No talking in the quiet carriage! - New York to Washington DC

Our body clocks are all wrong and we wake in our New York hostel room at 3 am, which is 8 am for us, UK time ( there's 5 hours difference, not 6 as I previously said). I get up to write the blog, but there seems to be a problem with the trusty old notebook computer – plus the mouse is not working. Reg resigns himself to the fact that I will have to take the tablet from him and write the blog on that. This has serious implications if, by fiddling around with the notebook, he's unable to fix it; I will have to share the tablet! Reg is suddenly talking about buying me a tablet in the USA so that I can write the blog. We have a wireless keyboard which we brought with us.

It takes me 3 hours to write the blog, as it's the first time I've used the tablet, and the wireless keyboard seems to have run out of batteries.

We have our first American breakfast in a nearby cafe/restaurant. It's quite a small, friendly, welcoming place; it's 7.45 am and already there are a few people in there enjoying breakfast. We're early too as we have a train to catch at 10.00 am – to Washington DC.

We have eggs (I have mine sunnyside up, and Reg thinks his was called easyside over- anyway his were more well done than mine. They have English breakfast tea and green tea! There are no

teapots and we have to keep asking for more hot water as we like lots of tea in the morning! We have toast and grape jelly (just another word for jam I think), which was delicious.

We manage to carry our luggage down from our 4^th floor room to reception, but the lovely staff carry my big purple suitcase down to the pavement (I mean sidewalk). We tell them we'll be back for a few days in 2 months time, at the end of our tour of the USA.

We are catching the bus to Penn (short for Pennsylvania) station. However, before we can do this, we need to load up our Metro card (like an Oyster card in London) at the nearby subway station. Having done this, we eventually find the right bus stop, and when the bus arrives, the driver tells us we must get our tickets from the machine by the bus stop. He is kindly prepared to wait while we do this, but a woman on the bus is not happy:

“You're holding up the bus!” she shouts. Most of the other passengers, however, hearing our English accents, are sympathetic and smile at us. The lady who complained, however, has a 4 - wheeled walking aid, and tells Reg he needs to move his suitcase, so that she can get off the bus.

“I'll put it in the luggage area,” says Reg, hoisting his big bag (all this on a moving bus) onto the waist high luggage shelf.

“You'll have to take that down! It's obstructing my view!” says the driver.

Reg obligingly takes the case down, saying loudly, “ Whatever I do is wrong!” He manages to haul his bag out of the luggage area again. There is quite a lot of juggling around of cases while the disabled lady leaves the bus.

One man asks us where in the UK we're from. When we tell him Bristol, he says,

“Wasn't one of the Beatles born in Bristol?”

Ever diplomatic, I say perhaps he knows something we don't, as we thought they were all born in Liverpool. (I did get Reg to check this out on the internet – yes, they were – just in case you were wondering!!)

A lady who's getting off the bus at our stop insists on showing us where Penn Station is – we're grateful as our train is due in less than half an hour, and we have no idea which platform it's leaving from.

We needn't have worried – our train is delayed by an hour and 20 minutes due to a “technical fault.” Reg's ticket says we have reserved seats, but when we get on, the guard cheerfully tells us,

“There's no reserved seats on this train, sir.”

After securing our luggage, we manage to find 2 seats near to each other and settle down for the 3½ journey to Washington DC. Later I'm able to move next to Reg. We're in the quiet carriage and mobile phones are not allowed. Reg and I are chatting when a young woman with headphones on, in the seat opposite, says we're making too much noise. How embarrassing! We are told off like naughty schoolchildren. But how did she hear us with headphones on? When she gets up to leave the train, at Washington DC, a man queuing to get off is obstructing the aisle by her seat. She asks him to move out of the way. Maybe an ambitious young woman, used to getting what she wants!

We take a bus to our hostel in Washington. The driver asks if we are over 60 ( so we really do look our age!!) and gives us half price on the bus – 50 cents each. You pay the driver in Washington.

Our hostel is part of the chain of International Youth Hostels, and is brilliant. We have our own room, but shared bathroom facilities.

We eat out at a nearby Italian restaurant, recommended by the hostel. It's small and crowded and very welcoming – and the food is good. We get talking to 2 young American lads at the next table (which is only inches from ours). They ask for the addresses of both our blogs, and one of them gives us his blog address; he has travelled extensively through Europe, especially Eastern Europe.

We slept in our room when we arrived but are ready for bed again now. It's only 10.00 pm.