Day 39 - Top of the Rock and Central Park

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We woke up relatively early today at around 9:30am. As we had bought some cereal and milk yesterday, we enjoyed breakfast in bed before getting washed and ready to go out. We didn't really have much planned for today, but we knew that we wanted to at least pick up our CityPasses from one of the attractions that it allowed admission into, and probably visit that attraction whilst we were there.

By the time we had got ready, and had checked out on the map/internet in the lobby for how to get to some of the places on the CityPass, it was around 11:45am. However, first, we decided to head to some shops, as Craig needed a new watch after somehow misplacing his last one at the hostel back in Boston (he thinks that he must have left it in the bathroom after having a shower).

We left the hostel and walked down towards the subway station. As we got to the main road, we watched as literally HUNDREDS of people on skateboards and bikes rode by, stopping pedestrians and traffic in their paths as they cruised down the middle of the street with various banners and signs in support of the 'Occupy Wall Street' protests down in the Financial District. Once they had finally all passed, we continued our journey to the Cathedral Parkway subway station, where we caught the number 1 train down to Times Square. We then transferred onto the N line which would take us over to the area of Soho; a fairly busy shopping area in downtown. Once there, we had a look in a few shops, but noticed that the prices of the watches were rather expensive in most of them. We had almost given up, until we spotted a Quiksilver watch in a DC/Quiksilver/Roxy shop, that was a more affordable price of $65. Craig tried it on, liked it and decided to buy it. Once the tax had been added on it was around $75, which is a fair price (about £47 back in the UK), so paid on the Caxton card and left with his shiny new watch.

By this point, it was around 1:30pm and we were getting a little hungry. We had seen quite a few little street vendors selling items from their stalls, such as hot dogs, burgers, prezels, nuts and gyros (basically a Greek version of kebab meat in pitta). We both decided to try a gyro, with Emma having lamb whilst Craig had chicken, both opting to not have hot sauce on it, as the man suggested! They were very tasty (a little messy!) and we had soon devoured them!

After a check on the map, we decided that, as it was another beautiful day (it got up to 26 degrees today), we should go up the Rockefeller building (included with the CityPass) to see the great views of New York city from the top. We saw that we needed to catch a Q or R train up to where the Rockefeller centre was, so found the nearest subway station where we could catch one of these.

After a short train ride, we emerged from the station into the Rockefeller Plaza, quickly finding the entrance to the 'Top of the Rock' observation area among the various shops within the plaza. We checked with a member of staff on which queue we needed to join, which was thankfully the much shorter queue on the right for people with vouchers! We reached the desk, where the girl behind it exchanged our paper voucher for two CityPasses and also two tickets to tide the elevator to the top. We then joined another short queue for the elevators, and eventually stepped inside one with around 20 other people.

As the elevator ascended to the 65th floor, the lights went off inside it and lights inside the elevator shaft above us turned on, so we could see through the glass ceiling of the elevator how far up and how fast we were travelling to the top of the building, which was pretty cool. We reached the 65th floor, where we stepped out to see the great views of New York city below us.

The observation area was similar to that at the top of the Stratosphere in Vegas, allowing you to walk all the way around to get 360 degree panoramic views of the city. There were some great views of the whole of Central Park (which looked so strange being such a huge, green area in the middle of such a vast city!), and also of the many skyscrapers around, including the massive Empire State Building. In the distance, we could also see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, and we used the great zoom on Emma's camera to get a picture of it.

We stayed at the top for around an hour or so, taking many pictures of the views - and of ourselves in front of the views - before going back down the elevator at around 3pm. Once down there, we went in search of a supermarket so that we could buy a drink (we thought that $3 for a small bottle of water at the Rockefeller was just ridiculous!). We eventually settled on a Duane Reade pharmacy where we bought a bottle of pop each. Opposite the shop stood the famous 'Radio City Music Hall', so we took a picture of that before deciding to head to Central Park to relax and enjoy the sunshine.

We again found the nearest subway station, and caught the R train a couple of stops to the south end of Central Park. We walked in through the gates, past the many people trying to sell horse-drawn carriage rides through the park, and saw a large rock, where we sat for a little while. However, as we were still on the edge of the park, the high-rise buildings surrounding the park had left us in shade, so we decided to move furhter into the centre of the park to find an area where we could sit in the sun.

We strolled along the paths under the trees until we reached a large clearing called 'Sheep Meadow', where hundreds of people were sitting, playing ball games, throwing frisbees and generally enjoying a relaxing Saturday afternoon at the park. We walked through until we found a spot - making sure that we were not too close to any balls/frisbees that might fly our way - where we sat down on the grass.

We lay there for a while, just enjoying the weather and the atmosphere, and almost falling asleep in the process! We were probably there for around 2 hours or so, until the sun started to disappear behind the buildings as it began to set. We took a few pictures of the silhouetted buildings before deciding to head back to our hostel. We checked the map for the nearest station to catch a number 1 train, which was a short walk over to the south-west corner of the park. Once there, we caught the subway back to the hostel, quickly stopping in at the supermarket so that Craig could pick up another microwave dinner - Emma still had the one that we had bought yesterday in the fridge in the room.

We got back to the room, where we cooked and ate our tea. We then spent most of the night playing on the netbook or reading books, before falling asleep at around 11:30pm. Again, we can't upload any photos just yet, apparently the wifi in the lounge area in the basement is down due to some wiring problems after they installed some new security cameras, but as soon as we can get fast enough internet (without having to hover in a corridor!), we will try to add them on here!

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