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New York - Concrete jungle ...

diciembre 2011 - enero 2012
Una aventura de 25 días de Alphadog's Travels Leer más
  • 26huellas
  • 2países
  • 25días
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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 20

    New Years Day in San Francisco

    1 de enero de 2012, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    New Years Day in San Francisco was a pretty quiet affair.

    We slept in for an hour or so to recover from the big trip the day before. The first thing on the agenda was to ride a Cable Car. These are the only National Monuments of the US that move, others are things like Statue of Liberty and a collection of National Parks. It's best to start early to ride one of these otherwise the queue is massive.

    The closest Cable Car to the Hotel was the Powell and Hyde Street line. Two of us sat on the outside and 2 of us stood on the running board. When another car is going past they call out for those standing on that side to look out. The Brakeman in the middle works quite hard and has to have a delicate touch to make the trip as smooth as possible othrwise it would be uncomfortable as the hills are quite huge. The brakes are lumps of wood they rub along the tracks so there is always the smell of burning wood and they are certainly applied early. The locals seem to accept the Cable Cars stopping in the middle of intersections as the brakes are a little soft or the tourists have a good photo opportunity. There would be a bit of weight on them as they are usually crammed full of tourists.

    The Cable Car took us all the way to Fisherman's Wharf where we strolled along with the crowds. There is a large group of Sea Lions that live in one of the docks, they have their own area and can get up to a few hundred in number. They have their own docks with pontoons and are pretty much left alone.

    You might have noticed something different?

    Look at the photos.

    Yes San Francisco really does exist! It isn't just some foggy place where they say there is a city around you but you can't see it because of the fog, there REALLY is a city there!!!!! This was our first really clear day so we could see the Golden Gate Bridge.

    We caught the trolley bus back into the city and walked along their main shopping street Market Street. We needed to buy another bag to cope with the additional luggage we seem to have accumulated ... dunno where it has all come from.

    In the afternoon we went to the movies. We saw Sherlock Holmes, it was quite good and at $10.75 for adults and big comfy seats it was a little different to the Australian version.

    After the movie we headed to Chinatown for dinner. I have to say it wasn't as good as the New York version but it was OK. They are allowed to have fire crackers so we bought a couple of packets and made a bit of noise throwing them on the ground as we were heading back to the Hotel.

    This was our last night in San Francisco, tomorrow we head off to Laid Back LA.    Leer más

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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 21

    Laid back in LA

    2 de enero de 2012, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    It was another early start to catch our flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. While it was a short visit to San Fran we really enjoyed our time in the city. It has a very different vibe to New York, more laid back and relaxed. Of couse it was a lot smaller but it still had a lot to offer, though I do admit I don't think we would have liked to have lived in San Fran like we did in New York for a few weeks I think we would have run out of things to do.

    We caught a small Delta Airlines jet (a Bombardier CRJ700 for those who need to know) for the 40 minute trip down the coast to Los Angeles and had some great views of the city on landing. Once off the plane we noticed one thing - it was very warm. One thing we didn't expect to need on this trip would be shorts but in LA we do.

    We are staying in the Best Western Hotel on Sunset Boulevard and once we had dumped the luggage and had something to eat we caught a cab to the Hollywood walk of fame. This was one crowded street. We found the Chinese Theatre and the various prints in the cement and walked up and down a few blocks looking at the masses of names. Then we found a spot looking at the Hollywood sign on the hills and took a few photos.

    LA is very different to the other cities. It feels more tropical and a lot more spread out. In New York and San Fran we caught 1 cab and that was when we arrived in New York, in LA cabs are the only viable way of getting around. This city is in love with the car. I still haven't got the hang of driving, I try and work out where the cabbie is going to go when driving in traffic but I get it wrong every time usually ending up on the wrong side of the road.

    We did some shopping and then headed back to the hotel for pizza and bed.

    Tomorrow we go to the movies!    Leer más

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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 22

    Making Movies

    3 de enero de 2012, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our main reason for coming to LA was to visit the theme parks and the first one on the list was Universal Studios. Tracey and I are regular visitors to this park - Tracey visited last in 1987 and I in 1975 (I was a very, very small baby) - needless to say there have been many changes.

    The main reason you go to Universal Studios is for the Studio Backlot Tour and that was first on our list of things to do. I have to say I was starting to have queue withdrawals but we all got a good fix at Universal. It wasn't as fantastic as the ultimate queue we went through in New York to go to the top of the Queue Building (aka the Empire State Building), personally I still have wonderful dreams about that queue, imagine building that beautiful building just to house a queue!

    Anyway the Universal Studios Backlot Tour Queue wasn't too bad and it wasn't long before we were on board and moving. They took us through various studios where various shows were being filmed - like Parenthood, House, CSI, Bones to name a few - and showed us how some special effects were created. A few recognisable highlights were the Jaws set, King Kong experience, the flooded street, Wisteria Lane from Desperate House Wives, robot cars from Fast and Furious, western streets, European city streets, an earthquake in a subway, and the parting of the waters. A couple of these I recall from my last visit.

    The King Kong one was exceptionally good, they locked the 4-car train thing we were on into a set of gimbals and bounced us up and down and sideways as King Kong was battling a dinosaur around us like he did in the most recent King Kong movie.

    All up the tour lasted for about 45 minutes and was really good.

    BUT! The rest of the park is pretty much on par with Movieworld on the Gold Coast. Don't get me wrong it was a good amusement park and had some good rides but would it be worth flying 13 hours across the Pacific to go to if it didn't have the Backlot Tour ... probably not ... which means it is a long way to go for a 45 minute tour. Apart from that point it is spotlessly clean and lots of people there to help you if you look lost. The rides we liked the best were the Jurasic Park one where you float along being stalked by various dinosaurs before you drop down a big slide and get wet. They also have a couple of shows based on movies and the Waterworld show would be the one we liked best.

