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Old 14 Aug 16, 03:04 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Join Date: Feb 11
Triple Treat Tour July 2016 Day 5 Amtrak to Washington DC , Hilton Connecticut Ave & Fat Pete's BBQ

The day before is HERE

Thursday 7 July

Today we leave New York and move on to Washington

Before we do that , it feels right to just go back to our first day when we tied that hairband on the bridge for Andy’s Mum who was constantly in our thoughts on this holiday and who loved America so much.

Sadly, she passed away 10 days ago on August 3rd.

We were able to share our holiday stories and pictures with her and she talked a lot about her trip with us to WDW a few years ago – particularly swimming with the Dolphin at Discovery Cove and the Butterfly House at Epcot Flower Festival.

These were some of her happiest memories.

Here she is dancing with Tigger at Animal Kingdom


She was a wonderful lady, taken far too soon and very much missed. Heaven’s gain of an angel is certainly our loss.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


And so to the day ahead

I have an epic 6 hour round trip commute to work on the trains.

This year it has been a real endeavour with strikes, delays, and the random timetable.

So you can imagine I was thrilled to wake up today at the prospect of spending even more of my life on the railway on holiday.

We were awake at 6 ( see, it IS just like commuting!) and had our last hotel breakfast.

Checkout was fine – we had paid in advance so our only item was $17 to dry clean the dress that I had dropped my shake shack fries onto – not that they did a very good job, in the end I stuck it in the wash at home and its come up better.

Pah to these dry clean only labels !

We are out at 0845 and of course not a cab in sight , normally they are everywhere.

I am getting a bit twitchy about the time – the train is at 0930 and we have no idea of how the traffic will be.

The concierge eventually flags us a cab but he will only take 4 of us – so myself and the boys set off with the cases and Andy will follow – I am shouting instructions that its Penn Station and not Penn Street ( as that’s the subway). I do hope he makes it !

In the end it takes only 10 minutes and costs $10.

As we are rounding up the cases, Andy’s taxi arrives – who apparently had no change on him so the $10 fare actually ended up costing $20 as that’s all Andy had on him. What a scam I say :angry:

We take the lift up to the station – ewwww, it smells, Saturday night Stairwell ….

It’s a busy station but we find the seating area – you just have to show your ticket to get in

Andy approached a redcap who must have been having an off day as all he said was “ your train is late” and walked off. Great !



It really IS like commuting



And just to confirm it, our train is indeed late – first by 15 minutes and then by 30.

Sigh

We pass the time twiddling our thumbs and watching the departure board and finally it messages that boarding will take place soon so we trundle out to the waiting area.

When they do announce it as track 13 , there is an almighty squish for the escalators with bodies and bags all trying to get down two escalators with ticket checks as well.

We did pretty well though and were soon all the platform – just about all in one piece = all that practice for Toy Story Rope Drop clearly paid off

Andy finds a nice empty coach and we settle in there – only realising a little later it’s the Quiet Coach , which is why its so empty

I am glad I had the strapping chaps with me as the cases have to put up into the overhead space – yes that’s 23kg cases up over your head – fine if you are a Romanian weightlifter but not a 5’3 midget granny like me !

The seats are very spacious – lots of legroom



The conductor come round and checks the tickets and we settle in for the trip – there is a restaurant car and loos – not that we made use of either of them

High points of the trip – when the conductor and co worker were discussing when they wanted a coffee -one of those “ oops, I left the mic on open” moments

And the lady who got on at Philadelphia and spent the rest of the trip vigorously defending her quiet coach rights every time someone’s ipad beeped with a message or a phone rang.

She made more bleddy noise bleating at everyone than the whole blessed coach did put together

Its not the most scenic trip ….. but here are a few of the sights

A big bridge



Buildings



The front of the train – I love how they curve round the track !



Water



Roads ( and water !)



Coming in to Philadelphia



Sign !



Penn State University Football Field – of the NFL draft fame





Random buildings





More bridges and water as we pass by Wilmington





Could quite fancy a pad along here



Coming in to Baltimore





See





Love the double deck trains



And the street art ( or is that upmarket graffiti ?)



Ending up at Union Station at 1.40 pm , about 30 minutes late.





It’s a huge station




And then you exit into the most magnificent entrance





It was stunning




Edited at 03:13 PM.
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