Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Round The World 2006-07
Homeward bound
I have to admit that I screwed up on the planning front for this
morning. Whatever I was going to do, it had to be over by 12 noon,
to allow time to have a shower, pack my case and eat some lunch
prior to checking out of the hotel. I decided I wanted to see the
Intrepid, at the west end of 42nd Street, which would have been a
first for me. The trouble is, I lay in bed too long and then
indulged myself with another large breakfast. I had also failed to
account for morning rush hour traffic so that, by the time I
actually got there, it was approaching 1030. Not only that, but
there was a sizeable line of people waiting to get in and it was
clear that time-consuming security checks were being carried out. I
realised that by the time I got inside, there wouldn't be time for
very much apart from turning round and heading back again. I
therefore gave up on the idea, rode the 42nd Street cross-town bus
to the other end and had a look around the UN complex instead. Of
course, there wasn't time to go into that either
At least I'm clear now what I want to do on my next day in New York,
in September : a visit to the Intrepid, immediately followed by a
Circle Line cruise round Manhattan - both are to be found at the
western end of 42nd Street. So what I should have done this
morning was just walk round to the UN and do that properly : no
traffic, no hassle. Verdict : definite, avoidable planning failure.
Oh well, nobody's perfect
I checked out of The Barclay and caught a yellow cab to JFK. Unfortunately it took ages just to get into the Midtown Tunnel; traffic was badly backed up due to random security searches of vehicles wishing to pass through. I had left enough contingency time, however, and we pulled up in front of BA's Terminal 7 with two and a half hours still to go before my flight's departure time. Formalities were completed relatively painlessly and I was soon relaxing in the First lounge.
(Link to flight log in side panel)
