Friday, December 23, 2005

New Ro

Home in New Ro as of Wednesday night...yay!

Had an uneventful trip home...we took the train down to London, I puttered around for a while, and then John took me over to Paddington station where I took the Heathrow Express. Now that NYC is done with the MTA strike, they should put their money into a one-seat ride from the center of the city (Grand Central would be good) to JFK and La Guardia. We'’re one of the only major cities in the world without a good, fast, cheapish way to get to the airport. I'’ve taken the AirTrain a few times, which is nice once you're on it, but you have to get it from Jamaica, Queens. In order to get there from Midtown, you can either haul over to Penn Station and take the LIRR or you can ride the somewhat unreliable E train for about an hour until you emerge in the boonies of Queens. Fun times, either way. And not something I'd EVER recommend to a tourist.

On the other hand, the Heathrow Express is kind of expensive (£14, about $25), but it takes you right into the middle of the airport and drops you at a place with free luggage trolleys. Door to door, it was less than an hour from Music Sales to the terminal. And then I had a Starbucks, so life was good.

And usually on an airplane, there'’s more than one movie. And the movies are listed somewhere. Yes, the movies that you want to see are ALWAYS for the Westbound journey from Tokyo to Capetown, but still. We got to watch Pirates of the Carribean (not mentioned anywhere in the movie leaflet) on a loop. Granted, it'’s not a bad movie, and Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are v. hot, but there'’s a limit to how many times I can watch it in an 8 hour period. Have mercy, American Airlines.

I was whining on Tuesday night to Emily about leaving John and she put it into perspective- we've done this before, for a lot longer, and I'll be going back soon. AND I made it through six weeks in England without getting deported. Go ME!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since I've taken it upon myself to be the voice of New York throughout this blog (from yet another new yorker who abandoned the city we love...):

You can take the New York Airport Service buses from Port Authority OR Grand Central to any of the 3 NY area airports. It costs $7 each way, and goes to each of the terminals.

It is actually not that inconvenient, although also not the admittedly WAY overdue public transportation access to the airports.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all.

Evan

Unknown said...

True, true...but if it's rush hour, the trip takes a really long time and you're at the mercy of the traffic.

The winner is Schiphol airport (Amsterdam). The train station is IN the terminal. And you can take luggage carts down onto the train platform. Holland rocks.

Not as much as Evan does, though. :)