New York, New York and QM2

NYC and QM2

We knew we’d had a good visit in Maine when we began to get itchy to move on.   As much as it was hard to leave we were ready for the foreign part of our adventure to begin.  Saturday July 23rd we got an early start for the train in Portland which would whisk us along to Boston and then NYC in eight short hours.  Jenny’s stepmom Gray accompanied us to New York for our four days there. 

The way to travel - on the train to NYC

The train was a very good alternative to driving.  We were able to read, nap and chat the whole way without having to deal with the dense traffic on the freeways.    For those of you wondering, we did successfully sell our big gray Toyota Sequoia to a lovely family in Maine.  We hope they are happy with it.

 

Once at Penn Station, we joined the mob coming up to street level and grabbed a taxi for the short drive to the apartment we rented on W. 60th near Central Park.  It was exhilarating to feel the energy of the city.  The apartment was on the 25th floor and had an excellent view uptown.  We got it through Airbnb.com.  Between the information left by the woman who owned the apartment and Gray's experience with NYC, we were never at a loss for things to do or places to eat.

Kate and Grandma on the Circle Tour

Our plan for NYC was quite open.  We did some shopping, as Kate and Jenny needed some fancy duds for the QM2.  We strolled around Central Park where we saw a Peregrine falcon preening itself on a lower limb of a tree on Cedar Hill.  It looked quite plump from its diet of pigeon.  Nearby, a raccoon made its way determinedly down a tree despite several onlookers - another fearless New Yorker.  We also ate at some wonderful restaurants.   Two faves come to mind:  Dawat, an Indian restaurant, and a lovely little french bistro that had amazing quiche and French onion soup.   

We had a great visit and dinner with Lisa Stifler, her husband Ray O'Hanlon and their son Jack, who's Kate's age and a live wire.  Lisa was a classmate of Doug's from Bates.  We met them at a wonderful Irish pub for some great snacks and pints of Guinness.  Afterward they showed us around lower Manhattan and the Financial District.  The canyons of Wall Street and Ground Zero were memorable.

Thank you, Gray for treating us to a wonderful evening out, including Phantom of the Opera! Another of her ideas was taking a cruise around Manhattan.  It was a great way to see the city and get our bearings.  Jenny and Kate got their first view of the Statue of Liberty which was very impressive.   Our last day there we walked down through SoHo to Chinatown, Little Italy and had an excellent lunch at Union Square Café.

Our impression of NYC was very favorable.  The city was cleaner, the people more friendly and getting around was a lot easier than we expected.   Kate has decided she wants to move there for college.  She thought the energy was great, and has already been shopping for apartments near where we stayed.  Now that's thinking ahead!

"I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door"

View of Manhattan from the QM2 in Brooklyn

On the morning of our departure on the Queen Mary, we said a happy and sad goodbye to Gray.  She zoomed off in a taxi to catch her flight and we went back to the apartment.  We started missing her right away.  We gathered all the gear that we’d strewn around the apartment and were dismayed to find there was even more than before!  We hadn’t pinched any of our host Amy’s things, either.  We’d done some shopping but it couldn’t account for the bulging luggage we rolled down to the lobby.  We promised ourselves that we'll REALLY cut back once we get to Britain. 

QM2 in Brooklyn

Kate and Jenny on the Deck 7 promenade

Homer Simpson hidden on a QM2 bronze frieze

Since checkout was 11:00 and we didn’t have to be at the ship until 2:30 we hung out at the Time Warner center on Columbus Circle.  At the big Borders store we joined other book vultures, checking out the sale prices on their liquidation.  Our hearts went out to the employees, who were pretty downcast.  We didn’t have an answer for Kate’s question as to why they were going out of business though our impression is that it was more a case of poor management than the growth of the Internet.  Maybe some of both.

After dossing about for a time we decided to head out early for the ship, as we knew they would be boarding all afternoon.  Our taxi ride took us down the expressway along the west side of Manhattan so we had good views of the city and the huge new structures going up at the World Trade Center.  We zipped over the Brooklyn Bridge, descended into a maze of streets around the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, all the time being teased by views of the mighty ship.

