New York City - Last morning

On our last day, Caroline had to leave early so we went for a breakfast at a diner nearby before finishing packing. I left my stuff in the room and went with Caroline who tried to hail a cab on our street. After a few taxis past, one stopped. It was already occupied but she rolled down the window and told us to go to the corner of 3rd Avenue (next road down). Apparently the trick is to wave from the corner (and partially standing in the road helps but we weren't that brave/crazy). Eventually we flagged one down and Caroline went off to Penn Station to get her train to Baltimore airport.
I went back to Grand Central. While we were stuck on the bus yesterday evening, the tour guide was filling in time (while trying to figure out where we were going because it was not the way we should be due to something happening on 49th, either an accident or the road was blocked because someone famous arrived at the Waldorf Astoria.) She told us loads of things about Grand Central, like how they smuggled Jackie Kennedy out in the middle of the night on a train (I have no idea why that was so impressive but she and others seemed to think so.) There are lots of secret tunnels and train lines there going to the Waldorf, which is the President's hotel while in New York. It started with Roosevelt staying there and other Presidents after have kept up the tradition. The tunnels were built so Roosevelt could kept the secret he was in a wheelchair and arrive secretly. Of course, I couldn't go in the tunnels, but still pretty cool. Also they are supposed to have great shops there!
And the station itself is really is beautiful. Penn Station used to be the same but they tore it down, but thankfully saved Grand Central Terminal.

Astronomy on the ceiling.

View from the balcony.

I had a wonder around but couldn't find all these amazing shops people talk about.
And then I found heaven! Grand Central Market. Remember I have been in Blacksburg for the past few months which isn't exactly the height of civilization (though I do love it already there) but the selection of gourmet foods etc is limited. The market was fairly small but amazing. They had meat, fish, cheese, veg, and more.

Veg stall

The most beautiful cakes I have ever seen!

Spice and tea heaven!!!!

Even chocolate!

Though my favorite was the spices and teas where I brought lots of different spices and tea. (The selection was amazing!) I came away a little poorer but very happy!
After that I wondered a little, hit one more souvenir shop for a few little bits and headed back to the hotel as my shuttle to the airport is at 12pm. I then have 2 and a half hours in Terminal F in Philly. If you ever go there, take food and reading material. There is nothing!!!!!
Overall, I love New York!!!! I don't really like cities that much but I think I could live in New York. There is so much to do and am looking forward to next visit and doing all the things I missed this time! :-)

New York - Day 4

On Thursday morning, we went to Grand Central Terminal. Very pretty and by far the nicest station I have seen in a while. There is a large astronomy scene on the ceiling.

Grand central

The famous clock in the centre of the concourse.

We headed to Hell's Kitchen again, to the Cosmic diner for breakfast. (We both have a new found love of Turkey bacon!)  Then got on the tour bus down to Greenwich Village and SoHo. I recommend the tour buses. Some of the tour guides are a bit weird (Caroline got a love declaration on this bus) and you look like a complete tourist but we learnt a lot of great stuff we wouldn't have otherwise.
We got off at Greenwich and are such wimps; within 5 mins we were in a cafe. The wind was bitter and we were so cold. But at the cafe, they did tell us the better places to go for shopping, so we headed to SoHo. This area is really cool and friendly. Most of the normal shops but there is one called The Evolution Store, which has things like skulls, shells, fossils, and links art to science. We spent ages (and lots of money) there. Caroline brought an amazing necklace. I got a spider's web which is captured in glass. It's from a spider species called the beautiful one, and was found in New Jersey.

Spider's web in glass.

I also got a stone made from Volcanic rock from Mexico which changes color when looked at in different lights.
Then we walked down to Tribeca (an area of the city near the World Trade centre). We didn't really want to go to the 911 Memorial but we had a look at the new World Trade Tower which should be finished by the beginning of next year. There will be one main tower and 6 smaller ones. Mainly we wanted to see the Miracle church. It was named this as it has survived a lot. Fires. Storms. And the Twin towers falling. Buildings further away had all their windows blown out. And the church was untouched. The trees in the grave yard saved it from the debris.
It was also where the fire men slept while digging through the ruins and inside is the story of what happened at the church during that time. It was very sad and there is a flag with all the names on of people who died.

New World Trade Centre

Miracle church 

Bell given to NYC from London outside church.

In Battery Park, which is on the southern tip of the island, there is a gold ball which was in front of the towers when the collapsed. Around it is a community garden, which feeds the homeless, and a WW2 tribute.

What is left of the ball from in front of the twin towers.

