Sophistivacation

It is now Sunday 15 th March 2020. We awoke early for our 9am flight home. It was a particularly sombre affair as I got the impression several people on the flight had to cut their holidays short. We made it back to London, feeling relieved to be back in the UK. There was a slightly eerie atmosphere in New York, I think it was only a matter of time before they realised something was very wrong. Thankfully, we only had a short wait for the next flight to Edinburgh; we were overjoyed when we landed.  By coincidence, we met up with a colleague of mine at Edinburgh airport; they were returning from Cuba and had a terrible time trying to get back via Madrid as lots of flights were cancelled and the world was beginning to go into lock down. We managed 40 hours in New York City; it was certainly short but sweet. Oh and super expensive; I'm blaming Macy's for my credit card balance increasingly. Overall, we had an amazing time and I personally can’t wait to return when the world r...

Both Iain and I woke up early, deciding to take the initiative and book a flight home early. We managed to get one for Sunday morning which still gave us the full day in NYC.  We had pre-booked a pizza tour in Brooklyn which was thankfully still going ahead. This is where I hand over to Iain as he is the pizza fanatic... Iain When you think of New York, you think of, Pizza! Well, at least I do. The one thing we had booked on the trip which we actually got to do was to go on a Pizza Tour in Brooklyn. We had booked the best one going, “Scott’s Pizza Tours” (see here: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d1187709-Reviews-Scott_s_Pizza_Tours-New_York_City_New_York.html ). This guy is obsessed, and has a Guinness world record for collected pizza boxes. He even appeared on Vice’s Frank Pinello’s ‘The Pizza Show’ (also totally recommended!). So, anyway, it was our first full day in the city and we were up early and eager to get going. We were meeting Greg in Brooklyn o...

Shortly after 3pm, we arrived at the Distrikt Hotel, just a few blocks from Times Square. It was actually a miracle that we made it as our cab driver seemed to think he was driving a rally car, and not a taxi.  We chose this hotel due to its proximity to several New York attractions including Broadway. It’s just a shame that some of these places are already closed due to the virus. The view wasn’t too awful. After an hour or so nap, we decide to visit the Empire State Building; it was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel and given the news was changing every hour, we thought we better make the most of the holiday as we may have to return home sooner rather than later. The weather was beautiful when we touched down, and that didn’t seem to be changing. It was 19 degrees, so I ventured out with no jacket and sunglasses. I have never been to New York City before, but I was informed that the streets were much quieter than usual. There was no queue when we arrived at the Empire State Bu...

No-one can deny that we live in interesting times; I’m talking about the now global pandemic, Coronavirus or COVID-19. I would not normally start the blog with something so negative but given the recent travel restrictions that have been imposed, and as this is a “holiday” blog, it seems to be necessary. As you know, I love to travel; it’s a hobby, a passion, and I love reading through the blog and re-discovering the many places I have been lucky enough to visit so far. This time, we are flying to the US of A and the Big Apple… Due to the virus, and the restrictions on travel implemented by the US and UK governments, we were unsure if this trip was even going to go ahead until we got to the airport. Even during check-in, people were asked if they had been in any EU countries in the last 14 days, and passports were being checked for date stamps where possible. Thankfully, we are still able to travel. The current situation is, albeit Broadway, most of the museums in NYC and all sport...