There have been some webby problems today with the hotel interweb which locked Janes card out of the room which screwed up the web connection.
The first order of the day was to add the week transit passes to the cards we got yesterday, as you can only top up these cards at subway stations we decided while we were down there to get the subway to train to 5th Street and independence park. The transport maps are a bit crap with the subway because even though it shows accessible stations it's so crammed together, you can't work out what station is what on the map.
First, I thought we had come down onto the wrong station when we tagged through on the barrier as we appeared to be on the westbound platform instead of the eastbound.
What the guy didn't tell us when he gave us directions to the platform was there two elevators down to two different platforms. You actually go through to the wrong platform and then find the other lifts to the correct one I hate underground stations they are so confusing. Anyhow, it was a lot quicker doing it this way as it's only about a 5 minute ride on the subway or about 15 on the bus.
I really don't know what her problem was the other day about these cards, I do my research & when you think about people who work on these stations they rarely seem to know about how to advise the public in buying tickets because they don't pay to travel, couple that with a confusing website. They also have four morons stood around to stop people jumping the gates and riding for free.
Our main aim for today was the US Mint where you get to see coins being stamped out, it's free to go in but you do have to have to go the security and metal detectors, also you are not allowed to take photos inside so that's why there aren't any photos of the place in the album. It's really interesting to how much goes into making a coin and watching all the machinery go round from a gallery 3 floors up. We even found a Bison wearing a hoodie in the gift shop as well as a coin set.
Next, we spent a couple of hours walking around Independence park as all of today was in one area.
We then visited some of the small hidden gardens in the area which is a great way to get away from all the annoying tourists, what we did discover is there are no roses in the rose garden & no magnolias in the Mongolian garden, so it was a quick dash to the bus stop to get the #57 bus 4 stops to the pub otherwise it was a 20 minute wait. This is the first time I've had mobile internet while on vacation and it has saved us so much time, instead of waiting for a bus you can sometimes walk quicker or take an alternate route, in the past, we have always managed with hopping on free wifi to get to places. There's nothing like bringing it up on your phone that the next bus is going to a be a 30-minute wait, that's another drink in the pub.
Anyhow, the first drink in the pub with a Coke was $6 then there was a free refill for the Coke without getting up, second drink for me at 7% was $3 because it was a happy hour & it would be rude not to have one more, hopefully this would make the 2 buses back to the hotel slightly more bearable.