Monument of WW2

Names of fallen soldiers of WW2.

View from Battery Park of Statue of Liberty.

After that, we headed back to the Fire Zone. Before the presentation, we had a look around. The walls were covered with badges from fire departments from all over the world. There was also a poster on the wall with the names and photos of all the fire fighters who died in 9/11. I did not realize there were so many! Humbling. Anyway, the presentation was more meant for little kids but it was still fun. We also promised a photo with a firefighter. Unfortunately the fireman was a nice guy but not the cute hunk we were hoping for. ;-) So we skipped.

Mascots in the fire truck

badges.

More badges.

We ate in Hell's Kitchen again. It's an area west of Times square. The food is just as good and half the price as that in Times Square. So Caroline got her New York pizza, and we enjoyed a very nice bottle of New Zealand Riesling. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack, via Times Square. The New Years ball is a lot smaller than we expected, only 6 foot in diameter. And Times Square is not even a square! It's a triangle. But there area is full of life and lots of lights and billboards.

Times Square. 

New Years ball.

After packing, it was out to the wine bar for more Pouilly Fume for our last night. Very tasting!

New York - Day 3

Wednesday, the weather was a lot nicer but much colder. We planned to get up and out early but the wine (and heater in the room which went crazy in the middle of the night) made that impossible. We eventually got out at about 9, and caught the bus across to Times Square. But we hit rush hour and it took ages. So we missed the boat we were going to catch and decided to go to a diner for breakfast. We went to the Starlight diner, which doesn't seem like the best part of town, but is where most of the cops from the nearby precinct go for breakfast. The food was good (bacon, eggs and home fries - and Caroline now likes bacon!).

Caroline the vegetarian!

After that we headed for the west river to catch the water taxi. We had a New York Pass, which gives us free entry to most/all of the tourist things we did. The taxi goes from Pier 84 on the West river,  down to Battery park on the bottom tip of the island. Up to south sea port (on the west side of the brooklyn bridge - used to be a hot spot with good bars and reasonably priced food, but is currently still being rebuilt after the storm). Then alongside the Brooklyn bridge to DUMBO, and finally over near the Statue before heading back to the Pier. (You can't go over the statue as again they are still sorting it out after the storm.)
Going down the west river, the tour guide pointed out where the Titanic was supposed to dock, which is now a Golf driving range.

View of Manhattan from the water taxi

Pier where the Titanic should have docked.

Air and space museum on a destroyer.

By the Brooklyn Bridge

We go off at DUMBO in Brooklyn, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It is supposed to be a cool area, with lots of little shops and pastry shops. We must have missed the better parts. Still we found a few shops and saw some Brooklyn and got some good views of Manhattan.

Caroline and the view from Brooklyn across to Manhattan

Manhattan from Brooklyn

Back on the taxi, we went over the the Statue of Liberty. Both of us were expecting it to be a bit bigger but we were some distance away. It was built by 2 French guys and is made of thin sheets of copper (less than the thickness of 2 pennies) over a steel frame.

Statue of liberty

Us on the water taxi

Lady Liberty

View from the taxi on the way back

After the water taxi, we headed over to Times Square and caught the tour bus along Central Park up to the American Museum of Natural History. It's the sort of place you could easy spend a whole day. But we only had a few hours so prioritized - the planetarium and the dinosaurs! Unfortunately we got there too later for the planetarium show but had a wonder around the exhibit before heading up to the 4th floor for dinosaurs!

Giant clam - plack says "don't sit in the clam!"

Giant model of mosquito - gross!

Rose Planetarium

T-Rex used in Night at the Museum

Sad dinosaur! :-(

After we headed through Central Park to get back to Rockerfellor. Our feet were killing us! The park is a lot bigger than I expected. But very pretty. The didn't build on the park, mainly because of the huge lumps of rock which cover the area. They are the same as the bedrock which anchors the skyscrapers, but in this area apparently it was too much problem to dig them up. We only see the lower lake but it is huge. I can understand why people like jogging around it.

Central park

From the bridge looking over the lake and city

Silhouette over Manhattan 

We headed for Fire Zone, but it was finished for the day (we did it the next day).
After this we were pretty pathetic, our feet were killing us, and just sat in Rockerfellor at Starbucks for a while. Anything as long as we were not standing. We still had to walk back to the hotel, where we crashed for an hour before going to nearby restaurant for Chinese and then an early night.

