Sunday, December 17, 2006
Friday December 8, 2006
So call us crazy, but Matt Lausch and I decided to go to Cologne, Germany for a weekend. With a super cheap airfare available, we just couldn't say no!
(Matt has also written about this trip in his blog, so check it out.)
We wouldn't be flying to Germany directly, but would be connecting through New York City. We left Toronto early on Friday morning. Our flight was short, but VERY turbulent before the landing. It left me feeling pretty queasy. Some kid in the seat behind me actually vomitted.
Our layover in NYC was 7 hours long. Instead of kicking around the boring airport for that long, it was pretty obvious that we needed to head into Manhattan. So we jumped on the AirTrain that would take us from Newark Airport in New Jersey and to Manhattan.
Here's a picture of the airport from the AirTrain. Those buildings way in the background are Manhattan!
My impression of New Jersey is... it seems like a stinky industrial wasteland. It's sort of like Hamilton, Ontario, but bigger.
The train took about 40 minutes to get to Penn Station in Manhattan. From there we walked up to Times Square. I quickly learned that pedestrians in NYC are even more aggressive about crossing the road then they are in Toronto (not surprising, really). I hadn't been in crowds this dense since I was in Tokyo (though the Tokyo crowds are definitely a level above NYC when it comes to the number of people).
Times Square is pretty cool! Lots of flashy lights and big signs. I love it!
We were looking for lunch. We checked out a deli in Times Square. I figured it would be expensive, but we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to take a look. Holy Crow! The sandwiches were US$14! That place was quickly rejected. We'd stick it out and look for some food on some side street somewhere.
There was a super cool Toys R Us store in Times Square. We had to go in! They had a big Tyranosaurus inside!
There was also a big Captain Jack Sparrow made from Lego!
There was also a Ferris Wheel in the store, too. It was about three stories tall!
After we were finished looking at toys, we kept going. We found some pizza from a place on a side street. It was much more reasonably priced. And tasty!
The next stop was the Empire State Building. We were running out of time, so we made an executive decision to get the express tickets to the top floor. We got to skip all the lines. We were probably able to save waiting for 2 hours, I think. We headed up to the 86th floor observatory. The view from up there was incredible!!!
Who let these rats-with-wings up here? This is the 86th floor! Come on!
It was quite cold up there... and very windy! It was hard to stay outside very long without wanting to go back inside to warm up. After a while, it was time to go, so we headed back downstairs. Here's a picture of the very cool art in lobby.
We stopped off at the drug store in the lobby to grab some snacks and drinks. After walking around the streets a bit more, we walked back to Penn Station and hopped on a train back to New Jersey. I was really proud that, as a tourist, I was able to explain the train schedule to other tourists in the train station. I was able to explain to some people how to find the train to get back to the airport! I'm a master of public transit!
The next step was the 7.5 hour overnight flight. I managed to sleep for part of it, which was nice. Apparantly Matt could not sleep. Doh.
On the way to Cologne, the plane flew over England. I was so lucky to get this amazing shot of London from the air! You can totally see the outline of the River Thames in this picture.
The plane also flew over Belgium. I think we flew right over Brussels, too. That's where I would be going next year!
Activities on the flight included sleeping, eating, reading, and, of course, playing Cooking Mama on my Nintendo DS Lite!
As dawn broke over The Continent, our plane touched down in Cologne...
(Matt has also written about this trip in his blog, so check it out.)
We wouldn't be flying to Germany directly, but would be connecting through New York City. We left Toronto early on Friday morning. Our flight was short, but VERY turbulent before the landing. It left me feeling pretty queasy. Some kid in the seat behind me actually vomitted.
Our layover in NYC was 7 hours long. Instead of kicking around the boring airport for that long, it was pretty obvious that we needed to head into Manhattan. So we jumped on the AirTrain that would take us from Newark Airport in New Jersey and to Manhattan.
Here's a picture of the airport from the AirTrain. Those buildings way in the background are Manhattan!
My impression of New Jersey is... it seems like a stinky industrial wasteland. It's sort of like Hamilton, Ontario, but bigger.
The train took about 40 minutes to get to Penn Station in Manhattan. From there we walked up to Times Square. I quickly learned that pedestrians in NYC are even more aggressive about crossing the road then they are in Toronto (not surprising, really). I hadn't been in crowds this dense since I was in Tokyo (though the Tokyo crowds are definitely a level above NYC when it comes to the number of people).
Times Square is pretty cool! Lots of flashy lights and big signs. I love it!
We were looking for lunch. We checked out a deli in Times Square. I figured it would be expensive, but we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to take a look. Holy Crow! The sandwiches were US$14! That place was quickly rejected. We'd stick it out and look for some food on some side street somewhere.
There was a super cool Toys R Us store in Times Square. We had to go in! They had a big Tyranosaurus inside!
There was also a big Captain Jack Sparrow made from Lego!
There was also a Ferris Wheel in the store, too. It was about three stories tall!
After we were finished looking at toys, we kept going. We found some pizza from a place on a side street. It was much more reasonably priced. And tasty!
The next stop was the Empire State Building. We were running out of time, so we made an executive decision to get the express tickets to the top floor. We got to skip all the lines. We were probably able to save waiting for 2 hours, I think. We headed up to the 86th floor observatory. The view from up there was incredible!!!
Who let these rats-with-wings up here? This is the 86th floor! Come on!
It was quite cold up there... and very windy! It was hard to stay outside very long without wanting to go back inside to warm up. After a while, it was time to go, so we headed back downstairs. Here's a picture of the very cool art in lobby.
We stopped off at the drug store in the lobby to grab some snacks and drinks. After walking around the streets a bit more, we walked back to Penn Station and hopped on a train back to New Jersey. I was really proud that, as a tourist, I was able to explain the train schedule to other tourists in the train station. I was able to explain to some people how to find the train to get back to the airport! I'm a master of public transit!
The next step was the 7.5 hour overnight flight. I managed to sleep for part of it, which was nice. Apparantly Matt could not sleep. Doh.
On the way to Cologne, the plane flew over England. I was so lucky to get this amazing shot of London from the air! You can totally see the outline of the River Thames in this picture.
The plane also flew over Belgium. I think we flew right over Brussels, too. That's where I would be going next year!
Activities on the flight included sleeping, eating, reading, and, of course, playing Cooking Mama on my Nintendo DS Lite!
As dawn broke over The Continent, our plane touched down in Cologne...
# posted by Rob Szumlakowski @ 4:00 PM 
