Day 1 - Saturday 7th March 2020

Welcome to the latest holiday that we have taken to New York!

Train into Leeds

The opportunity arose once again to help Smiti with looking after her cat Simon. I had some annual leave to use before April and we felt able to squeeze another holiday in, this time in March.

We had been quite sensible and got most of the packing done during the week. On Friday, we had a quiet evening and managed to get to bed pretty early so we could get up on Saturday. It was cold and dry so we were able to walk up the station with our bags.

Arriving at the airport

Unfortunately, we were unable to get some nice coffee and breakfast like we did last year, as the train was delayed. We ended up being half an hour later into Leeds than we planned, and therefore had to make a quick connection to the train to the airport. We picked up a quick coffee and muffin from within the station.

Check in at Manchester

The journey was uneventful over to the airport. We checked in, Kathryn couldn't check in online beforehand. She had been selected for extra security checks, a first for us. Usually we fly through, but she also had to be searched at the gate later on.

We also had another minor crisis as we went through security. I was getting my lip balm out of my bag to put in a clear bag. And I inadvertently dropped my passport between the bench for putting your bag on, and a bin which was alongside it. We had to summon an airport worker, and for about 10 minutes I was getting rather anxious. Thankfully, I used the laptop case I had to slide between the bench and the bin to knock the passport out. And then we were on our way.

We did a bit of duty free shopping, and we actually lost track of time. We were walking to the gate, with about half an hour to go until our flight (which was actually already boarding), and we had our names read out on the tannoy for the final boarding call! Quite exciting!

View approaching Canada

Canadian coastline

Afternoon tea on the plane

Everything was fine, we boarded the plane and there was still about 45 minutes on board until we finally took off. The flight time was 7 hours, pretty boring and uneventful. I actually fell asleep for a while, bit I was disappointed to find it was only for about 5 minutes. I read a book for a while, and Kathryn managed to watch 3 movies.

View of Long Island as we approach to land at JFK airport

Entering arrivals hall at JFK

The descent was a little shaky. The pilot warned us in advanced that there was a bit of wind at the airport. But we landed ok and soon were into the arrivals area of immigration. We were using the visa we had from last year that is valid for 2 years. Therefore, we were able to get through security in about 15 minutes. Once we had figured about how to use the self service machine.

Waiting for the subway at Howard Beach station

Waiting in the sunshine

We grabbed our bags which were already unloaded from the plane and headed our to the airtrain. We had to do a bit of on the spot planning as there was an issue with the subway. We had a nice wait in the sun for the train. We should have been able to go direct to where Smiti lives, but instead we had to change to a different train, and then take a short walk.

Changing subways due to maintenance work, cold and sunny

Subway going over the Williamsburg Bridge, from Brooklyn into Manhattan

Walking the last little bit to Smiti's appartment

John Street, our home for the next few days

I can't remember how long in total it took, but I'd say about 2 hours from leaving the arrivals hall, to arriving at Smiti's. We were able to spend about an hour and a half with her, before it once time once again for her to leave to travel back to the UK. We ordered a Chinese take away for dinner. We went to bed about 9p.m. which was about 1a.m. for us.

Chinese take away for dinner