Day 35 - Manhattan, NEW YORK # 5

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I finally called Avis to ask about any compensation about the vibration issue with the car and they explained I should have just exchanged it during the rental but thought I’d ask anyway and they agreed to give me a 1 day rental coupon to use in the next 12 months but when the email arrived shortly afterwards it was only for $30- and can only be used in USA. They also confirmed that in relation to the toll I’d only be charged the toll free of around $2.00 plus small change.



Today is our last day in NYC so we have planned a lazy day as we’ve ticked off the main things we wanted to do so today is all about enjoying the food !



I was keen for one last diner experience so we walked around to John’s coffee shop where we had lunch on Saturday but found an older diner called The Comfort Diner on our way and it’s an old time diner and they had a booth seat available so very nice. Service was excellent as it was not too crowded. The toilets however were an adventure being in the basement and scary walk down the stairs.



We’d later walk to the subway at Grand Central and we caught the 6 Green line towards Brooklyn and 5 stops later we planned to get out at Astor Place for the 5 minute walk to our afternoon food adventure highlight but I got distracted and was not paying attention and some of the subway stops are so close together I did not realise we had missed the station. In fact we were three stations past it already ! No problem, we just changed platforms and off we go back uptown to Astor Place.



In fact using the subway has been pretty easy once you get used to a couple of tricks. I have used google maps every time to enter my destination and it usually gives me a few options on a route depending on how far I want to walk to the subway and from the subway to the final destination. Every time you enter the Subway you swipe the Metrocard (we have the 7 day unlimited pass otherwise it’s $2.75 per trip). No need to tap off when you leave the train so that is cool. As there are so many subway lines with different letters or numbers with colours you just need to look for the right one and follow the signs and finally just make sure you are on the right platform as you don’t want to be heading uptown when you were planning on going downtown so on this trip it was 6 Green to Brooklyn / Downtown.



Once we exited the subway we took the 5 minute walk to Veniero’s Pasticceria & Caffe where we had been on Sunday and since it has been 3 days since then we have been hanging out for another Cannoli. We both ordered a Vanilla Cannoli and it was just as good as the one Kerry had the other day and for me it was so much better than what I had a Cafe Reggio. When we left I bought a couple of the mini cannoli’s with chocolate coating of chocolate filling to see what they were like to have later.



We then headed back to our hotel and started packing in readiness for our departure tomorrow. We decided to have dinner nearby and settled on gong to Toscano 49 which was right next door to our hotel so vey convenient. I decided to call and make a reservation and just as well as when we arrived at 6.15 there was only one table left (ours !). I recalled going here once when we were here last time but it appears to be a different and more upmarket now with huge wine display. When we were here last time I remember we sat at a table with a photo of Juan Martin del Potro on the wall and we waiter told us that he came here for dinner every night when we won the US Open in 2009 so they had a signed picture of him but it’s not there anymore.



The food was excellent in quality and I was amazed at how the Fettucine stayed warm from beginning to end and was a huge serve. Seeing a broadway show would have been been nice but there was nothing on that really excited us both and since the ticket prices were ridiculously high we elected to miss doing this. We are both pleased to have spent five days here exploring greater NYC and did not go to Times Square (big tourist trap) once. Oh and by the way stick to Vanilla Canolli.



We’ve used the hotel’s driving service to pick us up in the morning to take us back to JFK Airport in Queen’s for our flight back to the West Coast.

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