I was right…it was very difficult to wake up at 2:30am but we had no choice as a taxi was booked to collect us and all our bags from the hotel at 3:30am to take us to Manchester airport for our 6:30am flight to New York. At home we wouldn’t expect a busy airport at that time of day but in Manchester it is almost as busy as any other time. The line to check ourselves and our bags into the the flight wasn’t too long fortunately, but we knew we had security to pass through. Security is incredibly tight in Europe and today was to be no exception.
We put EVERY liquid in plastic bags for separate inspection as we had learnt that even lipstick needs to be inspected. We then took off our belts, removed everything from our pockets to walk through the scanners and placed our bags on the conveyor belt with our fingers crossed. In keeping with tradition, our bags did not all pass the scrutiny of security. I had to wait while Audrey’s bag was swab tested for explosives and my bag was inspected for an unidentified object, which turned out to be all the foreign and collectible coins that were stashed in my bag for Harry so they didn’t add 6kg to our checked baggage.
Eventually we were ushered through the security and were free to search for coffee and food. After exiting the duty free shops which all must walk through to their gates, we grabbed a light breakfast and coffee. By the time we had finished it was time to board. Our first flight was taking us to Frankfurt to board another plane to fly back over the UK to New York. The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful and passed by quickly. The flight to New York, also uneventful, did not pass so quickly. We were in the air for over 9 hours and while Yvette and the boys enjoyed watching movies, I was tasked with entertaining a very tired Audrey while catching up on blogs. The highlight of the flight by far was passing over The Arctic and seeing icebergs floating in the sea.
While we were very excited when we arrived in New York we were also tired. We arrived at about 3:30pm local time and figured we might try to go for a walk when we arrived to find dinner and take in at least one sight because we had precious little time to see such a thriving metropolis. Once we turned the corner from the gate and saw the length of the line for border control we realised that this wasn’t going to happen.
Harry was desperate to use a toilet so I asked an officer where the nearest one was. He gave us permission to go downstairs and when we arrived at the top of the stairs we saw that the long line we were in was just the preliminary line to a much longer line downstairs. When we eventually made it downstairs we were herded into joining the thousands of other travellers. After an hour I asked if there was an express line for families as we had been on the road for so long. Thankfully, we were given permission to join the express line. After 3 1/2 hours in line we were through border protection to find our bags sitting beside the turnstiles with thousands of others.
The next task was to find our transport to the hotel. We completed this task surprisingly easily and were escorted onto a minibus. The drive through Queens into Manhattan basically involved crawling through thick traffic. It felt like being in a movie set as we drove through the streets seeing so many familiar sights like yellow school buses and taxis, traffic lights hanging in the middle of intersections, sharing the road with huge suburban trucks and NYPD vehicles. There were also some cultural adjustments to be made like seeing basketball courts and baseball diamonds instead of football fields.
As we neared Manhattan we saw the enormous skyscrapers growing out of the ground before us. Little prepares you for the size of Manhattan and its impressive skyline. It was even more amazing to weave in and out of them as the bus made its way to our hotel. We simply could not believe just how busy and diverse the city is. Unfortunately, Audrey and Harry would have to wait until tomorrow to see the splendour of the city as they were fast asleep. 20 hours after leaving our hotel in Bardsley, we arrived safely at our hotel in Times Square and collapsed into bed, serenaded by the sounds of New York.
Mark (on behalf of the wandering winrows).
wanderingwinrows 