Part 2
MAN (T3)-CRL Flight FR3222
Ryanair B737-800
So the day was finally here. Well, kind of anyway, we would only be flying to Brussels today which didn’t excite me at all, but it felt like the proper start of a trip anyway. My darling wife drove us the 1hr45m to Manchester Airport, and after a hug and a kiss, it was just me and M for the next 17 days. I quite like Manchester airport, I’ve flown from there loads of times, and never really had any issues at any of the terminals. I know that T2 is the nicer, modern one, but T1&3 are fine as well, and have a generally nicer feel than Liverpool for example, which is very much a LCC airport.
We checked our bags in good time, and had a quick bite to eat at the Italian restaurant in departures. As far as the flight goes, there’s not much to say really. In my experience, a Ryanair flight is a Ryanair flight – no more, no less. All the ones I’ve taken have been pretty much the same- good value (£27 each including checked baggage and all fees), generally efficient, okay-ish comfort, not an exactly relaxing environment thanks to constant announcements trying to sell food, scratch cards, duty free, the kitchen sink etc. They’re also generally on time in my experience, and they let you know that with the tedious little fanfare when you touch-down! “Another on-time arrival by Ryanair blah, blah blah…” To be honest though, it’s difficult not to be on time when their official timetable states that it takes half a day to fly from Manchester to Dublin!! Regardless, if the flight is no more than 2-3 hours I’m happy to fly Ryanair, and have had some fantastic bargains in the past (£12 return, all-in fare to Rome in January 2010, £6 single from Turin to Barcelona + many other examples).
CRL is about an hour on the airport coach from Brussels, and being a ‘Ryanair’ airport, it was the usual scrum to get on the first available shuttle bus. The ‘secret’ hotel I booked on Hotwire (Gresham Belson) was located rather unhelpfully between the city centre and BRU airport. We found the connecting bus eventually, which stopped right outside the hotel. A little tired, and hungry, we had a short stroll along the main road outside the hotel, and tried the local equivalent of what we would call a ‘chippy’ (Fish and Chip shop), before returning to the hotel room, which was a perfectly acceptable 3-4* mainly business orientated establishment. An early night would have been sensible, but the Champions League final was on that evening, which went into extra time, and then into penalties, so the TV was still on much later than planned!!
BRU-PHL (US Airways flight 751- Boeing 767)
We woke up nice and early despite the previous night’s somewhat late football match, each had a quick shower, and were both eager to start the trip proper. The hotel ran a very useful, efficient, and most importantly, free (!!) airport shuttle, and we had reserved 2 seats on the 8am shuttle the night before. The only other passenger was a Canadian gentleman with whom we discussed the previous night’s football match on the short 10 minute trip to the airport terminal. We were soon in the queue for check-in, and received quite an inquisition from the lady who scanned our passports in the line for check-in. What’s the purpose of your trip? Where are you staying? What are your return travel plans? (We had booked two one-ways) Why aren’t you flying directly from the UK? It was all very courteous though, and we had no secrets, so all was ok!! We made our way through security and had a small breakfast before heading to the gate well over an hour prior to departure. This is where things almost took a turn for the worst, and our meticulously planned holiday could have come to an abrupt halt!!
We had taken seats just around the corner from the actual boarding area, so even though we were within about 20 yards of the gate, we couldn’t see the gate agents, the queue of passengers etc. Our tickets indicated that we were in boarding zone 6. They started calling zones in the usual fashion, high status passengers, military personnel, etc first, then zone 1, zone 1-2 etc, until they got to Zone 1-4. A few minutes passed with no further announcements. I thought nothing of this, just assumed that Zone 4 might be the bulk of the passengers, meaning that it took a while to board everyone in this group. A couple of minutes pass and I start wondering when they’ll call Zone 5, Zone 6 etc, so I said to M, “I’ll just go to the toilet quickly, then we’ll ask when zone 6 will be boarding”. The toilets were 50 yards or so further into the departures lounge, and when I emerged from them a couple of minutes later, I see M frantically waving his arms at me by the gate, inviting me to make haste shall we say!! Apparently we were the last passengers remaining and our names had just been given a last-call over the tannoy at the gate! Oops! Not the best start, and could have been very embarrassing! “Yes, my dear wife/family/friends, we flew all the way to Brussels just to catch a flight to Philadelphia that we’ve been planning in extreme detail for weeks…..and we somehow missed the flight!!” Let’s be honest, no-one wants to have that conversation…ever!!
