Saturday - Monday: Los Angeles and NYC Part 1

Saturday: It was a massive first day and a half! It was a pretty tough intro to the Tour, as we battled insomnia and jet lag to make the most of our first day in the USA.

The group split into Disneyland (19) and Hollywood (9) Tour groups, with Mrs McDonald and Mrs Drayton accompanying the girls on the bus ride out to Anaheim for a day at Disney while I took the rest on a guided hop-on-hop-off bus tour into the heart of Hollywood.

Before this could happen we all had to get out of LAX, which provided a great example of the "hurry up and wait" principle of group travel, as we waited ages for the hotel airport shuttles to appear in sufficient numbers to take all 28 of us to the hotel.

But we finally got going and both groups had successful days out, with the Disneyland people enjoying the attractions...

...and the Hollywood group being taken through major areas of LA like Beverley Hills, the Sunset Strip and the ever-popular Walk of Fame.

We had a couple of great encounters with locals in our time on the bus, from the high-spirited Indian wedding party boarding the bus and dancing up on the top level, to the wonderful couple Ramalus (sp?) and Pam, who told us all about life in Mississippi.

Sunday:
The latter encounter with the Mississippians actually took place on Sunday, where the reunited group of 28 all took the Hop-on-Hop-off bus into Santa Monica for the day. Well, really the afternoon, as much of the morning as taken up with recovery from the first 36 hours or so. But the girls made it pay, particularly the keen shoppers who enjoyed the high class shops up and down the pedestrian mall, well the rest of us contented ourselves with a wander up and down the Pier and a meal at the famous Bubba Gump's.

Then it was off to LAX again Sunday night to fly out for JFK. A comfortable American Airlines Airbus (with fantastic legroom - hooray!) gave us a chance to get some sleep, but with the time difference pushing the clock forward it wasn't long until it was Monday morning and we were in New York.

As I write it is Monday evening and we are looking back on our first of two days in New York. Tiredness and sore feet are predominant among the group after another big day of activity. After our bus driver took us on an impromptu tour of central NYC on our way from the airport ("only an hour and a quarter - good going"), we split the group again for our Central Park tours, with one group focusing on the Museum of Natural History on one side of the Park and the other going to the opposite side for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim.

Polly and Georgia admiring a column. Mr T will be pleased. 

 Interior of the Guggenheim. Decided it was too pricy to look at the art and time was short, so we stuck with appreciation of the architecture. 

On the steps of The magnificent MET

These were great experiences, but with a lot of walking involved, we decided to cut our Harlem Walking Tour in the afternoon short to allow for a bit of recovery time before dinner at the HI Hostel. We still made it to the famous Apollo Theatre and were wonderfully guided by Harlem resident and PhD student Tonia from 'Big Onion' Tours.