Day 8 & 9: goodbye New York, hello Washington!

So our last full day in New York (until next week) started off well with a lovely breakfast at Balthazar in Soho. A couple of people had recommended it to us so we thought we would give it a try. It was a lovely French style restaurant with excellent service.

 

Above pic: Balthazar, Soho, New York

Unfortunately the weather was terrible in New York yesterday - very, very wet!! And also very, very windy. It wasn't a great day to get lost... but we did, a couple of times! We took shelter in a Starbucks for a little while at one point... This was taken looking out from Starbucks right near Times Square (although I don't think this photo shows just how wet and yuck it was!) We both prefer snow to rain now...

I've been struggling with a head cold for a couple of days and it got a lot worse yesterday unfortunately. We did a bit of shopping after breakfast yesterday and I lasted as long as I could (until about 4pm) before heading back to the hotel to sleep. There's round the clock sport (including live basketball) on ESPN over here, so Troy enjoyed watching his sport in peace while I slept!

We loved our time in New York and have almost done everything we've wanted to. We will be back there next week for a couple of days, so we look forward to exploring more then.

It's hard to pick a highlight from our last 9 days, we've loved so much! The sporting events and the Tom Hanks play have definitely been highlights, however we've also loved exploring the city whether it be by foot, bus or subway. Our favourite attraction (we both agree) would have to be the Empire State Building observation deck - it gave us a different perspective of the city and it also gave us more of an appreciation for just how big it is and how dense it is as well.

Our 9/11 Memorial visit was moving and emotional - it was hard to imagine that we were standing right where the attacks happened and we could not imagine what it would have been like on that day and in the days that have followed. It was a humbling experience and we would recommend a visit to anyone travelling to New York.

Washington, here we come!

So we caught the train around 10.30am this morning from Penn Station (I was feeling much better by this stage), bound for Washington. We decided to lash out and buy Business class seats... not quite the same as Business class on planes, but fantastic leg room at least for the almost 4 hour journey. And, they have wifi on their trains!

The train trip went surprisingly quickly and we passed through Philadelphia and Baltimore on the way... Here is my attempt at taking a couple of pics while the train was moving...

 

Above pic: Philadelphia

 

 

Above pic: Baltimore is behind the trees!! This is the best I could do...

We arrived at Union Station, Washington around 2.00pm and I found the station similar to Grand Central in New York but on a smaller scale (great architecture). There were some lovely looking shops in the station and a number of restaurants. Here are a couple of pics...

We headed out to get a taxi to the hotel (long lines for taxis) but our first view of Washington was Capitol Hill...

We finally got into a taxi and experienced one of our scariest taxi rides ever - even Troy looked a little worried! We made it to our hotel safely though. When we booked, we requested an upgrade for a minimal extra cost - if they have a room available upon check in, they will upgrade you. Lucky for us, they had a free suite. It's no presidential suite, but it has a separate small lounge/desk area and bedroom - we were most impressed and it's a lot bigger than our NYC hotel!

We headed out for a look around our area once we got settled and look who lives at the end of our street...

Yes, that's the White House! 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With the amount of security we saw around, I'm confident we have picked a safe area to stay in! Our first thought when we saw it was that it doesn't look as big and imposing than we thought it would (we've heard that before too).

There are some very impressive buildings around it, including the Department of the Treasury and we thought that a number of the buildings surrounding it looked very European. There is also a lot of greenery and parkland around the area too.

It has certainly been a pace change from New York - shops close here a lot earlier and we seem to be staying in the business part of town so it seems a lot more subdued and very official. We've enjoyed our first few hours though and we are now sitting in the hotel bar - it's happy hour here... great for people watching!

Anyway, we already have a couple of activities planned for tomorrow so another good night's sleep and we will be ready to get going.