After getting over a bit of a hiccup, we're actually on our way travelling Qantas QF15 Brisbane to Los Angeles. The plane took off about 10:30am.

Upon arrival in LAX, we had to collect our bags and pass through Customs before reboarding the same Qantas 747 which then flew domestically to New York as flight QF107. A cheery customs officer took delight in informing us that George Washington’s birthday is a ‘holiday’…we were on ‘VACATION!’

After arriving at JFK we caught our shuttle to Hotel Beacon. The driver was a nice Chinese guy named Kao. He talked all about New York and gave us some tips. (Not the folding variety ...that was our job!). It was a long slow trip to the hotel - traffic didn't help. Finally got to the hotel about 7:45 pm after landing at 4:30pm. Feeling quite exhausted from the long flight we headed straight to the Viand Cafe downstairs and enjoyed our first meal in New ...

Good to be home after a long trip. We landed in Bangkok for a brief stop and supposedly we had to check in again for the next leg. However it was miles to the check-in counter and miles back to reboard the same plane. I still don't know if we misunderstood or if the system is just plain stupid! We also landed in Sydney and had to catch a domestic back to Brisbane which made the trip longer than necessary (QF512). Must remember to fly direct in future.

It actually rained a fair bit today...our first fully rainy day! To get out of the rain we caught a black taxi to the Royal Mews after checking out of Citadines at 12. We left our luggage in the luggage room to collect later. We saw Royal horses and carriages at the Mews. Then we took a taxi back to The Strand for the Pizza Hut...our English meal. Then we had another look at the National Gallery before it was time to collect our bags and meet our 4pm shuttle ...