New York - our final stop

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New York

We stayed in a lovely flat in Brooklyn (arranged via airb&b.com), a stones throw from the subway and local restaurants. With only 9 days and plenty to see off we set!

Day 1: Massive breakfast in Brooklyn (maple syrup bacon & steak - meat feast!) and then out to Time Square to meet Tory’s friend Mark for a drink. On the way to the pub we passed a theatre in which Daniel Radcliff was performing and looked with pity at the line of people waiting for his autograph...an hour later we joined the line! Tory found her way to the front and competed successfully for Radcliff’s signature, alongside a 10 year old girl and a middle aged man with a tea tray and silver pen (No ordinary tea tray at that - It had a photo of both Ron and Harry on).

Day 2: Natural History Museum.

Day 3: A very cold Staten Island ferry trip for a look at the Statue of Liberty, ground zero (not the memorial - you had to pay to get in, plus you could buy mugs and T-shirts), and the financial district via the unwashed masses of Occupy Wall Street. We ended the day with a walk along the High Line, a renovated railway line that runs above the city which has now been turned into a green walk way, and very nice it is too.

Day 4: Snow storm!! A wander through Grand Central Station and the NY Public Library (beautiful building) where we sought shelter from the storm. Ending the day with a visit to Madison Square Gardens to watch the New York Rangers vs Ontario ice hockey match – proceeded by Tory buying a massive cup cake which security would then not allow in so Tory had to down it, 600 calories in 30 seconds.

Day 5: Central Park. Unfortunately the storm meant many trees had fallen, so although the snow gave Central Park a Christmas feel we spent much of the day avoiding fallen branches. Many of the paths were closed and somehow we managed to spend two hours trying to find a toilet! We also did alot of Home Alone scene spotting - it all looked very similar! Then on to FAO Schwartz Toys with the Big piano, Bloomingdales and a drink in Hard Rock Cafe.

Day 6: We headed to the Rockefeller Centre for some amazing views over Manhattan. And then headed to Greenwich Village for a pizza and the Halloween Parade! Lots of fun and lots of people.

Day 7: MET and a Broadway tour – very interesting and as normal it was just us and our guide (is it us??) followed by Memphis the musical.

Day 8: We explored Brooklyn – the bridge, the chocolate shop (with excellent hot chocolate) and Prospect Park followed by a “Oh my God are we going to get shot” walk back home. Pizza and a bottle of Marston’s pedigree (stocked in local corner shop) for Will's farewell to travelling meal.

Day 9: London – our last flight and our first delay and then we were home.

So after 347 days and 15 countries we found ourselves back again on the tube – where did all the time go?!

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Comments

[pgj]

GREAT TRIP - many thx for the blog - my vicarious hits thru 2011
still dead envious - you were clearly having a LOAD OF FUN - when's the next trip ? i can't believe that you have got the travel bug out of your system - more likely its virulent ! oh .... & welcome back

[Liz]

Bedtime Adventure
Now what am I going to do for my bedtime reading? I look forward to 'Part 2: Two weddings and a scuba dive'