A 4 week blog, we have no excuses for the delay, we have been crap! Must do better!
Monday (21 July) We had another lazy day in Seattle, a walk around the local area including the local community farm, followed by lunch at the Stonehouse Cafe restaurant.
Tuesday morning. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the Seattle Amtrak train station, to catch the 35 hour train to Los Angeles.
Another interesting train journey, with changing scenery, as the Conductor put it “we don’t have WiFi, but we do have windows live…” look outside.
The train was delayed arriving into Los Angeles, so we stepped off the train crossed the platform and got on our next 45 hour train to New Orleans, instead of having 40mins in LA.
The ‘Cafe Guy’ on this train was a bit of a comedian, so there were a few funny announcements about the Cafe! This made up slightly for the fairly minimal menu, we did try most things in the course of our Amtrak journeys. It was the same menu on each train, but from different suppliers! Interesting how different a Greek salad or a Turkey sandwich can be from different places!
Lots more interesting scenery, and interesting fellow travellers (enough said!)
The train travelled through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.
You can see the ‘Trump wall’ from the train, at one point near El Paso, Texas the rail tracks run alongside the wall/fence. At the El Paso station stop, our cheery cafe guy announced that Burrito Sally would be on the platform selling her famous ….. you guessed it Burritos…. If we wanted to get off we would have time. After watching a fairly steady queue for a few minutes, including train staff, Nic weakened and headed off the train to chat to Sally and get a couple of Brisket Burritos. Well worth it!!
Overall Texas was not as barren and desert filled as expected, in fact we were surprised by its greenery.
We had left Seattle at 9am Tuesday morning and finally got to New Orleans at 8pm on Friday, a long train journey.
New Orleans was hot and humid, we managed a walk around the Garden Quarter, to see all the old colonial houses.
Our hotel was in the French Quarter, all a bit touristy, especially Bourbon Street, full of bars with music so loud you can’t hear yourself think, and that is from the outside!! We didn’t go in to any of them, fearing a burst eardrum! We are officially getting old!
We did find a nice cocktail bar in a hotel, and a really nice restaurant. Nic was delighted to get some vegetables on her plate!
Monday (28 July) back to the train station for another Amtrak train, 32 hours back to New York this time.
Not the best of trains this time, a cafe, but no ‘sightseer’ car. But still OK.
On arriving in New York, we walked a few blocks to our hotel, the Millenium Time Square Hotel, a bit of a line at the check in desk, but worth the wait as they upgraded us to a suite on the 51 floor, result!
Whilst Rog was queuing to check in, Nic booked a table for dinner at an Italian restaurant just over the road, we had a nice meal, then had a stroll around Time Square, it was still really busy.
Wednesday, we had a disappointing breakfast just down the block from our hotel. It was only 9am but getting hot already, we decided to head to the airport reasonable early. We upgraded our flight to premium economy again for a really good price, and it was definitely worth it!
Thursday, we landed early morning in London Gatwick Airport, got off the plane among to first passengers, there was no queue at passport control, and as we were travelling with hand luggage only, had no bags to wait for, we were through really quickly. We then had to kill some time before our booked train, so we sat in a Cafe Nero and had a couple of coffees/teas.
The trains up to London and on to York were uneventful.
We stayed in the cottage in Bielby again, spent the week seeing Family, including a couple of days out to the coast, with each set of parents.
We also covered the mundane, laundry, visits to dentists, hair cuts, unpacking and repacking.
Friday (8 August), we left Pock and headed to Norfolk to visit Rog’s old school friend. So obviously spent a couple of days catching up, including a lovely country walk, via a cafe!
Sunday, we drove down to Kent to see Nic’s Brother, via other friends near Ely.
Monday (11 August), spent a couple of days settling in, as we are house and pet sitting whilst they are away on holiday.
Also got the car air conditioning repaired.
Wednesday, Rog did the airport run to Heathrow, a round trip drive which should have taken 2 1/2 to 3 hrs, however due to heavy traffic and an accident on the M25, it took 6 hrs!
Friday, we got the train up to London, visiting the Bank of England Museum, an interesting museum. We had a lovely lunch in Padella, in Borough market. We then headed to the Globe Theatre to see William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. A hot day, so we needed to find some shade to stand in, great value for money as the standing tickets are a very reasonable price.(£6 each) They also have one of the most ornate water refill fountains I have ever seen!
Went for a beer at The George, the last galleried inn in London, owned by the National Trust, before getting the train ‘home’.
Saturday morning we visited Downe House, the home of Charles Darwin. An English heritage owned property, we got free entry with our Manx National Heritage passes, but had to pay £12.50 for the Greater London Ultra Low Emissions charge as the Volvo is old and a diesel.
Sunday, we had a lazy day.
Travurple 