Day 9 - From the rediculous to the sublime

We left New York with mixed feelings.  Our experiences of the Big Apple were wonderful, and we are so glad we had a week there.  Some random thoughts/impressions of our stay are:

• Friendly people - every time we opened a map someone would ask if we needed help.  New Yorkers were very helpful.
• Huge buildings - the skyscrapers of Manhattan are gigantic.  I'm sure they are much bigger (higher and wider) than skyscrapers in Australia.  They look 'normal' from a distance, but when you are close to them they are truly awe inspiring.
• Smells - walking along streets brought us moments of mouth-watering food smells and nose-scrunching sewer smells.  There were food trucks/carts everywhere and casual eating is very common.
• Starbucks are everywhere - either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your personal preferences. 
• Diversity - New York was full of tourists from all over the world (as opposed to tourists from one part of the world), and filled with diverse districts, each of which had their own character.

We left the hotel in plenty of time for the short taxi ride to Pennsylvania Station to catch our train to Washingtown.  The taxi driver was a dickhead.  He took us to Grand Central Station, and when I challenged him about his route he told us that he had to take a round-about route because of traffic restrictions.  Complete crap.  Thankfully we still got to Pennsylvania Station in time to wait with the seething mass of humanity for platform numbers to be allocated.  Everybody waited in the main hall, watching a large screen which listed the trains.  The platform numbers were only allocated about 10 minutes before departure time, at which point all of the passengers for that train would rush away to their platform.  Our trip to the platform involved taking our cases and bags down an escalator, along poorly signposted passageways, and down staircases.  We figure that the Airlines own the trains and run them badly to ensure that people will still fly to most places.  Having said that, the train was comfortable (we went cattle class) and the scenery along the route was very interesting.

We got seats at the back of the carriage, which had extra leg room.  The train was still underground at this stage, so no view.

Gratuitous scenery during the train trip.

While on our journey we met a lovely lady from San Francisco, Corrinne, who wrote down many suggestions for our time to come (25 July to 2 August) in San Francisco.  After what seemed like nearly four hours, but was in fact only about 240 minutes, we arrived at Union Station in Washingtown.

The front entrance to Union Station - unfortunately the interior wasn't so grand.

A short, and very direct, taxi ride later we were at our lodgings.  What a contrast with New York, we've gone from the ridiculous (our room in New York was about 23 square metres in total) to the sublime (an 81 square metre apartment for about the same price).

The AKA White House exterior.

It's amazing.  My only gripe is that the television in the bedroom is smaller than the one in the living room!  If any of you are thinking about visiting Washingtown you should check this place out.  We went out shortly after arriving and had a cuppa at a local coffee shop.  Their mugs are huge, mine below is a medium size.

We then went for a walk to the nearest supermarket to buy groceries.  It was about 1.8 kilometres away, but a pleasant walk.  During the walk I noticed a refreshingly honest badge on a car.

The supermarket was very impressive.  It featured a huge fresh salad and hot food area for people who wanted to buy a meal along with their groceries.

We arrived back at the hotel feeling quite tired, but excited about seeing more of Washingtown (Rhonda did two loads of washing).  We received confirmation of our tour of the Pentagon for Monday, so tomorrow we'll check out the Metro, to make sure we know how to get there, and start sightseeing.