Author: jane

Flights

On our trip to New York we flew with 2 different airlines, using 2 different UK airports. We left Gatwick on Continental and returned to Heathrow on Virgin – this gave us a pretty good opportunity to compare the service provided.

The service on Virgin was much better, including bringing around ice creams half way through the flight, but Continental was adequate, they weren’t rude or inattentive or anything. The entertainment on Virgin was again better, having a decent selection of films/TV/radio, whilst Continental had a lot less options. The legroom was far and away better on Continental. I’m not especially tall, but when a heavy person sits in front of you and moves around a lot it’s a lot less painful when your knees aren’t actually touching the seat in front. According to Global Airline Seating Guide there is no difference, but on our flights (of course, the different aeroplanes may make a difference, between a Boeing and an Airbus) it felt more like 3 or 4 – quite a noticeable difference.

Update: Just spotted that Pete has blogged on a similar subject, and he found SeatGuru. SeatGuru also seems to display the legroom per plane model per airline. Mind you, this claims that Virgin should have more legroom than Continental on the specific planes we used which wasn’t our experience.

New York City

To celebrate our second wedding anniversary we decided to head to New York. Armed with the Time Out guide, and the excellent books available from the hotel (we recommend the Frommers as it had the best maps and restaurant sections), we explored the city in manageable chunks.

One day we explored Fifth Avenue, Grand Central, Little Italy and Chinatown. The next we went up the Empire State Building and visited Times Square at night. The next day was our anniversary and we spent the day around Battery Park, Ground Zero and taking a trip on the Staten Island Ferry before going out for a wonderful meal. On Wednesday it rained – the tail end of hurricane Frances hit town – and our Yankees game was cancelled, still we found a good restaurant to get over our disapointment in. Our last day saw us heading over to Central Park and taking a great walk before heading back off to Fifth Avenue for the last of the shopping. Our final evening we headed to the Hotel Metro and sat out on their (understated) roof terrace looking up at the Empire State building (one block away).

A great trip, and we’ve left ourselves things to do should we get a chance to go back (like visit the Guggenheim when it’s open as well as many other museums and galleries).

Slow down, take a different road, and see things differently

Wired had a story yesterday about a guy Segwaying across the US. Another mad scheme. This one seems to be being done to make a documentary out of – rather than just because they can as he counts a “Writer and independent filmmaker” amongst his 4 strong support team and their plan states “And when we’re finished, we’ll wrap it up with a feature-length documentary.” This still counts as an adventure in my books though!

Meanwhile, my friends Vic and Banz and their friends Spencer and Cath continue to make good progress in their respective world trips – both sets are travelling from the UK to Australia – Vic and Banz by bike, Spencer and Cath in a more traditional way.