New York, New York!

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New York, 28th-30th September

Arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal in Central New York after going through suburb of Harlem. Hotel was great, only a couple of blocks from Times Square and right on Broadway. Eager to see the sights we left the hotel stopped for lunch Subway who we found were doing foot long subways for $5-bargain!

First stop the giant M&M store in Times Square, 3 floors of everything M&M. We then walked to Grand Central Station. It’s a very impressive building; we got a Frostys drink and people watched for a little while. After that we walked to the Chrysler Building which we both thought was very impressive, especially the marble effects inside. We were a little unsure whether to scale the Empire State Building that eve due to the threat of rain so we decided to make it our mission to find out what the weather was going to be like - we needed a newspaper. So we checked out New York City library for a free one. The back page confirmed that it was going to rain tonight but be sunny the next day so that finalized our plans. We walked back down Madison Avenue just as it started to absolutely hammer it down. After a brief shower we walked back to the hotel, through Times Square (now at night so even more bright and impressive).

We woke early the next morning (6.30am) without the help of the hotel wake up call which didn’t go off! We had a jog around Central Park, joining the other joggers, cyclists, dog walkers etc. After we’d had enough exertion we walked the rest of the park, right the way round the Jacqueline Kennedy Onnassis reservoir over to the Dakota Building (John Lennon’s apartment) and through Strawberry Fields. We got breakfast from a street vendor and experienced the true New York abrupt manners “what do you want?” (Charming!)

Just like the newspaper had said the sun was shining so we headed over to the Empire State, straight to the top which allowed us to get some idea of the size and layout of the city, and some great views. We then walked the rest of Broadway to Madison Park where we found a dog run, especially designed for dogs to meet and play with each other! And then onto Ground Zero to see the site where the new tower will be. We walked (already you can see we were doing a lot of walking) through the financial district and Battery Park to catch the Staten Island Ferry where we got some good photos of the Statue Liberty and New York skyline.

Our legs were starting to feel the strain but our enthusiasm wasn’t (well almost) so we strolled over the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was very impressive and again gave good views of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Finally we caught a quick tube back to the hotel to give our legs a well deserved rest.

A quick rest it was for we were off out again, this time to the top of the Marriott hotel complete with revolving restaurant (thanks mum for the recommendation!) The views were lovely and the hotel looks lovely so I’ve decided that’s where I’m going to stay on my next trip to NY! After tea we went to internet café to look into possibilities of car deliveries and found one ready to be picked in Stockholm, New Jersey to be delivered to North Carolina.

The following morning we called the car delivery company and sorted out picking up the car so by lunch we were on a bus to Stockholm ready for the next stage of the journey. Bye bye New York!

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Photos

The Marriott revolving restaurant
The Chrysler building in the background.