Looking back now though, it seems quite amusing, and realistically, we were probably never in danger of missing the flight, as you usually hear names being called 3 or 4 times before they eventually close the gate. We were hurried on to the plane, and I never got to ask why zone 6 wasn’t called by the gate – it would be interesting to know if anyone else has had a similar experience??
I had pre-booked our seats on the US website a couple of weeks earlier, and was very happy to bag two seats in a ‘two’ of the 2-3-2 seat formation. I was even happier to have been allowed to select row 8 for no charge, which according to the US website is usually a ‘preferred’ row, which can cost $50 to pre-book. I can see why this section was preferred, it was like a small cabin towards the front (rows 4-11), and compared with row 12 backwards, it was much quieter, felt more private, and was much darker for those who wished to sleep.
I had not read good things about the 767 on FT “7 hours of hell” etc so I was a little worried about comfort, boredom etc on my first long haul flight. There was no need to worry; the flight and plane were both perfectly fine. The seat was comfortable and the legroom adequate enough - though it would have been nice to have an adjustable headrest.
Service onboard was excellent, and just as importantly, done with a smile and courtesy (It really does go a long way!) Drinks service was more than frequent enough, with full cans (350ml) of soft drinks provided as opposed to just a little plastic glass. Free alcohol would have been nice though! The meal was perfectly edible – A pasta in tomato sauce topped with mozzarella cheese. I think M took the Beef Stew, which was basically a Cottage Pie.
The only think lacking on the flight was the IFE – no VOD and 3 distinctly average (and that’s being generous) in flight movies. I believe they were The Vow, Percy Jackson Lightning Thief and Taxi (The Queen Latifah version ) Fortunately, I had purchased a small Android tablet PC for the trip, and it was fully loaded with movies and tv shows. As we were going to Philly, I watched Rocky Balboa! I believe the official flight time was 8hours 40minutes, but actual time was 7hours 30minutes. We therefore descended on a warm and sunny Philadelphia a little earlier than anticipated. Fortunately, this also meant that our Brussels flight was the first European flight of the day to land – so no queues at immigration!! Being in row 8, we were off the plane quickly, and were fingerprinted and eye-scanned by a nice lady within minutes! Had we arrived an hour later, we would have been queuing with passengers from all over Europe, so the Brussels departure had worked out well.
Our baggage were among the first on the carousel, so we headed for the SEPTA train towards City Center (two things surprised me about the SEPTA airport train – its relative infrequent schedule for such a large airport and city, and that it was ‘pay on board’ only – which seemed rather old-fashioned!). The biggest surprise came though when I glanced at the Septa map. Now, I was aware that Philly had strong Welsh connections, that Pennsylvania had been one of the main settling areas of Welsh-Americans, and that several signatories of the Declaration of Independence were Welsh, but I did not expect to see so many Welsh names on Septa stations. Cynwyd, Bala, Meirion, Bryn Mawr, Gwynedd etc are all names very familiar to me, though I did wonder how the locals pronounced those names!!
The SEPTA was very efficient however, and got us to our exit (Suburban) in good time. From there, it was a three block walk, passing the impressive Comcast Center to the Sheraton City Center hotel – which was very reasonably (about £145 total) procured for our 3 night stay via Hotwire.
Comcast Center
Unfortunately, we were a little too early to check in, so we left out bags at the desk, and went for a quick walk to familiarize ourselves with the City. We would be leaving Philly in 3 days time via Megabus, so we walked up to 30th Street Station to find the bus stop. A very helpful police officer pointed us in the right direction. 30th Street Station is a beautiful building, with its large open concourse and high ceilings. It’s seeing places like this, a functional building but with such stunning architecture, which makes travelling to new countries and cities so worthwhile. What truly surprised me though was how little train and passenger traffic passed through the station. I don’t think there were ever any more than 5 or 6 trains per hour entering/exiting the station. I was truly surprised to see how little passengers travel through the USA’s huge, famous train terminals (30th Street, NY Penn, Grand Central and Union Station). My research taught me that the busiest terminal in the country (NY Penn) has around 10 million Amtrak passenger entry/exits a year. London’s Waterloo has around 90 million National Rail passengers – and that’s just one of several huge termini in London. Even Cardiff – Wales’ capital city (a city of about 300,000 people) has 11 million National Rail entries and exits per annum – I guess it says much about the geography of the US as well as travelling habits.
