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. 

Sushi Class

Tonight I took a sushi class with a friend at the Gourmet Pantry, a lovely little food shop which sell amazing kitchen supplies and food (things you can't get in the supermarkets like chorizo and lots of gluten free stuff). They do classes most Thursdays on various subjects and tonight was making sushi so I convinced David to go with me. (It did take much convincing.)
The class was really fun. There were 12 of us in total and lots of food.
The teacher Roya had cut up most of the veg before hand but went through the best ways to prepare a few. She also explained the best way to buy fish and other supplies. Then we got down to the making! I didn't take many photos (blame in on the sticky rice hands!) but I personally think my rolls were a great success!

Tuna, Asparagus, carrot and mango...

... with black sesame seeds and coconut on the outside

These were my best. (Well, actually the rest got eaten before I could take any photos. Plus the ones I stole off David!)
And it was hilarious. After a point, everything people said sounded dirty.  For example, "That has great girth", "it's squirting out",  "that's the largest I've seen", and "I like your mounting the tuna". So funny!
We shared a lovely bottle of sake and I have enough sushi brought home for lunch tomorrow. (We also got a discount in shop so I brought a sushi pad, rice spoon and some chopsticks as mine didn't seen to make the move!) A really good night and lots of sushi!

Wombourne Christmas weekend

This weekend I went back to the West Midlands to spend the weekend with friends. Every Christmas, 4 of us from Uni meet up and have a fun weekend. This year it was in Matt and El's new house in Wombourne. They had been in 1 night before we descended! Oops.
I meet up with Clare on Friday and we went around the German markets, and picked up some desert for that evening.

Gourmet Donuts desert (and breakfast).

 On Saturday we ended up in Bridgenorth and wondered around the markets, getting some final presents, and had a very nice full breakfast. When we got back, there were a load of boxes and stuff that needs to be sorted, including putting up the christmas tree. And I think we did a pretty good job.

Our (Matt and El's) fabulous Christmas tree

Mini Christmas trees!!!

Saturday night was our annual Christmas Chinese feast. As it was from a new place (given the new location), Matt and El had thoughtfully tried it out previously to ensure it was up to par! :-) The food was good and Sinead and Chris came along. After we watched Toy Story 3, while eating more and drinking wine. And I will admit I cried a little as they kept telling me I would. (Or maybe because they kept telling me I would!
Sunday was a lie-in and then a roast. Clare and I were willing test subjects for the Christmas dinner run (as they want to do it in their house this year). I think it worked out well. I certianly tasted good and plates were finished.

Huge (practice) Christmas dinner

Waiting for me to finish taking photos so they can eat...

Then Clare washed up. And the annual soap suds fight between Clare and Matt started. I was drying up but legged it. I have been caught in the middle of that before and learned from experience to get out of the way. Clare was very proud of her initial stealth sneak attack. :-)

I think it was a draw in the end. :-)
We ended the weekend by going to see the Nativity II: Danger in the Manger. I am not sure I liked it as much as the first one (this one was more far fetched). But it was a good laugh. And we learned if you take Dorritos and Salsa into the cinema, at least get the bowls sorted out before the lights go out. Otherwise it gets a little messy!
I had a fabulous weekend and miss you guys already! Thanks for the amazing present! You're the best!