theDIBB - Expedition East Coast: Day 21 New York Traffic Nightmare and a cemetery in Brooklyn

8 August

It wasn't a great night's sleep and the beds didn't get anymore comfortable as the night went on. The breakfast was nice, with a good choice of food but the seating area was badly designed and it wasn't easy to find a table. Nice french toast though!

We checked out and set off on the last drive of the holiday. We were heading for Brooklyn and our bonus extra night - due to miscalculating the number of nights we needed to book, we realised in May that we flew back a day later than we had originally thought. But an extra night is better than one too few, so it was okay. We had thought at the time that an extra night in New York could be good, but as we hadn't enjoyed it all that much, we weren't exactly enthusiastic about another night there as we headed out on the road.

We had found an outlet mall on the way to JFK where we were dropping the car off, so we set the satnav to that, without having really looked the route on google maps. This turned out to be an error . . .

We drove into New York and through the Bronx. The traffic was awful and there seemed to be roadworks everywhere. Paul reluctantly stopped at a gas station so we could have a comfort break and while it was much needed, it wasn't very nice.

It was a good thing we stopped when we did though as the drive further on got worse and worse. The satnav was taking us right through the city, in traffic that was bumper to bumper. We had commented earlier in the holiday that something terrible seems to happen to New Yorkers once they get behind the wheel and they turn from pleasant and funny people into the most angry impatient and aggressive drivers.

Everyone was blasting their horns, cutting each other up and generally driving in an appalling way. There were road closures and construction works on a regular basis and we seemed to be going up one street to go back down the next while getting more and more stressed as there was just no way out of it. There were regular crashes, roads full of parked cars, and some of the intersections needed traffic cops to manage them as they were so chaotic. I don't know how anybody drives in that on a daily basis.

The route was so convoluted that we ended up near Citi Field, and typically, the Mets were at home, so the traffic was horrible there as well. Paul was pretty white knuckled on the steering wheel by now and nobody could speak as we were all so tense. When the next road we were directed to was closed, we all said, "Forget the shopping, let's go straight to the airport".

Fortunately, it was quite straightforward to get there and we managed to drop the car off with a very nice man. We were all too shell shocked from the drive to talk very much, so we staggered to the Air Train, all with a thousand-yard stare that kept other people well away from us!

At least we still had some Air Train rides from the Great Ticket Debacle, so that went okay, and then we got on the subway to Brooklyn. It was a really long train journey but we were entertained for a short while by a couple of guys who got on and did some hip hop dancing and acrobatics.

Fortunately, our hotel was very near to the subway stop so it wasn't long to walk there from the train. We checked into the Best Western and were delighted (not) to be given a room in the basement. We couldn't really be bothered to query it, so had some snacks before heading out to stretch our legs.

Google maps showed us that Green-Wood Cemetery was a couple of blocks away, so we decided to walk there as it looked like a huge green space. On the way we passed this sign shop but I'm not sure why Paul wanted his picture taken there. It's not as if it was called "Pole signs" . . .

Brooklyn had a nice feel to it, much less hectic that Manhattan and it felt like an actual neighbourhood. The cemetery had this amazing entrance that made it look a little like a Disney Park.

As it was up on a hill, there were also great views of Manhattan.

The attendant gave us a map and we set off to explore. There were some pretty impressive looking tombs. Leonard Bernstein is buried there amongst other notable New Yorkers. It's also a nature conservation area and a lot is made of the variety of animal and plant life there.

We found a beautiful chapel with lovely stained glass.

And a water feature nearby.

Here we also met some very charming turtles.

It was a lovely peaceful place and very calming, just what we needed after the Worst Drive We Have Ever Experienced (TM). A cemetery may be a strange choice of place to hang out but we all enjoyed exploring it.

After revitalising ourselves by hanging out with the deceased, we went back to the hotel and got changed before heading out to get something to eat. It wasn't a long walk to a hipster pizza joint, Pizza Moto. It was under a bridge by a gas station and didn't look like much, but the reviews were good.

It was indeed very hipster, but the food was good and we all enjoyed it. The walk itself wasn't great and so we decided to get an Uber back to the hotel which didn't take very long.

Back at the room, we sorted our suitcases out and watched a bit of CMA Fest on the TV, rejoicing in having one that actually worked this time!