow passenger helped us navigate Penn Station.

Juggling seven suitcases meant that we took a cab to the hotel. It was not the least bit scary. Someone should ban all private cars in the core city. It is amazing....gridlocks on Saturday evening, people everywhere, and emergency vehicles stuck in traffic.....too many cars.

We walked up Fifth Avenue, across to Madison Avenue, and over to Times Square before we returned to our hotel. There are food carts everywhere. I loved the huge Toys R Us in Times Square--didn't go in because then I would want to buy things for two little boys and the suitcases are too heavy now. (Amtrak put a tag marked "Heavy" on my suitcase) Times Square is neon lights and people everywhere. Dinner was pasta at a cafe called Cafe Metro....pick your pasta, sauce and other ingredients.

We still have to figure out tomorrow.