Travel report #2
US - Washington DC, New York and Niagra Falls
Wednesday October 11, 2000
We leave the continent! Early morning as we took the tubes to Heathrow. No change of missing the flight this time! We landed in Washington DC early in the afternoon and took bus/train into the center of town. Got a nice hotel nearby all the attractions (Hotel Harrington). Too tired to do any sightseeing...
Thursday October 12, 2000
Time to see DC, and what a day. Blue sky and not a cloud in sight! We started wandering towards the White House and got in line for a free tour. We were self guided and got to see it from the inside. Cool! The President arrived while we were there, but we could not see him...
We saw a protest march for Ivory Coast just behind the White House.
Also got the see the Natural Museum, lots of dinos, elephants and other stuff. Really good!
The last stop was in a old post office tower were we could get a good look around the city.
And all of this was free!!
Friday October 13, 2000
Friday 13th, but that was not stopping us. We had a proper american breakfast, bagel with cheese! Wanted to do the FBI-tour, but the were all sold out (not taking any till next week when we were gone...).
So we did the Capitol instead, got to be inside the Senate and listen to the debate! All flags were lowered due to the USS Cole incident.
Also had time to see the Air/Space museum, also great fun!
In the afternoon we hired bikes and had a really nice ride towards Georgetown and around the Mall.
Saturday October 14, 2000
Time to leave again. Our train to NY was due 1205. We walked to the train station (really nice building by the way) and had breakfast along the road. The trip on the train was nice, we got to see a lot of nature and a glance at a couple other places.
We arrived in NY approx. 4pm, making our way to Chelsea Center, a hostel where we had made a reservation. Nice, small hostel, but still expencive, but what can you expect in the capital of the world...
After checking in, we made our way towards Empire State Building. Really nice view from the top, the weather still perfect.
NY was very different from DC. DC was clean and tidy and 'open'. NY was full of dirt in the streets, busy, and you feel kind of 'trapped' in between all the tall buildings...
Our first night at a hostel, sleeping in a room with almost 20 other people. But it was OK :-)
Sunday October 15, 2000
Our first full day in NY became a 'walking day'. We walked from Chelsea down to Battery park (1 1/2 hrs), and took the ferry to the Liberty Island. Good fun, got to see the statue from close range and a lovely view at Manhattan.
The ferry also took us to Ellis Island were we found the first stop our relatives had when they imigrated to this country almost a 100 years ago. Very interessting. They had a big Norway section in there. Found the names of Andreas and Kristina in a registry they had, B's great grand parents, that visited their children in 1930.
We also walked all the way back, through China Town and Little Italy.
Monday October 16, 2000
Our first day without lovely weather (since London). Sightseeing at Times Square, NY Public Library, Rockefeller Center, the United Nations HQ and Central Park. Again we walked all the way:-)
This night we got to learn the basics of Baseball. The Mets was to qualify for the World Series and we became Mets fans. They qualified by winning 7-0!!
Tuesday October 17, 2000
Our last full day in NY. Spent some time arranging more travel; needed a flight from Chicago to Phoenix, could not get that (to a price we could accept) so we fly to LA instead...
Our main sigthseeing was NYSE (NY Stock Exchange). Interessting to see how the world financial center works!
Also walked through the World Trade Center, but did not want to pay a fortune to get to the top, so we did not stay there too long...
Also went to see Brooklyn Bridge.
Wednesday October 18, 2000
Time to pick up our hire car! We got on a bus to Newark and picked it up there. We got a nice and white Chevy. Started driving towards Niagara Falls! On the way we got to see the lovely fall scenary, all the colours of the season. Beautiful!
Had to stop for the night in Dansville, about 3 hours drive from the falls.
Thursday October 19, 2000
NIAGARA FALLS DAY! And what a day. Since we arrived in NY the wheather had been poor, with rain and wind. But now the sun was back and it was really lovely!
We spent 3-4 hours walking around the falls, seeing the American falls, the bride falls and the Horseshoefalls. Both from the US side and then the Canadian side. Both worth experiencing.
They had lots of commercial stuff on the Canadian side.
We continued driving into Canada and stayed the night at a Motel in Woodstock.
Friday October 20, 2000
This was a driving day, putting more than 500 miles (about 900 km) behind us. We stopped at the foot of Lake Huron for lunch, lovely place. We stopped at a Motel just north of Chicago.