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I arrived back home yesteray after a day of flying.

Boston's airport is close to the city and can be reached by the "T" which was my chosen way of getting there.

I flew from Boston to Los Angeles on Virgin America (Airbus A320).  The scheduled time was almost 6 hours but we got into LAX 45 minutes early (it was common for planes to both leave and to arrive early).  Virgin's in flight service operates on the "pay for everything except soft drink" model.  After the initial drink service, if you want anything, you order it from a  touch screen, swipe your credit card and it is delivered to your seat a few minutes later.

In LAX I had to collect my baggage, check in for my Australian flight and edure yet another security check point.  While Virgin America and V Australia have an inerline agreement, I was unable to check my bags through from Boston as I had booked my Boston - LA flight before the agreement had been set up.  I had about 4 hours between flights and there are many places I would rather spend this time than Terminal 3 at LAX, which is almost completely devoid of passenger facilities.

My final flight to Sydney was on V Australia (Boeing 777-300ER).  The plane was full for the return journey but this time a window rather than a middle seat.  To make up for the early arrival of the Boston - LA flight, my Sydney flight was late leaving LA and late into Sydney.

The cats were very pleased to see me home!

Check back on the blog over the next few days as I will add photos form the rest of the trip. (There's just a few thousand to sort through)

I caught the Acela Express train from New York to Boston.  The Acela is a high speed tilt train introduced a few years ago on the Boston - New York - Washington corridor to compete with air travel.  The Acela cuts 30 minutes off the New York - Boston trip, although at 3 hours 40 minutes, it wouldn’t be classed high speed by the Japanese or Europeans.  The flying time from New York to Boston is 1 hour 15 minutes but there's considerable extra time either end with the plane; an hour to get to JFK airport, at least an hour for check in/security (at a busy airport like JFK, it's recommended you arrive two hours before your flight, half an hour for your bags to appear on the carousel and half an hour to downtown Boston, so the door to door flying time looks is over 4 hours.  There is much more space on the train and you don’t have to endure US airport security.

It is a beautiful journey along the Connecticut coast and the weather was beautiful on the day I travelled.  The first half of the journey to New Haven is slow - this has old track and wiring which slows things down (New Haven used to be the northern limit of electrification).  North of New Haven the train really takes off; this was the section which upgraded for the new service.  (New York to Washington takes 3 hours - for a greater distance)

I stayed in Boston with Susan and Jim, whom I met last year while travelling in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.  They retired last year and now split their time between Vermont and Boston.  In Boston, they live in South End, a neighbourhood of lovely Victorian town houses close to downtown Boston.  This is one of those formerly rough areas that has been gentrified.  It was really wonderful to see Jim and Susan again, we’d become good friends on our Indochina trip and we got to swap notes about our travels since Indochina.

I’ve been to Boston a couple of times before, one of the reasons for this visit was a couple of new transit lines and some new vehicles on existing lines.  There are two new “Silver Lines” which turned out to be a bit of a cruel hoax.  One part of the Silver line is simply a new bus route with silver coloured buses running on existing streets.  The other part of the silver line consists of a short stretch of tunnel with trolley buses, which become regular buses on the street for the outer part.

Boston is a similar size to Sydney but felt tiny after New York!   Boston well and truly predates the grid pattern that is standard in most American cities so you need to have your wits about you when navigating.  As well as exploring transit lines (the “T” as it is known here) I had a little time to explore, revisiting some places and visiting some new places.  Jim, Susan and I visited the John F Kennedy Library and museum.  All former US presidents have a library located on a university campus in their home state.   JFK’s is at University of Massachusetts.   The museum gave a good summary of his early life, his time in the Navy, his career as a Congressman and Senator and his time as President.  We Also took in the view while having a drink at the top of the Prudential Center (great view, shame about it being a hideous 1960’s office building), had dinner at a lovely seafood restaurant on the waterfront and a post dinner walk around the waterfront, which is steadily being redeveloped.  Boston has a huge area of disused waterfront which is slowly getting developed.

The biggest change since my last visit to Boston was the completion of the “Big Dig.”  Boston used to have an ugly double deck freeway passing right through the middle of the city.  This has finally been replaced with a tunnel, a cost of about $14 billion.  It has made a major difference to downtown Boston - the only evidence of the former freeway is a new park running right through Boston.

I also caught up with my cousin’s brother in law Robert, his partner Liz and their daughter Maeve.  I stayed with Robert and Liz on my last visit to Boston 12 years ago, Maeve was born since then.

I had yet another problem over photography here.  I was told by a light rail driver that I wasn’t allowed to photograph on MBTA property unless I had a permit (I later checked the MBTA’s website - this requirement only exists for commercial photography).  I photographed other trains and buses in Boston without any problem, sometimes getting a friendly wave or even a friendly comment.  I got questioned by a transit cop in Hoboken New Jersey - he was very polite about it and told me that anyone taking photos did get questioned and he was satisfied with my story of being a transit fan.  I was told to stop taking photos in a shopping center in Salt Lake City.  This was in old train station that had been redeveloped for the Winter Olympics.  I was told I was on private property - I think the real reason was that I had photographed a fountain that had children playing in it.  My SLR camera is not exactly inconspicuous.

