So here we are in the airport lounge, undertaking the final leg of our three and a half week journey; and as the saying goes; all good things must come to an end.
One thing I can say for certain is that I don’t think I’ve walked so much in a VERY long time! Once I’m home I’ll log into Google maps and plot out all the walking we’ve done around NYC, just to see how far it really was. It’s crazy, you feel like you’ve done so little, but it’s not until you stop and reflect on what you did that day, that you really get a true sense of what you’ve accomplished.
This is partly due to that fact that you get caught up in the “pulse” of the City. New York City has a heartbeat, and you really don’t understand that until you’re immersed in it. By which time it’s too late and you’ve already been swept up by it. You spend so much time “doing” and “moving” that before you realise it, it’s 10 o’clock at night, you’ve forgotten to have lunch and you’re just now looking for somewhere to eat dinner!
It so easy to do miles of walking a day in New York City, because the places you plan to go are within a few, to several blocks from each other. So you begin walking 5-10 blocks to your first point, then another 10-20 blocks to the next one, then 2-4 long blocks over to the next and so on. Soon you have walked so much that your feet are aching and your shoes are filling up with blood. Ok slight exaggeration, but you get the point!
Another thing I’ve learnt from this trip is that going to a theme park like Disneyland, on the first or second day of your holiday, is THE BEST way to get into “holiday mode” allowing you to forget about home or work! Of course we almost lost our voices in those first two days, but it was SO worth it!
Anyway on with the story! We arrived at New York City JFK airport at around 10.30pm due to the plane being delayed in San Francisco. This meant we arrived at the hotel around 11pm, so it was dinner in the hotel restaurant/bar called Niles. Dinner was alright but I was feeling very horrid by this point. Something had not agreed with me from that morning (or perhaps I was just getting a touch of flu?), so it was an early(ish) night to bed.
Our first real day in New York and I was still feeling pretty horrid with aches and pains all over and a not so happy tummy, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the day in the hotel!! So it’s off to Chelsea for breakfast (waffle & fresh fruit for me), before hitting the subway (after spending 25 mins working out how to buy a stupid metro card!!!) for Central Park. We walked through a small section of the Park, before heading to the Museum of Natural History, where we spent the rest of the day walking our way through 4 levels of this huge building, including the planetarium, which was very ace! By this point David was also feeling pretty crappy, so it was back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
Our second day was a much better start, though no coffee as I was still not feeling so crash hot in the tummy. We made our way to Time Square to climb aboard the tour bus. In retrospect, I would not recommend doing this in NYC as the traffic is just nuts! Do yourself a favour and pick up one of their maps which will show you some great sightseeing points, and catch the metro. We decided to get off at the Lower East Side (LES) stop so we could check out the legendary Katz Delicatessen.
You walk into this unassuming corner store into what can only be described as organised chaos. As you enter you are given a ticket for each person, this is your EXIT ticket too and must be provided upon exit whether you make a purchase or not. If you lose your ticket you pay $50 upon exit, minimum!! After being given your ticket you make your way along a massive counter where 15-20 people are all serving the customers. There are takeaways, soups, sandwiches, dinks & sides and you need to make your choices fast, or get left standing there. The rest of the place is filled to squashing point with tables and chairs, where people have to share with strangers because it’s just that busy! Once you order your sandwich; we went with the Pastrami on Rye with Swiss cheese; your server with slice off a piece of the hot, fresh pastrami for you to sample, and there is only one word….. yyyyuuuuuummmmm!
Fresh rye bread, a thick spread of grain mustard, mountains of hot, juicy pastrami, a thick slice of swiss cheese, followed by more juicy pastrami. Oh, and a plate of assorted pickles! It just doesn’t get any better than this!
After licking our fingers clean, we pay up and head back to the subway, heading for the ferry to Liberty Is. Sitting on one of the bench chairs in the subway station was my first piece of genuine NYC collectable street art, and it was photography to boot!! So I quickly pocketed the printed image and made our way to the Liberty Island ferry to see the Copper Lady.
The view from the ferry back out over NYC is pretty awesome. And it only gets better at night when all the lights come on! I have to say that the Statue of Liberty is a fairly impressive monument; she's elegant, regal and statuesque. We walked aroung the island, took some shots and enjoyed the view, then took the ferry back over to the mainland before heading off to 30Rock, AKA Rockefeller Plaza.
The Rockefeller is a stunning building and offers an equally stunning view of the City from her roof top. It's all very romantic (not to mention bloody cold!), and was just beautiful to see the City lights shimmering in the distance. You gain a real understanding for just how huge this City is from this vantage point.
It was now late evening (like 11pm!) time for dinner, upon the recommendation of one of the Rock's employees we had dinner at "Del Fresco’s" which is across from this beautiful building, and the food was divine!
Part 2... shortly!
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