We woke nice (?) and early. Dan, in fact, woke up before his alarm went off. I was nearly packed, so that took no time at all. Dan was quite speedy in his packing so I think he’ll get some sort of medal at a later date.

We checked out, went outside, and our Uber car was already there. (Turns out ordering it a day ahead meant we paid about 5€ more, however.)

When we reached the station it was too early to even see our train listed. We bought coffees ad croissants, and sat for a bit. Travel days are a lot of sitting.

The train was a speedy one. I snapped some photos from my nice big window, as well as some videos.

We only stopped in one place before heading to CDG. At that station a woman came in to the train and I could tell she was confused about her seat. Or, perhaps (could it be?) I was confused earlier. One of us was in her seat and ours were in front of the pair we took. Oops. I’m going to blame the early rising. (Why not?!)

We left Brussels at 7:17 and arrived at CDG terminal 2 at 8:59.

Then it was navigating: first we dropped off our checked luggage which took a bit of a walk. Then it was a walk to border control. And then there was quite the line. You have to have your passport scanned by a machine, then you walk in a small space and have your face scan, and finally go up and have your passport stamped. That took much longer than we had expected. From there we hiked (okay, maybe walked. Maybe even strolled.) to security. That, too, is a distance.

After security we again had to navigate to the Star Alliance lounge. But after about 1 1/2 hours from getting to CDG we were in the lounge and able to sit back, relax, and charge our devices. Oh, and a glass of champagne because we are, after all, in France. For all of about three hours, perhaps.

While the inbound plane was nearly an hour late, we received a text saying our boarding was on time. Until it wasn’t. In truth we boarded about 25 minutes late, I think. But on the plane we went.

The flight was fine. No Polaris for us this time, but we had decided that we really didn’t need the lay flat seats during a daytime flight. I did, however, decide that ordering the gnocchi for lunch was a huge mistake. Really not great food on this flight! Later I had some biryani and it, too, was only mediocre at best.

And then we landed. Pretty much on time, which was nice. A bumpy landing, which wasn’t scary, but definitely a bit of a hop at one point. Exiting the plane the heat and humidity hit us hard. We’ve been so used to the cooler climate in Europe. But hey, here we are …

Hello New Jersey. For a short time anyway.

We collected our luggage and headed to the Air Train, and then to the New Jersey train station where we caught our train to our final destination on this vacation. The train — ack! — was so slow I could barely believe it, and the high school kids who were talking so loudly at the front of our car made the ride pretty rotten. Welcome to America …?!

But, finally, we ended up where we had our hotel.

Hello New York City!

We got up to our room (24th floor) but I neglected to take photos. No biggie. It’s not anything spectacular, aside from the view. But it’s clean and it’ll do just fine.

After freshening up we went out to meet our “kids”. I know they are no longer children, but they will, after all, be forever our kids! We met up at the Grand Central Station Oyster Bar and Restaurant, and had some very tasty food.

But here we are back in the USofA. It feels a bit strange. I feel more than a bit sleepy. And now I’m cutting this short: I’m too weary to write more at the moment.

Ciao for now!