I headed out to Coney Island on a sunny Sunday, about an hour’s subway ride from Manhattan. I loved Coney Island’s tackiness, it’s like the Royal Easter Show meets Bondi Beach but without the surf. It’s looking very run down, with a couple of rather run down amusement parks, side shows and freak shows. I note there are plans to redevelop the area and I noted some protest posters saying that the plans would destroy Coney Island’s character. I did the standard Coney Island things, a walk on the Boardwalk, ate a hotdog and a roller coaster ride. This is the “Cyclone” a 1927 wooden roller coaster like Luna Park’s old big dipper. This is the only part of the “Astroland” amusement park and has been placed on the national heritage register.

After Coney Island I headed to Washington Square, Union Square and the surrounding areas. Both of the parks were full of people taking advantage of the great summer weather. This is the transition between “old” and “new” Manhattan. “Old” Manhattan predates the grid patter of streets and Avenues and has a few lovely old town houses with rather large price tags.

The following day I took a walk through Central Park. While nowhere near as busy as it would have been on the weekend, it still had a pretty good crowd It’s a huge park ad it’s possible to forget that you’re in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities. Here like everywhere else in New York I saw lots of people walking dogs of all sizes. It still amazes me to think of all these dogs living in apartments, many of which are not exactly large.

In the afternoon I headed down to Wall Street. This took me past the World Trade Center site, which still seems to be a very large hole in the ground. The New York Stock Exchange has been closed to visitors for several years and there was quite a bit of security around it. This is all in “old” Manhattan which does’t conform to the grid pattern of the upper part of the island.

That evening I headed up to the top of the Rockerfeller Center (“Top of the Rock”) for sunset. The view is almost as good as the Empire State Building but without the crowds.

Yesterday was my first rain of the trip and there was light rain most of the day. I headed to the International Center for Photography. This had and exhibition of fashion photographs from the man who started Harpers Bazaar magazine after WW2. While fashion photography is not at the top of my list it was very interesting to see the amazing effort that went into fashion shoots, particularly in the 1950’s. In particular there was some amazing shots taken in Paris. I then headed over to the Museum of Modern Art only to find it was closed on Tuesdays, so I headed up to FAO Schwartz to indulge my inner child, although I didn’t have a go on the giant piano. In the evening a trip down to Chinatown and little Italy.

It’s been a wonderful week in New York. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s changed so much in the 26 years since my last visit. It was great having an apartment rather than a hotel, so much more personal. While it took me a couple of days to get the hang of the neighbourhood, there was lots of stuff within a couple of blocks; shops, supermarkets, restaurants. I had one drama when the fridge died. I called the building manager who called the caretaker. He had the old fridge out and a replacement fridge in within half an hour.

Getting around New York is really easy - the subway is brilliant getting me where I wanted to go easily. I got very good value from my weekly metro card. I also used taxis for a couple of local journeys and to get to and from Penn Station. They always cruise and I never had to wait more than a couple of minutes before a taxi would cruise past.

I’m now at Penn Station waiting for the Acela Express train to Boston. This is a European style tilt train that has reduced travelling times in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, although time wise it’s still not up to the fast European trains.

I continued on from Charlotte to JFK on US Airways Express (Republic Airlines) on an Embraer 175.  When I arrived at JFK my luggage wasn't there.  It had been sent on an earlier flight and was waiting for me at the US Air office (it would have been nice if they'd told me in advance as i could have left the airport half an hour earlier.)

Getting to Manhatten was straight forward, there is a shuttle train from JFK to jamaica station where I had the choice of Subway or Long Island Railroad.  The latter was more expensive but much faster taking me to Penn Station, a short taxi ride from the apartment I've rented in Chelsea.

I was last in NY in 1983 and it's changed a lot in 26 years.  Last time I was here, NY was dirty and run down.  The subway was covered in grafiti and stank and if you took your camera out, you would be hassled by beggers.  It's a great city today, no problems with beggers and the subway is clean and efficient.  The downside is that being here in the middle of summer there are queues for just about everything.  The aparment is "cosy" but is much nicer than a hotel room.  There are shops and restaurants nearby and it's a reasonable walk to the Empire State Building.

I'm here for a week and I've armed myself with a weekly metrocard.  The subway and bus system is excellent - you can get about really easily.

On my first day I headed up the Empire State Building (long lines but a great view) and took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The next day I had a "transit nerd" day across the Hudon River in New Jersey.  This involved the PATH subway, two light rail systems (Hudson-Bergen and Newark) and a New Jersey Transit commuter train.  Jersey City, directly across the river has lots of new development but it pretty well deserted during the day - such a contrast to Manahtten.  In the afternoon a ride on the Staten Island Ferry - great views of New York Harbor for free.

Yesterday I wandered around Times Square (this was a "no go" area on my last visit) and the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn.  The latter is in an abandoned subway station and gives an excellent history of transit in NY (vital to a city the size and density of NY) and has a good collection of old subway cars.

Today I took the Circle Line cruise.  This is a 3 hour cruise which circumnavigates Manhatten Island and is excellent. In the afternoon I headed to the Guggenheim which is celebrating its 50th anniversary and had an axcellent Freank Lloyd Wright exhibition.

Another 3 days in NY then a train to Boston.