Thursday 13 October: Belgium to New York

Thursday morning we had a quick breakfast with Philippe, and he drove us to the station, where we said our goodbyes. We had been in Belgium less than 24 hours, but really loved the place. We also loved meeting Phil and staying at his apartment.

From Ghent the regional train goes right to Brussells airport, where we took a BMI airbus to Heathrow. From Heathrow to New York was on a United Airlines 777. Paul's recent experience with American Airlines had been very negative, so we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of service and friendliness of the United staff. An interesting innovation was the ability to hear the pilots' conversations with air traffic control on approach to JFK. Visibility was virtually zero because of the heavy clouds, and we were sent around for a second approach because of the heavy traffic. It was enlightening to hear the amount of chatter and the constant instructions to adjust speed, heading and altidude.

New York has experienced a lot of rain in the past few days, and it was still cold and cloudy and trying to rain when we arrived. We got a taxi from the airport to our hotel and checked in. We're staying at the Beacon - a "budget" class hotel on Broadway in the upper west side. However after some of the budget European hotels we've had, this one is very well equipped. The room is large and includes a small kitchenette with stove, fridge and microwave.

Immediately over the road from the hotel is Fairways market, an incredible shop selling all manner of fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products. It's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We went over an got some supplies for the next few days.

New York is six hours behind Belgium, so we're feeling pretty tired even though it's only 8:30 pm as we write this. Time for an early night.