It is big.  Our taciturn cab driver became very excited when we got close, asking all kinds of questions about where we were going and oohing and aahing.  If you can impress a New York cab driver you’re doing pretty well.  We constructed an embarrassing heap of luggage in front of the porters, smiled weakly at them and plunged into a warehouse-type building where we went through a security check, passport check, ticket check, credit card check, photo opportunity and finally toiled up a zig-zag stairwell and ramp to a garage-door sized opening in the side of the ship.  The lighting and the décor made an instant strong impression of comfort and grandeur.  We were ready to be wowed.  The double line of crew members welcoming us aboard was a nice touch.

One half of the view from our cabin

We were directed to our cabin by crew at every turning.  Once inside, we were relieved that it was large enough for three of us.  The outside sitting area was accessed through a large double glass door and had a wide opening to fresh air over a varnished wood railing.  We cracked the Champagne that had been waiting for us in an ice bucket on the coffee table, leaned on the rail and took in a majestic view of Manhattan, Governor's Island in the foreground, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty off to the west.  Sweet!

The ship has 14 public decks and a few more below those.  We were on deck five, so once we were underway we were close enough to the water to hear it hissing past the hull.  The spaces aboard have been designed to avoid an impression of overwhelming size.  The corridors are long, but the public spaces are appropriate to what you would expect in an ocean liner, not a shopping mall.  The dining areas are roomy.  Cunard did an excellent job creating a liner that has the comfort and stability of a very large ship without the negatives of cavernous, unattractively large spaces.  Well done!

Even the guys directing traffic stared at it

I had been skeptical of the distinction that Cunard makes between its liners and regular cruise ships.  Basically, liners are heavy-duty so they can hold up to the rigors of frequent ocean crossings.  There's another distinction, however.  On a cruise, the ship itself is the destination and needs to have a plethora of activities for the passengers, much like a resort hotel.  On a liner, the activities are a complement to the journey.  The ship is transportation – luxurious, yes – but still transportation.  A liner is equipped with quieter activities that accompany an actual passage to another place.  There are lots of deck chairs, lounges for reading, books, movies and music.  The only gizmo that to me seemed out of place was the planetarium until it was explained that it was on the ship due to the connection between seafaring and the stars. We got right into shipboard life.

Spare propeller blades for the ship's drives

The vast top deck

Silliness on the (chilly) promenade deck

The corridors were super long

Our table

On the Grand Staircase

A whole bar dedicated to Veuve Cliquot! 

We spent our days reading, walking laps around the ship and snoozing.  Jenny and Kate took watercolor classes and we all worked out in the gym.  We appreciated the size of the Atlantic Ocean as for six days all we saw was water, seabirds, water, porpoises, and more water.  The seas were mercifully smooth all the way across.  When our arrival in Southampton rolled around we were torn by our desire to continue the relaxing life aboard and our desire to see our friends Paul and Michele, their two fine sons Isaac and Ben, and some of England.   

On Wednesday the third we woke up at around 4:00am to see navigation buoys going by from our balcony.  As the sky lightened we could see land off in the mist as well as some tugs coming out to accompany us into port.  We went up the east side of the Isle of Wight into the Solent, past Portsmouth, the historic headquarters of the Royal Navy.  The great ship made a few sharp turns as we headed farther into the estuary that leads up to Southampton.  We wondered if the crew would be able to tie up by 6:30, the scheduled arrival time.  By golly, the dock lines were thrown at 6:30am sharp after an impressive display of turning the great ship in a very confined space.

Tied up in Southampton

We chose to disembark on our own instead of having the porters help us so we could meet Paul and Michele as early as possible.  We left the ship excited for the next part of our journey but with great memories of the past 2 months crossing the US.  Thank you to all our friends and family who made the beginning of our trip so wonderful.  England, here we come!