Advertisement
Published: December 15th 2009
Edit Blog Post
NYC 300
Ice Skating at Central Park Well we arrived in NYC late evening on the Saturday - all bright lights, skyscrapers and a bit of snow. It was freezing cold and felt really Xmassy. We checked into our hotel, which wasn’t great since it is so expensive but it was nice enough and clean so we were happy. We headed out straight away and jumped on the subway to Lincoln Plaza to see the 3D Christmas Carol with Jim Carey, we stopped off at a little pizza place up a side street for a quick slice of pizza - yum! Afterwards we headed to Times Square, it was excellent. I can’t believe how late the shops are open and how busy it was, 1am is like 6pm on a late night Xmas shopping night at home, multiplied by 1000.
The next day we were up early and headed to the Rockefeller Centre and got Sunset/Sunrise tickets for Top of the Rock. You can see everything from the top and we had heard that the views from here were better than the Empire State Building. It was so cold and Russ got hit on the head by an icicle that fell - hee hee. After that we
NYC 181
Times Square headed to 5th Ave at Central Park to board the SATC tour (yes I managed to persuade Russ to come as well - he was only one of 4 guys amongst 40 women!). We were taken to a lot of the places that filming took place and stopped at bars for a Cosmo and the Magnolia bakery for cup cakes. After we had to get to the shops to get Russ a jacket since he was freezing! We also headed to the National History Museum, Central Park and the Guggenheim. Also went back to Top of the Rock to get the view at night. We were knackered though and I nearly fell asleep at the museum so decided not to stay out til 2am again!
Monday we had booked a tour of Liberty/Ellis Island so headed to Battery Park for 9am. Security was a nightmare, pretty much the same, if not worse than the airport. Got some great photos of Lady Liberty and headed to the monument to read up on the history. We couldn’t get Crown tickets as they were booked full until Feb so a tip to anyone going is to get them booked asap. Security to
get into the monument was the same again and we were queued for ages - put a bit of a dampner on it to be honest. By the time we got to Ellis Island and looked about, 5 hours had passed! When we hit dry land again, we walked to Wall Street and Ground Zero and then to the Brooklyn Bridge - we were well walked that’s for sure! Later we went to a nice restaranut called the Crooked Knife - great food and took in some late night shopping at Bloomingdales. The christmas window displays here, at Macy's and Saks were totally amazing.
Tuesday we headed early to the Empire State building, views were good and got extra tickets to go to the 102nd floor but we agreed that the views from Top of the Rock were better. Macy’s had a huge sale on so we headed there next and I got myself another nice jacket. There was a Christmas Market at Central Park so we bought hot apple cider and ginger bread men and ate them in the park. We had also planned on going ice skating in Central Park but we got there 15 mins before
they shut for the day to restore the ice so didn’t get the chance. The plan was to go back the next day before we left….
Also, walked to Madison Square Gardens and had a nosey about inside and then back to Times Square to see it in day light. We also went to pick up our tickets for Billy Elliott, which we went to see that night - it was excellent although we were both knackered and Russ rested his eyelids quite a few times throughout!
Wednesday morning was raining pretty heavily so no ice skating for us - didn’t want to end up soaking wet when we had to sit on a plane for 7 hours! Never mind, it’s an excuse to go back. We had booked tickets for the Radio City Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes at 11am. It was brilliant, lots of singing and dancing. We then took a walk to the Chrysller Building and the Christmas Markets off 5th Ave before heading back to the hotel to get out shuttle to the airport.
Loved New York, definitely will have to head back again. Flights were ok, slight delay in leaving but made
up the time pretty well and time passed quite quickly. Of the 17 flights in total that we have been on over the 3 months, the only ones that were delayed were B.A. - typical! We were pretty excited to be heading home to see everyone and there was a nice welcoming party waiting for us at the airport - my mum and sister, Russells mum and dad and my aunt and uncle.
Well the adventure is over, can't wait for the next one....................... :-) xxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.068s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0339s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb