New York, baby!

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United States of America, New York – December



A Festive treat for me and Helen to experience Home Alone 2 in New York at Christmas 😊



Day 1, Tuesday 10^th December 2019



We fly out of Gatwick and leave home around 3am, not much sleep that night, way too excited for the adventure!



Empty roads and pretty quiet and quick to get through security, a good start so far and some Jamie's breakfast before the 7 hour flight.

Boarded on the plane and its an near empty flight, which is crazy since we had to pay extra to get this flight and it wasn't available via any brokers, only direct via Norwegian Airways.

Festive movies of choice for the flight: Home Alone 2, Elf and a few Simpsons Christmas episodes!

It's over in a flash, we arrive at New York JFK Airport and grab a donut and a c'woffee for the transfer to the hotel, a bit of a manic transfer with some heavy traffic on the way into Manhattan.

Transfer out the way, arrival at the Hotel Riu in time square is awesome, really nice hotel and Time Square is massively overwhelming, lights, people, huge buildings and lot's going on.



Unpacked and heading out into the Big Apple, why not start in a true New York way with a quick slice of pizza from a little food shop, seems like a good idea, on waiting for our pizza and milkshakes a fat hooded man walks in and is clearly scoping the place out, it's a bit scary and the staff try to get his attention but the weird guy just sucks his teeth at them and makes a move towards the tip jar, not before one of the workers moves it, the guy heads off to his next potential target... bit of a weird start and with no sleep for about 24 hours we are a bit skittish around Time Square and decide to get out of dodge town and head into the beautiful Central Park for some exploring. First stop, Wallman ice-rink which is just as you'd imagine and probably seen in loads of movies.



A bit of a wander around taking in the bottom part of Central Park West and the beautiful buildings. It’s getting late and we’ve had little sleep, we are officially shattered, time to hit the hay as there’s lots to cover tomorrow 😊



Day 2, Wednesday 11^th December 2019



First full day in New York and it’s SNOWING! Great views from our room! Excitement out the way, we are up super early and it’s time for our first epic breakfast at the hotel Riu, pancakes, bacon and syrup here I come! Fuelled up, we woddle out into the snow and head through Time square, which is busy even at 8am and head into Central Park South West exploring the Elf snowball fight boulders. We must have looked like total tourists, heads gazing up at the huge buildings and camera snapping away! Central Park is massive and it’s amazing that they have this huge green space in the heart of Manhattan. We stumble past the ice skating and come across the Home Alone 2 bird lady bridges, it's like been in a movie!



We take a slow wander around the beautiful scenery and make our way back to The Natural History Museum. It’s located on the upper west side and was built in 1869 across from Central Park in Theodore Roosevelt Park.



I won’t bore you with every part of The Natural History Museum as it’s a vast museum full of everything from the Old World, the New World, Dinosaurs and all way to Space!



Obviously, we headed to the top floor to the Dinosaurs! It’s amazing, best place to start and walks you through all the fossils and history that’s been pieced together. The next few floors down walk you through The New World, Native Americans, Portuguese and the arrival of the rest of the Europeans to the Americas. It’s quite a sad history when you consider what happened to the Native American tribes only a hundred years after the arrival of the Europeans. The next floors below explore the larger world outside of North America, weirdly it misses out Europe in it’s entirety, possible Old World hang-ups, which I can actually relate to given the current dramas going on in Europe, mainly the over population and saturated services, but, that’s not what this is all about.

The bottom floor is the Rose Centre for Earth and Space and it’s basically the space planetarium from Friends with Ross and Rachel, but, this time it’s presented by Liam Neison, random!

All educationed out, we hop on the subway to downtown to Brooklyn Bridge, China town and Little Italy.



The book of mormon



Day 3, Thursday 12^th December 2019



Statue of Liberty



Ground Zero



Chelsea



The highline











Day 4, Friday 13^th December 2019



Dumbo Brooklyn and back across Brooklyn Bridge



Wall street



Harlem, 110^th Street Central Park North, scary…



East side of Central Park, via the Guggenheim and back onto the running path around Jackie Onassis lake.



Boathouse, drinks, fireplace, blue point IPA/Malbec(s), dinner over the lake: Boathouse burger, sprout salad, surprisingly delicious!



Plaza hotel, crazy queues to get inside



Bloomingdales



Craft house bars in Lenox hill, cocktails and satans piss!







Day 5, Saturday 14^th December 2019



Hungover…



SantaCon 2019! (Bar crawl across New York for Saint Nicholas!)



Top of the Rock, fog as far as the eye could see, about 2 metres in front of your face!



St Patrick’s Cathedral



New York Library



Flight home

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