Ok,so first things first, those of you who think the third day is too soon to be updating our travel blog (I would normally agree!), we are currently on a 10hr, (yes TEN hour!) bus journey from New York to Toronto, and there isn't a lot else to do. So it seemed a good time to update everyone on how it's going so far!!

So day 1 and off we go- or rather nearly don't!!!- For those of you who don't already know, we woke up on Monday, the day we were due to fly, to Britain's worst snow fall for about 20 years!- and London was worst hit!! Watching the news seeing that Heathrow had cancelled a lot of flights was not a good sign! However, we got on the phone, and found out our flight was not cancelled, so figured we better start heading to the airport in case. With my dad on the phone giving us regular updates, it wasn't that long until our fears were realized, our flight (due to go at 1.35pm) had been cancelled. We rang up British Airways, and were told we needed to go online and see if we can rebook a later flight, and to contact our travel agent (STA). So we stopped in the next services, and went to find some internet access- and of course there wasn't any!! So it was back in the car, and off to the next services! At which point Lisa decided to get on the phone to STA, who were useless! So we tried BA again, and somehow Lisa managed to get through, we found out all flights until 5pm had been cancelled! It was really not looking good!! We somehow managed to get offered 2 seats on a flight at 6pm, but that was no good, as there were 3 of us (Lisa's brother Rob is joining us for the first 2 weeks!)! It really was not a good start to our trip!! Thankfully, there were 3 seats on the next flight, at 6.55pm, which we snapped up! We were told we needed to get to the airport, so we can get our new tickets sorted. So it was back in the car and on the road again- all the roads were clear, by the way, despite all the warnings on the news- so we probably didn't need to set off at 8am….

So we get to Heathrow- and as you can imagine its chaos!! We managed to finally talk to a BA rep, who confirmed that all flights up until 5pm are cancelled, but they don't know about the later flights, but it isn't looking good…. He said they won't know anymore til about 3-4pm. So we went off and found a pub to get some lunch… We got back to the airport, and still were none the wiser to what was happening. A lot of flights were still getting cancelled- then they cancelled ALL domestic and European flights- really not looking good now! But amazingly, ours was still going despite practically every other flight being cancelled!! (see pics!) We thought it must be our lucky day! So through to departures we go…. To an announcement saying our flight will be delayed an hour til 7.55….. an hour later, another announcement, flight delayed until 8.30…. This time we finally board, and things are looking good! So on the plane we get…. to an announcement saying due to the bad weather, 3 of the staff have not made it in, and we cannot legally fly until there is a full complement of staff.. Unbelievable!! To cut a long story short, after lots of similar announcements, and apparent trade union negotiations, we finally took off at… 12.30am!!!! After 4 hours sat on a plane at Heathrow, going nowhere!!! What a flipping day!!!

We landed In New York at 3am in the morning, and of course have missed our pre-booked transport, so got a cab. Finally checked into our hotel at 4.30am!!! That was by far and away the longest day of my life!! I really did not think our trip was going to get going!!

After about 5 hours or so sleep, we were woken to the sounds of New Yorkers going about their daily routine, so we look out the window, and of course, its snowing!!! But we spent a great day wandering around Manhattan in the snow. Saw a few of the main sights, Empire State Building, Rockefeller center, 5th Avenue, Broadway, Times square, and looked round quite a few shops. Bought hot dogs and pretzels from the New York street vendors, which were lovely, so a good day!! Spent the evening in an Irish bar just down from our hotel, had a few cold buds, (on draught, too) and a typical American meal- burger and chips.

Our hotel was really nice- I could get used to this- nice room, big TV, free tea, coffee and juices, and a good breakfast (French toast, sausage, muffins, cereal, fruit and bagels- we sneaked a few bagels out to take on the bus with us!)

Really enjoyed NY, and looking forward to coming back, but now its on to the next part of the trip,- on to Canada for 6 days!! Ciao for now…

OK........ So, you may have already guessed, our great luck so far continued; I wrote the above on the bus to Toronto, but before I could get it finished and uploaded, our bus broke down!!!!!! We then ended up on a much worse bus, that had no wifi, but did have some rather "interesting" people on it.... we then had to change buses again to an even worse bus, but thankfully will nice people on it!!

After all of that, we finally made it to Toronto, although we did arrive at 9pm at night, not knowing where we were, where the hotel was, and did not have any Canadian money!! oops!! We planned on doing all our research on the 10hr bus ride, as we were meant to have wifi!! that plan failed big time!!

It all ended on a high for me though, as we finished the night eating spicy wings and drinking cold beer! My favourite way to end a day!!

We then spent today seeing Toronto, which is a really cool, but very, very cold place!

We went up the CN tower, which is the tallest building in the world, and was really interesting to see, and obviously had some great views. We then went to the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, which was good too. We got to have a go at shooting some pucks, and to put on the goaltender stuff, gloves, sticks etc, and try and save some shots! all good fun!

Back in our hotel room now relaxing and deciding where to eat. will keep in touch....