    I have attached some photos showing the highlights.

    Tomorrow we hit Disneyland!

    BLOG NOTE: Our wonderful holiday comes to an end on Thursday but since we fly out at about 8.30pm we still have a full day which I won't get to write up until we are back in Sydney so I'll try to do that as soon as possible. I also have to write up today's (Wednesday's) Disneyland day which I will try and do tomorrow sometime. We land at about 6.30am on Saturday morning if you want to come and join us for the welcome home celebrations.    Leer más

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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 23

    Disneyland!

    4 de enero de 2012, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    To those of us of a certain age Disneyland has a mystique about it. I recall watching the Disney cartoons on The Mickey Mouse Show after school and every Sunday at 6.30pm Disneyland on channel 9 was an institution. It was good wholesome stuff!

    Thursday was Disneyland day.

    As expected the place has changed somewhat. There are actually now 2 Disney Parks facing each other - the well-known Disneyland is on your right as you are walking up and the Disney California Adventure is on your left. After being to both I can say Disneyland is for the whole family whereas Adventure is intended to be for families with older kids. Your tickets allow you to hop between either Park so we decided to do Disneyland first and then if we had time we would do California Adventure.

    The entrance to Disneyland hasn't changed and once through the gates you are walking up Mainstreet USA. Interestingly the temperature in LA was in the high 20s but there was a lot of artificial snow on all the buildings. It was really well done and spotlessly clean.

    Disneyland is divided into different 'Lands' - Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland - and the first one we went into was Adventureland. There are various rides and activities sort of related to the same theme within each Land and the first ride we went on was the Indiana Jones Adventure. This was well done, you are in an old car that jumps and bumps its way through caves and caverns based on the Indiana Jones stories.

    We worked our way around the Park going to key rides including Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted House (I went on both these rides in 1975), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Matterhorn to name a few. It soon became apparent the thrills just weren't big enough so we had a bite for lunch and headed across to California Adventure.

    While Disneyland had been crowded we didn't have to wait much more than about 30 minutes to get on any particular ride but in California Adventure we were waiting for up to an hour to go on a ride. California Adventure park is about 80% complete so it didn't have the same impact as Disneyland but it was still very well done. The boys went on the Tower of Terror (big drops), and the roller coaster called California Screamin'. We all went on the Grizzly River Run which is sort of like a small roller coaster on water and yes we all got wet.

    There are some pictures below of the various attractions and like I said both parks were very well done. Not to miss an opportunity there is a section between Disneyland and California Adventure called Downtown Disney where there are lots of souvenir and other shops all very clean and well presented.

    By our 8pm pick up time we were worn out. It was good to be able to to both parks as I think just Disneyland on its own might have been a bit dull after a while as the boys were a bit old for a lot of it - though Trace and I enjoyed both Parks immensly. In my view Dreamworld and the other parks on the Gold Coast comes close to offering a similar experience as Disneyland for a lot less cost ... but they just don't have the same mystique Disneyland now do they?

    Tomorrow we Getty on down and Getty on out!

    (Sorry that was bad!)    Leer más

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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 24

    Getty on Down

    5 de enero de 2012, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Thursday was our last day in the USA. Our plane left at 8.30pm so we had nearly a full day to fill in and aimed to make the most of it.

    Trace had mentioned going to the Getty Museum which sounded good. Our Cabbie said it would be a 15 minute trip from our Hotel but it was closer to 30 mins by the time we got there - LA traffic can be really bad. The Getty Museum is in the hills of Santa Monica with views south from the beaches across to Downtown LA. The Museum was set up by oil billionaire J. P. Getty to show art and to also research into art preservation and much more. Originally the Museum was in his house and moved to its current location in 1997.

    The Getty Museum is one of the richest museums in America and it is really sensational. The building was designed by a famous architect, Richard Meier. It is made from Travertine stone which is similar to limestone so it is a very light coloured building - rather glarey in the bright sun. There are 5 main exhibition pavillions as well as other buildings for their research and conservation work. Visitors park at the main gate and ride a 3 car automated tram up to the top of the hill to the museum.

    As well as paintings they have antique furniture that can be traced back to various French and German Kings, photographs, and a sculpture garden. We only managed to get through 2 of the 5 pavillions and had a walk theough their fantastic garden. One famous painting was Van Gogh Irises which Alan Bond bought for $54 million in 1987.

    One of the best things about this Museum is that it is totally free. Which is good because there is so much you would need more than 1 day to see all of it.

    After walking around the grounds we headed back to West Hollywood for a bite of lunch and some final shopping before the van came to take us to the airport.    Leer más

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  • ViajeroNew York - Concrete jungle ...
    Día 26

    Thank You

    7 de enero de 2012, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    After a 14 hour flight on a 777 from Virgin Australia we are finally home.

    Some final thoughts about the trip:

    Tracey's favourite city - New York
    David's favourite city - San Francisco
    Ewan's favourite city - Los Angeles
    James' favourite city - New York

    Best things about the USA - the shopping, friendly people, so much to do, the architecture, and just the sheer size of the place
    Worst things about the USA - homelessness, lack of public toilets in New York, unisex toilets

    I definitely think we'll be going back one day. I don't know if we were just lucky with the weather but it was excellent, we had one wet afternoon in New York and a few spots of drizzle. It would have been nice to have a white Christmas but maybe next time.

    All four of us would like to thank Linda for letting us stay in her apartment in New York - really generous and a great spot.

    Lastly thank you to our blog readers. I hope you have enjoyed the daily mutterings and photos. I managed to take over 2,000 photos in just under 4 weeks so anytime you want to view some or all of them just let us know!!    Leer más

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