11/10/08
We arrived at Heathrow at 10am with plenty of time to spare before the flight. Enjoyed Terminal 5 and had a good wander before boarding the flight. The time absolutely flew by (pun intended!) and we watched our fair share of movies! When we arrived in New York we caught the Super Shuttle and got a good look at some of the sights, the sun was setting behind Manhattan which was pretty spectacular. It took a fair while to get into the city and we were one of the last to be dropped off so we had a whistlestop tour of the city without even thinking about it! Arrived at our hotel on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and W 76th Street (in the upper west side) and headed out for a wander. We stumbled across a spit and sawdust bar on Columbus Avenue so had our first pint. The next stop was a little different - lured in by the happy hour sign we didn't realise it was a gay bar! Swiftly moving on to the pub under our hotel we grabbed a lager that was blatantly a bitter and bumped into a very random drunk guy called Mike, we tried to remain polite and seemed interested in his conversation and in the end he did point us in the direction of a few nice local restaurants. Off to our basic room for the first night of our holiday!
12/10/08
We had an enormous breakfast at the Manhattan Diner on Broadway planning on it keeping us going until late afternoon, we then caught a subway to Downtown where we did lots of walking and sightseeing. (Wall Street, World Trade Centre site etc) Next was a trip on the Staten Island ferry before a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge for some amazing views, then on through Chinatown, Little Italy and Soho before a sandwich at Katz's deli! (When Harry met Sally) Finally we had a walk around Time Square and gauped at all of the bright lights before heading to bed with very achy feet.
13/10/08
A visit to the Natural History Museum in the morning and a walk through Central Park where we scoffed a hot dog and pretzel for lunch. Joy had a quick tinkle on the big piano in F.A.O Schwartz ( a la 'Big') before walking past all of the posh shops down 5th Avenue to the Empire State building, stopping at the Rockerfeller Centre to watch the ice skating for 10 minutes or so. We took a trip to the top of the Empire State for some fantastic views before heading back to the Upper Westside for a mexican meal. After dinner we headed for cupcakes in the Magnolia bakery (famous from Sex and the City) which were superb.
