Best Laid Plans part 2

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  New York City, New York, United States
Saturday, August 18, 2007

Woke up this morning with Kate's head cold/sore throat, which she had kindly given to me sometime yesterday! (Either that, or being caught in that heavy rain, not sure). On the way to breakfast we stopped off at a pharmacy to grab some cold pills - it was a huge 2 stories and more like a variety store that a pharmacy, but we finally found the medicine section, and at least the cold medication was a lot cheaper than NZ prices. We went back to the 'Tick-Tock Diner' (this was the diner we visited at 2am in the morning on Tuesday) on 34th Street & 8th Ave, very nice food and at least plenty of seating which can be scarce in a lot of eating establishments in NY. Afterwards we bought Kate some sneakers, and Josh went with Fred to another shoe shop and bought himself some 'Heelys' (sneakers with a heel wheel - like skates) which he has been after for ages. Meanwhile Kate & I walked across the road to the world famous 'Macy's Department Store.' Macy's was very big, very busy, very smelly (tons of perfume, cough, cough) & pretty expensive too. I did manage to find Kate a reasonably priced pair of sandals (US $20) which she needed. After a rest in our hotel room we decided to take a subway up to Central Park again, but before that we thought we'd go to Penn Station to check our Amtrak tickets for tomorrow. Fred & Josh waited in line to find out about our checked baggage, while Kate & I looked through some shops. When he found us again he looked pretty grim - the train we were booked into didn't allow checked baggage, as did any of the other trains going to Niagara Falls - a disaster for us with our 3 big suitcases & carry-on baggage.

Hotel Pennsylvania, New york city

However when we booked the train online in January, we made sure that the train we booked had booked luggage. Customer Service at the station was unhelpful and kept saying that the trains to Niagara hadn't had checked luggage for 3 years - well, not according to their website! Fred even rang up Amtrak, but they couldn't help either. So we basically had to cancel our train trip and we now have a hire car which we have to navigate through New York to Niagara Falls - the whole reason we booked a train was because we definitely DID NOT want to drive through New York! After all this mucking about, and sitting outside 'Borders' to get an internet connection, we decided to just go back to the hotel room as it was 3pm by that stage, and Kate wasn't a happy camper. New York idiosyncrasies: Lots of double-decker buses filled to the brim with camera toting tourists - we've been calling them Oompa-Loompas (after the characters in the new 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory' movie) due to the white/clear raincoats the people on the top floor have on when it rains. Screeds of yellow taxis everywhere, honking incessantly - not to mention other vehicles honking, even when the car in front has nowhere to go because someone else has clogged up the intersection. Shop assistants that ignore you while they carry on loud arguments with their co-workers, or to someone the phone.
I went for a walk later in the afternoon & picked up a few souvenirs, and watched the fascinating people of NYC.

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Hotel Penn

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