Back to Philly though – a wonderful city, and the Sheraton was a decent base from which to explore it. Not exactly in the centre of the nightlife action, but easy walking distance to City Hall, Reading Terminal Market, Macy’s etc. We did all the touristy things, and were blessed with excellent weather throughout our stay (this was true of all the cities we visited). We visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Rocky statue/steps and Eastern State Penitentiary. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Baseball game (Phillies v Washington), event though the Phillies sadly lost! The view from the top of City Hall was fantastic, was well worth the $5 admission, and I was really shocked that this wasn’t a busier attraction – there just three of us on our tour. Maybe they should do more marketing, as it offers great views of the city, and as the Comcast Center et al don’t have an observation deck, it’s the best vantage point in the city.
One afternoon, and completely by accident, we stumbled across the memorial to Irish and Scottish immigrants (it’s down near the Old City, not far from Penn’s Landing). As nice as it was, I was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a memorial to Welsh settlers along with our Celtic cousins’. While the Welsh never migrated to the Americas on the same scale as the Irish, they did have a lot of influence in this particular part of the US, especially around the time the USA was ‘born’, so I think that I was as surprised as I was disappointed. It could be that the Welsh identity wasn’t something that mattered so much back then; it was a time when many Welsh people turned their backs on the Welsh language for example, and spoke English instead to help them get along in the world. I suspect that is especially true of migrants to America, and they may have presented themselves as ‘British’ as opposed to ‘Welsh’. I’ve always felt however that you should never judge someone’s historical cultural actions or identity by your own modern standards – identity and heritage are living, changeable things, and at times through Welsh history, it’s been very fragile (Remember that Wales was essentially the first colony of what became the biggest and most powerful empire in the world – that we have any indigenous culture left at all is a miracle!!). I guess I can take comfort in my own disappointment on this occasion, which maybe says much about the current strength or consciousness of our national identity.
Enough history! Now then, I promised some culinary treats at the start of the report, and Philly certainly didn’t disappoint in this respect. I had seen the Franklin Fountain Ice Cream Parlour on Man Vs Food, and the Ice Cream bowls there were well worth $10 each. I had ‘Vesuvius’, while M had a truly artistic mint creation.
I really wanted to sample American fast food on the trip, and was aware that America had several large chains of fast food joints – unlike the UK which has McDonalds and Burger King and nothing much else. I had heard of two in particular, namely Five Guys, who operated along the East Coast, and In-N-Out, who were on the Wet coast. Conveniently, there was a Five Guys about 5 minutes from the Sheraton. IT WAS AWESOME – honestly, if any of the “5 guys” are reading this, come over to Wales, the UK, Europe…everywhere! Seriously, if they came to this country, I honestly think they could run McDonalds out of business!! Gorgeous double burgers freshly cooked to order, with whichever toppings you want, freshly cut chips (fries), and monkey nuts to eat while you wait – none of the ingredients are ever frozen etc– absolutely fantastic – thinking about it makes we want jump on the first plane back to Philly!
The only other place I want to mention is Reading Terminal Market – a very busy indoor food market in the city centre. There’s something for all tastes, at any time of the day. Breakfast one day was a crepe with apple-cinnamon filling, topped with whipped cream….well I was on holiday!!
We visited many bars during the evenings, and a warm welcome was received at each one to be fair. What surprised me in such a large city was that all the patrons seemed to know each other – they were essentially ‘locals’ bars – think ‘Cheers’ for lack of a better reference point! Everyone was friendly, and we drank many free beers during our stay in the city. One thing I had been nervous about was the US’ tipping culture – which as most people know is very different to what we have in the UK – I’m not a tight-arse, I was worried about not tipping enough – but we soon got the hang of the etiquette at bars restaurants etc – just do as the locals do! The most memorable ‘bar’ moment came at a Karaoke bar down in the old city. It was about 12:30am , someone went up to sing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey, and I swear on my life – people ran in off the street to sing and dance along – just like in Family Guy (and if you haven’t seen the scene in question on Family Guy – well, what have you been doing with your life?? ;-) ).