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Published: September 5th 2006
View from the hotel
Typical New York view Last day
The very last day. We got up @ 9 ish and as the hotel doesn't have a restaurant we went for a walk along Broadway to look for somewhere to eat. The Manhattan Diner (review at http://www.hiddenboston.com/NewYorkRestaurants.html) was packed and we had to queue outside. For about $4 you got Orange Juice, a cooked breakfast, toast and as much coffee as you could drink. Come on London why can't you do this?
After breakfast we packed out bags and left them in storage. As our flight was at 21:25 we booked a taxi for 17:30 which would allow us an hour to get to JFK (should take 40 minutes) and 3 hours to check-in (Virgin were opening the check-in desk 4 hours before the flight so that everyone could clear security).
The kids love the Amrican bookstores, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Borders they are great. Acting like crosses between libraries and cafes they smell of hot coffee, cakes and books. Delightful. There is a huge Barnes and Noble on Broadway so after leaving the hotel we wlaked up Broadway to the bookshop. Spent the best part of an hour browsing the books
NYPD Blue
With the Manhattan Diner across Broadway in the background (note to self - this was where you saw the book with CD on travel posters). Kids bought books I bought a great travel scrabble. I'm sure it will give me ours of amusement.
Came out of Barnes and Noble and headed for the only planned activity we had which was to look at the Empire States Building. We initially looked at taking a bus but with taxis so cheap we took a taxi. Friendly Bulgarian taxi driver was telling me how much the land he had bought in Bulgaria had gone up (Paul please note) in the last 2 years - and how he was planning to move back there in the next few years as the schools/hospitals were better (and Bush was an idiot). Finished of by telling jokes.
After arriving at the Empire States Building we noticed that there was very little in the way of queue. This could be because you couldn't actually see anything from the top ie zero visibility. As it's quite expensive we decided against going up it and decided to walk along 5th Avenue to Greenwich village to eat. We walked an walked... I'm glad I had my new trainers
(bought from Wal Mart for a £10.... I'm starting to live the American dream). We arrived in Greenwich village after searching multiple delis for Gloria Jeans Coffee Beans for Mort and Silke aho are looking after our hamsters, rabbit and guinea-pig. Nobody had heard of them, they don't sell them in the Uk, though there are about 3 franchise outlets in Ireland. Next time I'm in Dublin...
In Greenwich village we eat in a place called Waverleys which provided incredibly large portions and probably the best burgers we had had all holiday. In fact catherine and I had something called the Waverley Melt which was not a burger but toasted bread and onions surrounding a burger - trust me, it tasted better than it sounds.
Tropical storm Ernesto had caught up with us by the time we had finished eating so we caught the subway back up to the upper west side and went to the Natural History Museum/Planetarium. Great exhibition showing size and scale in the Planetarium and our joung Astro Physicicst Christopher explained it all to us. Also travelled through some of the other bits of the Natural History museuem, particularly the dinosaurs... We left about
20th Precinct
Thank You
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/pct020.html
Nice Stats hope they use SAS 4.55 to get back to the hotel for 5.30. Outside it was raining cats and dogs (Tropical Storm Ernesto again...) and we were all soaked by the timne we got back to the hotel. So we quickly changed into some dryer clothes and got in the taxi (driven by a very nice Indian) and headed to JFK.
JFK seemed a long way out of the city, perhaps the difference in taxi price is justified to a certain extent? Checking in at Virgin Atlantic was long but once the bags had gone (all bags were scanned) getting through security was a doddle. We particularly liked the sign in the airport where the grandfather said he wanted his grandson to spend his money, Christopher and Matthew liked it in particular.
The flight was a bit delayed waiting for a slot to take-off but once airborne was only 6 hours. We all got a few hours sleep, our last picture is of us waiting for the bus at Heathrow to take us all to Terminal 3. We arrived home at about 11:50 am.
All in all a great holiday and has opened up some places we would all like to
Taxi
See you can get 4 people in the back of a New York Taxi go back too.
Everyone is either back at work or at school tomorrow (06/09/06). Next holiday is Cornwall in October.
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