Dec. 9-13, 2018

Trip video

Trip Blog

Dec. 8, 2018

Hotel details + travel

Broadway Plaza Hotel

1155 Broadway New York, New York 10001
Email: reservations@broadwayplazahotel.com
Phone: (646) 513-2497
Toll Free: (800) 249-7135

Walking From Penn Station:

Exit Penn Station on 32nd and 7th streets. Walk past Manhattan Mall on 32nd street. Cross 6th street to get to Broadway. Make a right to get to the hotel.

Travel

Our original train was canceled on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 7 — less than 48 hours before we were scheduled to leave — due to a major rain-ice-snow storm in the south. The train was scheduled to come from New Orleans.

Linda called Amtrak and got us booked on another train that originated in Roanoke, but it left Charlottesville about four hours later than our original train.

At least we were able to stay at the Hampton Inn we had reserved. Linda and I arrived in Charlottesville late Saturday afternoon, went out to eat at Burger Bach and then went to see the movie Green Book, which was excellent.

Charlottesville was under a winter storm warning Sunday morning and through the rest of the day, with a forecast of 4-8 inches. Snow had not started by the time we finished a good continental breakfast that included scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and pastries. With a few hours to spare before we needed to get to the station, we walked to the station to see how long it would take. It took less than 10 minutes. We kept walking and made a nice loop back to the hotel, getting several thousand steps.

Snow started shortly after our walk and was coming down steadily when we walked to the station with our suitcases in tow. We arrived at the station a little more than an hour before the scheduled departure. There were only a couple people there at that point, but probably 100 or so by boarding time.

The trip to Penn Station was nice.

We walked the wrong direction out of the station, but realized the mistake after one block. We turned around and got to the hotel with no problem.

Brian & Ina

Brian and Ina’s flight from Germany, with a change at Heathrow in London, was mostly uneventful. They did have to hustle to get to their flight to New York after the gate was changed. They had opted for the shorter layover figuring they always had plenty of time to get from one flight to the other. This time, boarding had already started when they got there.

Once in New York, the shuttle from JFK to the hotel took close to two hours due to traffic and a few stops, about the same amount of time as the flight from Germany to London. Brian and Ina made it to the hotel shortly before Linda and I arrived at Penn Station on Amtrak.

Dinner

After we settled in at the hotel, we went in search of a restaurant within walking distance and found Hee Korean BBQ Grill, which turned out to be very good. I would go there again.

(More to come)