New York, New York
5:29 PM
Happy New Year everyone!
Mike and I have just spent three days in New York, taking in NY celebrations.
Day 1 we headed through Times Square and down to the Empire State Building. It took an hour of queuing outside the building just to get in and a further hour to get up to the 86th floor where the outdoor observation deck is. It was freezing cold up there and after a few photos, we were ready to come down again. Great view though. Next we headed to Madison Square Gardens for a quick look, detouring via Macy's.
We then me up with my friends, Brody and Cathy for an early dinner (4:30pm) before joining the masses in Times Square at 5:30pm. At this stage, we were already in the 7th block of people back from the actual Times Square intersection which is on Broadway/7th and 42nd Street. We were herded into a holding cell on Broadway between 48th and 49th streets. Apparently the front rowers down on 42nd were queuing since 10am for their place. That's 14 hours waiting!!
Let me tell you all this. New Years in Times Square, surrounded by a million people is unreal BUT the 6.5 hour wait that we had standing around, unable to get food, drink or go to the toilet sucked big time. It was a whole 1 degree and we were all freezing cold. It was almost torture. Still, when the famous ball started dropping, the crowd cheering and the clock striking 12, all of that was temporarily forgotten. Very glad that I've now done that. If you ever do it, rug up, and I mean, seriously, thermals, shirt, jumper, jacket, scarf, beanie and gloves. Nothing less.
Day 2 was new years day and Mike and I headed out relatively early, despite the dreadful looking day. This time we took the subway down to the Stanton Island ferry. We decided against the ferry that took us to the Statue of Liberty as you can only go as high as her pedestal and in my opinion, wasn't worth the $12 + tax asking price each. The Stanton Island ferry, by comparison is free and takes you right past Liberty Island where you can get decent photos of the Statue of Liberty anyway.
When we got back to Manhattan, we took the subway into the financial district where we visited Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Given in was a public holiday, nothing was open but never mind. We also wandered over to Ground Zero, which is an amazing hole and a very shocking reality having viewed the 9/11 tragedy on TV. During our visit, I also found the Deloitte offices in the World Financial Centre, which is over the road from the World Trade Centre site. Construction of the new Freedom Tower is now underway.
We headed back to Times Square for a late lunch before heading to Central Park for a bit of a walk around there. At night, we met up with Brody and Cathy again and headed for dinner at Planet Hollywood and then on to a comedy club on 23rd. The comedy club was excellent, very funny. We visited a few more bars before calling it a night and saying our goodbyes.
Our final day in NYC and Mike and I slept in, then checked out. We headed over to the Rockefeller Centre, Sachs 5th Avenue, Hershey's Chocolates, the M&M store and several touristy stores in a last minute shopping/touring spree. Mid afternoon, we hailed a cab and left for the airport, where we are currently, awaiting our overnight flight to London. Today was bitterly cold, about 30 degrees Fahrenheit so about -1 celsius. We'll see what London brings weather wise, although I'm not hopeful on significant improvement.
Righteo, time for us to head off on our next leg. Hope you all had a great new year.
Dave
Mike and I have just spent three days in New York, taking in NY celebrations.
Day 1 we headed through Times Square and down to the Empire State Building. It took an hour of queuing outside the building just to get in and a further hour to get up to the 86th floor where the outdoor observation deck is. It was freezing cold up there and after a few photos, we were ready to come down again. Great view though. Next we headed to Madison Square Gardens for a quick look, detouring via Macy's.
We then me up with my friends, Brody and Cathy for an early dinner (4:30pm) before joining the masses in Times Square at 5:30pm. At this stage, we were already in the 7th block of people back from the actual Times Square intersection which is on Broadway/7th and 42nd Street. We were herded into a holding cell on Broadway between 48th and 49th streets. Apparently the front rowers down on 42nd were queuing since 10am for their place. That's 14 hours waiting!!
Let me tell you all this. New Years in Times Square, surrounded by a million people is unreal BUT the 6.5 hour wait that we had standing around, unable to get food, drink or go to the toilet sucked big time. It was a whole 1 degree and we were all freezing cold. It was almost torture. Still, when the famous ball started dropping, the crowd cheering and the clock striking 12, all of that was temporarily forgotten. Very glad that I've now done that. If you ever do it, rug up, and I mean, seriously, thermals, shirt, jumper, jacket, scarf, beanie and gloves. Nothing less.
Day 2 was new years day and Mike and I headed out relatively early, despite the dreadful looking day. This time we took the subway down to the Stanton Island ferry. We decided against the ferry that took us to the Statue of Liberty as you can only go as high as her pedestal and in my opinion, wasn't worth the $12 + tax asking price each. The Stanton Island ferry, by comparison is free and takes you right past Liberty Island where you can get decent photos of the Statue of Liberty anyway.
When we got back to Manhattan, we took the subway into the financial district where we visited Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Given in was a public holiday, nothing was open but never mind. We also wandered over to Ground Zero, which is an amazing hole and a very shocking reality having viewed the 9/11 tragedy on TV. During our visit, I also found the Deloitte offices in the World Financial Centre, which is over the road from the World Trade Centre site. Construction of the new Freedom Tower is now underway.
We headed back to Times Square for a late lunch before heading to Central Park for a bit of a walk around there. At night, we met up with Brody and Cathy again and headed for dinner at Planet Hollywood and then on to a comedy club on 23rd. The comedy club was excellent, very funny. We visited a few more bars before calling it a night and saying our goodbyes.
Our final day in NYC and Mike and I slept in, then checked out. We headed over to the Rockefeller Centre, Sachs 5th Avenue, Hershey's Chocolates, the M&M store and several touristy stores in a last minute shopping/touring spree. Mid afternoon, we hailed a cab and left for the airport, where we are currently, awaiting our overnight flight to London. Today was bitterly cold, about 30 degrees Fahrenheit so about -1 celsius. We'll see what London brings weather wise, although I'm not hopeful on significant improvement.
Righteo, time for us to head off on our next leg. Hope you all had a great new year.
Dave
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