Greetings
family and friends,
I’m trying
something new, so please bear with me.
If I hear too many complaints, I’ll revert back to my old e-mail format,
so you let me know if this doesn’t work.
I’ve
created a blog, and shared one trip (local) with a few people and asked for
feedback. It is easier to use, and I can
do more and reach more people with it than with conventional e-mail. All you have to do is go where I point you to
see my narrative and recent photos. It
also allows me to post more photos and at a higher resolution than
previously. So, your feedback is
appreciated.
As usual, I
will provide my narrative via the e-mail I send you, and then I will point you
to the blog, so if you have a mind to, you can go visit and look at the pics and also see a recap of my text if that
interests you.
It seems that before I knew it, the date for leaving was once again upon me and caught me (again) by surprise. Not so unusual but it scared the heck out of me.
This time I
decided to fly from Albuquerque to the East Coast, do some sightseeing, and
then fly from the East coast to Europe.
I was motivated to try Europe again because the Euro is at a new low
against the dollar and I found a couple of bargains out of New York City
There are a
couple of airlines that fly out of Albuquerque to NYC, but Jet Blue was the
better value compared to Southwest. I’d
never flown Jet Blue before, and I wanted to give it a try.
Fortunately,
they fly from Albuquerque to NYC JFK; unfortunately, they don’t leave the ground
in Alb until 11:45 pm arriving in NYC JFK at approximately 5:30 am the next
day. If you are like me and can’t sleep
on the plane for the life of you, it is not a pleasant experience especially
when you are dead tired from checking and double checking everything on the day
you are supposed to leave.
Anyway, I
got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and boarding was pretty much
uneventful. Jet Blue has an APP that
allows you to download your boarding pass when you go through security and when
you board the plane – no paper, Yeaaaaa!
Given my OCD, however, I had a copy of my boarding pass on my IPad, my
E-mail, in my One Note MS program, and I also have a hard copy – JUST IN CASE!
The pilot
made good time, and even though there was some turbulence periodically, it
really was a fast flight – all the babies fell asleep and didn’t cry once –
another plus.
I research
getting from JFK to my hotel on line and used helpful hints I found on travel
web sites. Most agreed that the best way
to get from the airport to downtown, was to take the AirTrain from the Terminal
in the Airport to the Jamaica subway/train hub.
From there you had your choice of the Long Island Railroad line which
was really fast and a little more expensive, or the regular old subway, which
took a few minutes longer, was a little less expensive, and gave you the NY
experience everyone craves.
What they
don’t explain clearly though is how confusing it is to pay for all of
this. I made a friend real fast who
happened to be a local flying home from Abq on business, and he walked me
through it. But even he was a little
foggy on specifics. So I used the
professionals who were standing around in vests looking important and anxious
to help the out of towner. You have
plenty of options, but this is what I went for:
1. After you get off the AirTrain, you
have to buy a ticket at a ticket machine for the trip. What?
Yeah, then you can walk through the turnstiles and go catch your train
or subway. (some machines may or may not
let you use cash, credit or debit, so you have to pay attention). I think I can re-use the metro card I
purchased for this purpose by reloading another AirTrain fair when I come back
to fly out again, but I won’t have to pay the extra $1 they charged me for
buying a new Metro Card???? I just need
to “load” another fair on it at the appropriate time. (YIKKES!)
2. Then you leave the AirTrain station
and hunt for your train or metro station (there are signs – so you have to pay
attention). At the next train or subway station you have to buy another ticket
(again you have options). Since I am
going to be in town for a few days, I opted to purchase a multi-day universal
ticket – that way I can ride the subway and buses as much as I want for as long
as I am here. Not cheap, but in the long
run, if you plan to use the system a lot, it does pay for itself.
So, I
loaded all my stuff on the E-Line for my trip.
The subway is not very difficult to learn, but once again you have to
pay attention. Some lines don’t stop at
all the stops and finding the right platform can be a challenge for first
timers and newbies. I’ve had some
experience, so I managed to get where I was going without a hitch.
Unfortunately,
this was going to work rush hour, so we were packed in like sardines. Another thing you have to worry about is
keeping track of your stuff both on and off you. I took extra precautions (having learned from
experience), and arrive at my location(s) intact – or at least I think so – so
far.
My last
subway stop was three city blocks from my hotel, so thank goodness I packed
light – again, experience teaches you, you don’t want that suitcase and extra
bag to be so heavy you can’t lift both up one or two flights of stairs.
The other
downside of arriving so early in town is that you can’t check into your hotel
(anywhere) usually before 2 pm. But the
hotels usually let you leave your gear secured with them until you come back at
a reasonable hour and finally do check in.
That's what happened, but this time it was 3 pm check in time.
Now remember,
I had no sleep and a good eight hours before I could get myself unpacked and
organized in my room. So I was out the
door and ready to tough it out.
My hotel is
situated one block from Central Park on 79th Street. Which means that I can walk straight across
the street and go to the Natural History Museum (of movie fame) – which I did
not. Or, I could go to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art – which was way on the other side of the park. Well, I had time to do whatever I wanted, so
I chose the Art Museum. They didn’t open
until 10 am, so I had an hour to kill before then, and I found a great little
breakfast restaurant just a block from the Museum (there are restaurants on
every block in NYC – or just about, and if you don’t see a restaurant, there is a food truck or
cart not too far away for a reasonably priced snack).
The Museum
was FANTASTIC as usual, and they apparently rearranged all the art since the
last time I visited, then they renumbered all the rooms and made it extremely
difficult for anyone to determine if they were going in circles or plunging
into the depths of the netherworld.
I took
close to 750 pictures, and I got really really really tired, but I had an art
filled day, and so that made up for everything.
By the time
I got back to my hotel it was 4 pm. Now
I am unpacked, dog tired, and will probably fall asleep before it strikes 8
pm.
Yup, I didn’t
make it. I was out like a light by 7:30
pm, but woke up early, and tried to post everything.
Pics are of
Central Park and all (or a lot of) the wonders of the Museum. www.moma.org
I am using
a new camera, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Please remember this is an experiment and this page may be overkill, but I wanted to test the extremes. Enjoy
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