New York - Day 2

On our first full day in New York, we headed out early. Unfortunatly, it threw it down. Heavily. (We finally found a street vendor selling umbrellas half way through the day and gave in. The umbrellas are rubbish but for $5, they kept us drier for the rest of the day.)
Breakfast was on Lexington Avenue at a very posh hotel restaurant (our only posh breakfast after we saw the final bill) but it was very nice. Caroline's pancakes were massive!

Caroline's Pancakes for posh breakfast.

First we went to the Empire State Building. At this point the weather wasn't too bad. They did warn us there was "limited visibility" at the top. They meant "You will see nothing!".

View from the top of the Empire state - when cloud "cleared"

New York is out there. Honest. Somewhere.

You can just about see the river.

Wind swept!

The Empire Statue building is 104 stories of office space and was built in 1 year and 137 days! It was finished in May 1931, a month ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, the depression was in 1929, and most of the business which were going to have offices there had gone bankrupt as they built it. It was made Famous in 1933. By the film, King Kong. After that, it was so popular they converted the top few floors to observation decks, and plenty wanted offices there.

We didn't see it on the best day, but it was still fun.
Then we headed to one of New York's Museums. Not one of the art ones, granted but the Museum of sex has some interesting exhibits! :-) The world is a kinkier place than I thought!

Dolphins doing it differently. 

Gay lions

After that, we went shopping at Macy's (didn't buy anything but was fun to look around - it's huge!), Victoria Secret (very cool), and some souvenir shops where I got my Statue of Liberty Rubber duck. :-)
We also went to Gap as I needed new jeans (I managed to split mine yesterday!)
At the end we took the tour bus on the Downtown tour and just found out a few more things about Manhattan. Like it is much larger than it used to be as most of the south tip ad east side is landfill. Which is one of the reasons that area was so badly badly effected by Hurricane Sandy - a lot just washed away. Most of the rest of the island is built on a type of granite. The granite disappears deeper down mid island, so the skyscrapers are built in the north and south (as cheaper to anchor to bedrock than dig huge foundations) and the middle part has lower buildings.

When we got back we crashed for an hour and went out for tapas and wine. Then cocktails. Then to the wine bar next to our hotel for some lovely glasses of Pouilly Fume and then a glasses of Alsace Riesling. Very nice (and I was educating Caroline in wines which is my excuse and I'm sticky to it). We were rather tipsy (which made the climbing up the ladder to my bed very tricky - getting down when I forgot something was even harder!) 

New York City - Day 1

This week, myself and Caroline, a friend from Preston, spent the week in New York. I arrived on the Monday afternoon (after a delay in Charlotte - apparently the plane was missing a part so I was happy to wait!) We stayed in a hotel called Pod 51, which cool (shared bathrooms but fairly cheap). We had bunk beds, which I haven't slept in for years. (And found climbing drunk tricky!) But the hotel was very cool and close to Times Square. Have a look at Pod 51 - I recommend it if you stay in NYC.

Hotel room at Pod 51.

Straight away we went out exploring. Just to find a cafe and sit down and plan. The headed out. And we got lost. But we did find the M & M shop!

M&M Lady Liberty

In front of only one of tubes of chocolate!

Elvis M&M.

The plan was to go to Top of the Rock, which is at the GE building, 30 Rockerfellor Plaza (where 30 Rock is set) for a view of the city at night. We found it eventually. You would think it would be easy as it's a massive building (at least we did). But there are a LOT of big buildings. Anyway, got there eventually. The lift has a glass ceiling and lights going up the shaft so you can see where you are going (and falling from on the way down). Cool (and unnerving). There are 70 floors. At the top there is a great view over the city, but there was a far bit of cloud. Still got some nice photos and had a look around. 

View from top of the rock

In the cloud 

Still pretty despite the cloud!

The Rockerfellor center was built by John. D Rockerfellor and mainly as a way to provide work during one of the depressions. It is all office space except for the concourse below which is shops and cafes. There is a gap between 2 of the buildings called the Channel, which leads down to the ice skating rink (which is a cafe area in the summer). It's called the Channel as the building on one side is English, and on the other is French. At the bottom is the ice rink, and a statue of Poseidon's Brother. 

in front of the ice rink

Caroline in front of the ice rink

Statue of Poseidon's brother 

Out front is the statue of Atlas.

Atlas in front the 10 Rockerfellor Plaza

We also went in St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is beautiful. There is loads of scaffolding up as they are renovating it but still very impressive. (The cardinal is away in Rome choosing the new Pope.)

huge - photo didn't come out well.

front of the church

We ended up near our hotel at a Thai restaurant with a bottle of Chardonnay.