I am sitting here, marvelling at the fact that I am still awake and actually writing this update, jet lag and all. Lawrence and I arrived back from New York this morning after our Easter Getaway and what a trip.
Let’s start at the beginning. We left on Thursday morning at 08h30 UK time and landed in New York just after 11am, US time. This was great as we technically still had a half day available for sightseeing. After going through scary immigration, we decided to brave the subway from JFK into Manhattan. Lawrence, the boy scout, had already investigated how to get around, so an 1 hour and three line changes, we emerged into the daylight on 34th Street Manhattan which was the closest subway to our hotel. We were very impressed that we could navigate around, but I suppose once you have London‘s underground system down, you can navigate almost anywhere. Like I said to Lawrence, we managed in Paris where we following signs in French, so how hard could New York be?
Our hotel was chosen on a recommendation from one of Lawrences’ colleagues and it was the perfect location. One block from 5th Avenue and Macy’s with the Empire State Building the view out of the window. Once we settled in, we immediately took off to orientate ourselves. We strolled to the Empire State Building, through Macys (shoppers delight), down to Times Square and on to Grand Central Station with a view of the Chrysler Building, and this was only day 1! All these sites are so breathtaking, you feel as though you have stepped onto a movie set, complete with steaming roads.
Day two, we woke up to the coldest day imaginable. We felt like we were in mid winter with snow flurries occasionally during the day, but nevertheless, we made our way onto the hop-on-hop-off tour which took us through a number of sites. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty. We stood in a queue for 2 hours before boarding the ferry to Liberty Island. The lady herself is awesome, huge. You can walk around the island having a look at her and the view of Manhattan Island. But, it was freezing and we soon found our way back to the mainland. In our quest for hot coffee we made our way to ground zero. This is just a large construction site now, and they are planning to build 9 buildings to replace the 7 that were destroyed on 9/11. There is a timeline of what happened on that day as well with photos and descriptions, but a very solemn place. Then, back to the bus tour where we passed the UN, Rockerfeller Centre, Central Park and all the main sites before rushing back to our hotel to get ready for the Basketball game at Madison Square Garden.
This game was awesome, how strange to be watching a sporting event that you see on TV and in movies. The game itself was 48 minutes long with an additional 1 1/1 hours of dancing girls, advertising and time outs. There were 4 timeouts in the last minute alone!
Day two saw us back on the bus taking a tour Uptown. This included the Bronks (I saw the playground where some scenes from West Side Story was filmed), Central Park (including where some of the stars live and where John Lennon was killed). We jumped off at Central Park and took a stroll back to 5th Ave through the park. We were put to shame with the number of joggers. There is one lake that is used extensively by joggers, and the rule is to jog anti clockwise around the lake…very organised. As we walked back to our hotel, we took a turn in Tiffany’s, 6 storeys high ladies. Lawrence was getting very edgy with my interest in the jewellery, so we only got through the ground floor.
Day three was a bit warmer, we thought, so we took the plunge and went to queue for the Empire State Building. The queue was about an hour long, not as bad as Lady Liberty and the view on the 86th Floor was quite something to behold. But, it was bloody freezing! Lawrence is convinced that his ears froze. We were forced to have a quiet day as it was Easter Sunday and lots of shops were closed (Sunday was earmarked my shopping day, so this put a spanner in the works). We did end the day off with a romantic evening horse and carriage ride through Central Park, so all was not lost.
Before we knew it, our trip was at an end, and the dreaded night flight was looming. I was once again ‘randomly’ selected for an additional search at the airport. That little green book is really a pain to go travelling with. But regardless, it was an amazing trip and an experience to treasure. Now for the unfortunate reality of returning to work and crazy deadlines, but I suppose we have to work to earn money to plan the next trip!
We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter and a relaxing long weekend. Enjoy the photos, and we will be in touch soon!
All out love
L&G
