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Published: November 9th 2010
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As a bit of a home bird, two months without seeing my family has been a challenge. Words cannot describe how excited I felt when my mum, dad and sister pulled up in their yellow cab outside our apartment in New York. After a welcoming and celebratory G&T, we planned our activities for the following week and produced a very long list (half of which were shops which my sister informed us were "must sees!")
Having been on a bit of a US City crawl for the past two months, Ben and I have at times felt a little citied out! However, I must admit that The Big Apple is a truly unique city with treasures for everyone. It is loud and fast and pulsing with energy. From the middle of Times Square to the most obscure corner of Central Park, we embraced it all. The weather was unseasonably hot too... in the 70's. I am sure my family thanked me for telling them to bring lots of warm jumpers and coats....oops!
For Ben and I, Central Park... this enormous gem of a park which sits right in the middle of Manhattan, was our favourite part of NYC. As
you can imagine, 843 acres of forested groves, meandering paths and informal ponds is a runner's delight. We completed several runs around the park, one of which involved us watching the sun set over the sparkling Jackie Kennedy Reservoir with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. As big Beatles fans, we also had to visit Strawberry Fields (an area of Central Park dedicated to John Lennon) and the Dakota Building where John Lennon lived at and was murdered in front of.... very moving.
Rebecca loved the shops and took pictures of hundreds of random objects apparently for "her textiles project", including an obese American person and a tramp! On the arty theme, she dragged us all to the Museum of Modern Art (otherwise known as MOMA) which was actually fantastic. I was surprised by how many big hitters featured in there... Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Pollock, Andy Warhol. The great thing was that we turned up at about 5pm on a Friday night... apparently the only time of the week that entrance is free... lovely jubbly!
Mum loved the musicals and the buzz of Times Square. Despite being extremely busy and touristy, we all loved it. We loved the
lights, the shops, the buzz, the energy and particularly the Broadway shows. As we could not decide on a show which we all wanted to see, Ben, Mum and I went to see Phantom of the Opera (very romantic... hee hee!) and Dad and Rebecca went to see West Side Story. Each of us came out raving about 'our' show which led to us doing a swap the next day and seeing the other show! We have now decided that we are musical addicts!
Dad particularly liked the Empire State Building and the New York cheesecake... both of which featured on his birthday conveniently timed whilst we were all together. The Empire State Building is one of New York's most famous members of the skyline. We decided to do a night trip ride to the 86th floor which was very romantic for Ben and I.... and my mum, dad and sister! I have to admit that the view up there was amazing (see photos!) and was well worth the long queues to get up there.
We got a good view of the Statue of Liberty via a free ferry ride to Ellis Island (probably one of the only
touristy things to do in NY which is free!). This is an island, close in proximity to Miss Liberty, where millions of refugees and immigrants were "processed" as they landed in America from the late 1800's until the late 1950's. The Statute was not as big as I had expected but impressive nonetheless. We also visited Ground Zero which we all found rather eerie. Though the city appears to be looking into the future, redevelopment plans have been incredibly delayed, fraught with drama and politicking of the highest degree. After scrapping plans for an arts and cultural centre, the site is set to be just another office block... I think it is a case of money talks!
Other features of our trip were the Brooklyn Bridge (a very graceful structure), Chinatown (the largest Chinese community that lives outside of Asia), Little Italy (where we enjoyed a lovely meal), Soho, Greenwich Village..... the list goes on.
We are now shattered having spent a week in New York and are looking forward to finishing off our American stretch of our honeymoon with some more tranquil cities and sites! It is also very strange not having the Phoenix rabble with us....
only another 5 months to go :-( However much we miss you all back at home, we keep reminding ourselves to embrace every moment of our trip of a lifetime. Lots of love xxx
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Momma
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Wonderful New York
Thanks Ben and Alexa for a wonderful week in NYC. We had a fantastic time and we have some great memories (I will never forget the Chinese guy in the deli that kept calling me Momma - very funny). The photos are so good, can't wait to see them all. xxxxxxxx