Mo Green
30-08-2004, 13:17
Day 2
In spite of the lanes of traffic thundering past outside our hotel all night we both slept soundly only waking at 5.30 am. Rather than adjust completely to USA time, over the next few days we kept to a routine of getting up at 6am, early breakfast and on the road by 9am. We aimed to drive 100 150 miles each day which gave us almost a whole day in the next destination.
Eager to set off we caught the courtesy bus back to JFK we wished we had taken a cab!. The driver managed to squeeze 24 people plus luggage into a 12- seater bus no health and safety regulations here! JFK must be the largest airport in the world and the Hire car depots were the last stop. At least the driver did take us right up to the door of the Dollar rental office. I had been concerned at the way cases were thrown off before the driver sped to the next terminal but amazingly all our pieces of luggage were still with us.
While Cliff familiarised himself with the car I retrieved our Rand McNally Atlas of USA and our precious file containing routes, accommodation booked and places of interest to visit. We had planned many of the finer details of the route with the help of the Rand Mcnally website - http://www.randmcnally.com - and taken the precaution of registering our trip with them and accommodation references etc. If our hard copies were lost during the trip we could at least access everything via the Internet.
Shortly after 10.30 am we set off on our 1500 mile journey. We drove through Brooklyn to the impressive Verrazano Bridge onto Staten Island. The start of our journey was not as horrendous as we thought it might be but we were still grateful we had not tried it at night after a long flight. Although it was very misty, from the bridge I could just see the Statue of Liberty and the famous Manhattan sky-line.
As we drove on we passed scenery we had seen in many films tall buildings with external staircases and onto the suburbs with three storey houses. The 1 1/2 hour journey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was fairly unexciting and it had started to rain heavily so we decided to keep going until we reached the city. Fortunately, as American hotels seem to be happy to let people check in early if the room is free, we were able to check into our room. Having had a view of the freeways last night, our view today was the dead centre of town (the cemetery) at least it would be quiet!
While Cliff parked the car in the multi-storey car park next door, I ordered room service of the local speciality Philadelphia sandwich shredded steak, fried onions and melted cheese in a Hoagie with fries. Delicious but not very good for the diet.
By the afternoon it was raining heavily but we braved the weather and went to see the historical sites the Liberty Bell, supposedly rung at the first reading of the Declaration of Independence, Independence Hall, Old City Hall and Franklin Court. Philadelphia is a lovely city with many buildings dating back to the early 18th Century. By now the rain was getting really heavy and we were getting soaked as cars drove through the puddles alongside the sidewalks. Still tired from our flight we decided to go back to the hotel to dry off and have an early night.
Maureen
http://orlandovillas.com/villaview.asp?villa=1267
In spite of the lanes of traffic thundering past outside our hotel all night we both slept soundly only waking at 5.30 am. Rather than adjust completely to USA time, over the next few days we kept to a routine of getting up at 6am, early breakfast and on the road by 9am. We aimed to drive 100 150 miles each day which gave us almost a whole day in the next destination.
Eager to set off we caught the courtesy bus back to JFK we wished we had taken a cab!. The driver managed to squeeze 24 people plus luggage into a 12- seater bus no health and safety regulations here! JFK must be the largest airport in the world and the Hire car depots were the last stop. At least the driver did take us right up to the door of the Dollar rental office. I had been concerned at the way cases were thrown off before the driver sped to the next terminal but amazingly all our pieces of luggage were still with us.
While Cliff familiarised himself with the car I retrieved our Rand McNally Atlas of USA and our precious file containing routes, accommodation booked and places of interest to visit. We had planned many of the finer details of the route with the help of the Rand Mcnally website - http://www.randmcnally.com - and taken the precaution of registering our trip with them and accommodation references etc. If our hard copies were lost during the trip we could at least access everything via the Internet.
Shortly after 10.30 am we set off on our 1500 mile journey. We drove through Brooklyn to the impressive Verrazano Bridge onto Staten Island. The start of our journey was not as horrendous as we thought it might be but we were still grateful we had not tried it at night after a long flight. Although it was very misty, from the bridge I could just see the Statue of Liberty and the famous Manhattan sky-line.
As we drove on we passed scenery we had seen in many films tall buildings with external staircases and onto the suburbs with three storey houses. The 1 1/2 hour journey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was fairly unexciting and it had started to rain heavily so we decided to keep going until we reached the city. Fortunately, as American hotels seem to be happy to let people check in early if the room is free, we were able to check into our room. Having had a view of the freeways last night, our view today was the dead centre of town (the cemetery) at least it would be quiet!
While Cliff parked the car in the multi-storey car park next door, I ordered room service of the local speciality Philadelphia sandwich shredded steak, fried onions and melted cheese in a Hoagie with fries. Delicious but not very good for the diet.
By the afternoon it was raining heavily but we braved the weather and went to see the historical sites the Liberty Bell, supposedly rung at the first reading of the Declaration of Independence, Independence Hall, Old City Hall and Franklin Court. Philadelphia is a lovely city with many buildings dating back to the early 18th Century. By now the rain was getting really heavy and we were getting soaked as cars drove through the puddles alongside the sidewalks. Still tired from our flight we decided to go back to the hotel to dry off and have an early night.
Maureen
http://orlandovillas.com/villaview.asp?villa=1267