America – February/March 2018

Today, one headed back to Penn Station after grabbing some breakfast with a vision of catching subway line E directly down to the World Trade Center and the Freedom Tower. Now, one was unaware that the Long Island Railroad is separate from the conventional subway network thus mistakenly bought said tickets and then realised when the barrier declined the tickets!

It needs to be noted that most ticket barriers in New York do not have disabled gates unlike the London Underground, instead you either need to scan your ticket and then open the fire exit gate or ask someone to open it from the other side which would probably be a little bit tricky if you were on your own. Down on the platform, platform ‘humps’ have been installed since my last visit enabling level boarding.

Once on the train. one had a mild panic as the display said that the World Trade Center station was not accessible even though the website said that it was! As a result, we decided to disembark at the closest accessible station and walk the rest of the way which was about 30 minutes.

The observation deck in the Freedom Tower is pretty touristy for obvious reasons. You would expect from a conventional observation deck to simply enter a lift up to the top, observe the view and come back down, no, not the Freedom Tower. Before you are allowed to enter the observation deck, you are subject to a short talk about how use your iPad to find out more information. This is followed by a five minute video about how New York has changed over the years.

The observation deck itself is a conventional 360 degree circular walkway and is fully ADA compliant…

The Freedom Tower is connected to the World Trade Center Transportation Hub located at the base of the tower. The Transportation Hub connects many subway lines from all over Manhattan and the surrounding areas so as you can imagine it’s rather confusing to say the least! The signage does not help one bit as it tells you to go one way and then vanishes, however, there was the sign for subway line E so we followed that. After many elevator rides, we discovered that there was a flight of steps up rendering it useless, however, on the way out we passed another subway entrance with a symbol for line E and some helpful American explained to us that they had recently opened a passageway from one of the other subway lines to where we wanted to go. It then dawned on one that this subway station had not been fitted with platform ‘humps’ yet resulting in quite a step up to the train.

To celebrate our last night in America, we decided to head down to Times Square and Ellen’s Stardust diner, if you haven’t read ones American blog from 2014, this diner isn’t any old diner in the sense that all of the waiters are either training to be on Broadway of have actually been on Broadway. Each waiter takes in turn to sing perhaps a famous song or a song from a musical, one highly recommends it if you are ever in New York City!

After a swift exit from Philadelphia’s 34th Street railway station, we headed towards our first port of call, The Eastern State Penitentiary making a slight diversion to visit the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and the famous ‘Rocky Steps’…

The use of Google Maps always comes in handy whilst travelling, non-more so to get us to the Eastern State Penitentiary, it also gave us an insight into the Philadelphia way of life as one rolled through housing estates…

It’s hard not to miss the high walls of the Penitentiary as you get closer to the entrance. Usually, visitors have to enter through a side entrance, however, as it contains a flight of steps, one was fortunate enough to enter the Penitentiary through the iron gates getting a view of what the first thing that a prisoner would have seen…

The Penitentiary itself has been left as it was when the last prisoner left complete with paint falling off the walls and bits of rubble falling from the ceiling (of course, these areas are blocked off from the public!), bar some ramps to make most of the attraction wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant. One may ask why they haven’t tidied it up, the answer to that lies on a display board which explains that they wish to keep it as it is for an authentic feel…

Even though one spent around 2 hours rolling around the Eastern State Penitentiary, you could easily spend a whole day just walking around each corridor.

One of the other reasons why I wanted to visit Philadelphia was to experience a genuine ‘Philly Cheesesteak’. Now, when one found a traditional restaurant in the vicinity of the Penitentiary, it appeared to be a proper sit down takeaway. However, it turned to be more like a takeaway with an outdoor seating area but it did not detract from the overall food experience.

The plan was to catch the subway back into the centre, however, as we were running out of time, we thought it would be easier just to walk to the Downtown area and visit the observation deck at One Liberty Place or see Philly From The Top as it’s sometimes referred to.  As with many towers, it offered spectacular views across Philadelphia and the Comcast tower which is the tallest in the city!

No trip to America would be complete for me without visiting a Cheesecake Factory so this is exactly what we did before catching the train back in addition to purchasing some Philadelphia Eagles merchandise.

Tomorrow, we stay in New York City and the plan is to catch the subway from Penn Station down to the tallest building in the western hemisphere, the World Trade Center or The Freedom Tower as it’s commonly referred to before heading to Ellen’s Stardust diner because, let’s face it, no trip to New York will be complete without a visit!

Conveniently, one booked a hotel just over the road from Penn Station hence we were able to begin our American train experience after, effectively, rolling out of bed. New York Penn station has multiple levels, however, the signs are pretty simple directing you where to go, failing that there is good old information desks! If your catching the Acela, you are entitled to enter the designated seating area which is also where the ‘The Red Cap’ desk is located. The ‘Red Caps’ provide the usual assistance getting on and off trains as in any other country. You may remember that one caught a VIA Canadian train a few years back and a lift was used to get me and Superbunny on and off so it came as a surprise when they brought out a tiny little ramp. It became clear as the Acela Express rolled in that the train was almost flush with the platform (even lower than the new IET’s that have just been introduced in the UK) thus the ramp was merely to bridge the gap…

The trains in American and Canada are on a wider gauge compared to Europe. This means that the carriages have plenty of space in the corridor to manoeuvre a mobility device. However, it is worth noting that the wheelchair space is situated opposite another seat and table so effectively you’re backing onto the seat behind you. As on the Beijing subway, there are floor restraints available but Superbunny is able to hold its own.

As usual, one made friends with some of the train crew as we approached Philadelphia chatting about how I’m from England, the current weather situation etc.

Away from the norm of flying to America from Heathrow, one decided to fly from London Gatwick, the UK’s second largest airport on this occasion. I had previously heard negative things about Gatwick so was a little weary of the whole experience, however, one was pleasantly surprised.

The guy came down during check-in to take the usual dimensions etc of Superbunny (the electric wheelchair if you are wondering) then proceeded through security without a hitch. One thing to note about the airside part of the terminal is that not every toilet has a disabled cubicle but luckily the toilets are not that far apart from each other.

We flew with Norwegian Air which, over the past few years, has been dubbed ‘the worlds low cost long-haul airline’ hence wasn’t expecting anything fancy, especially as one decided to fly Economy class! Again, one was pleasantly amazed to discover a Dreamliner aircraft at the end of the airbridge. Now, if you don’t know what a Dreamliner is, it’s the latest invention by Boeing and is definitely a far cry from the 747’s of this world with features such as windows fitted with dimmer switches etc. As usual, JKF airport took their time to come and fetch us from the aircraft and then escorted oneself in one of their own wheelchairs through immigration to the baggage hall where there was no sign of Superbunny. I recalled from last time that there was a disabled toilet nearby but no, it has been turned into a janitors office (what is it with toilets today!).

At this point, one was dying for the toilet (as you can imagine after a 7 hour flight!) so it was fortunate that there was a wheelchair accessible yellow taxi waiting outside the terminal so it was a quick transfer to the hotel. It needs to be said that, unlike last time, the driver was quite sensible in his driving manner so no kittens were made!

It’s an early start tomorrow as we head over the road to Penn station to catch the high-speed Acela Express down to Philadelphia!