The Big Apple...

…and an understanding as to why it’s called ‘The City that Never Sleeps’

We arrived in New York City to a day that was very similar in weather to what we hoped to have left behind in London…grey, cloudy and showers on and off, but thankfully a little warmer.  After checking into our hotel, aka the 'shoebox', we headed off to explore.  Since our hotel was just around the corner from Times Square, it became our first port of call.  My initial thoughts were that NYC was a lot like London… Times Square was Piccadilly but on a larger scale.  Over the course of the next few days, this opinion changed, as we discovered just how different they really are.

First up Mark called for a much needed coffee and true to form; there really is a Starbucks on every corner, together with a hot dog cart (exactly how you see it in the movies).  Starbucks became our internet provider over the next few days, with their free Wi-Fi in all their shops.   Our next touristy stop was Grand Central Station (spotting the beautiful Chrysler building along the way)…a very grand station indeed.  

A little tired we headed back towards our hotel, but not before stopping at the pub across the road from our hotel for a drink, at what became our 'local' for the trip…Smith’s.  My 'beer' was only a once off, as anyone who has ever tried a 'root beer' I'm sure would agree the taste of drinking Wicks bubblegum, is not really one to be repeated.  
   

Our first evening we explored our area a little further a field, stopping at an Asian restaurant for a light dinner.  Although the queues outside Shake Shack did make us think we were missing out

Since it has taken me so long to actually sit down and write this post, the details of each day of the trip are now unfortunately quite hazy…  But a vast majority of the holiday was spent walking around the streets of New York, taking in the sights by foot, or on the Red Bus Company (again one in every city).   The feet definitely welcomed the bus trips, which are always great, giving you the chance to see the sights first and then decide which ones you want to go back and explore further.  We had also bought the NYC passes (which gave us discounts/free access to certain tourist attractions), and usefully at times even queue jump (although not at every attraction).

Our days pretty much consisted of breakfast at a local café, which happened to be next door to Starbucks and therefore allowed us to check mail and book tickets etc whilst we enjoyed our breakfast each morning.  The weather had cleared up beautifully since we arrived and set the temperatures for the week ahead…sunny, but not too hot.  Bliss!  

On our first full day of sightseeing, we decided on a Big Red Bus route tour, taking in the sights en route, and the first sight we chose to get off at was Battery Park, which was at the end of our first bus line and close to the 911 Memorial.  Unfortunately the queues to access the Memorial site were very long and actually required booking in advance.  So vowing to make the booking at our next Starbucks stop, we meandered back to Battery Park and watched the crowds for the Ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty, again which we saved for another day, because of the length of the queues, but not before taking a few pics of the famous landmark from a far.  

Over the course of the next few days, we saw Wall Street, Times Square, Madison Square Gardens, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, the Guggenheim, Central Park, the Rockefeller Centre, The Empire State Building, the Flat Iron Building (from Superman), the Meat Packing District, the Garment District, the New York Skyline, NBC Studios, Macy’s, and went for a ride around Brooklyn.

The pregnant feet took some serious strain, swelling up beautifully from a combination of all the walking and heat…but that was not going to get in the way of all the exciting things ahead.

I think it was our third or fourth day where we spent the morning, cycling around Central Park for 3 hours.  Funny enough, considering the amount of things to see and do in New York, this was probably the highlight of the trip for me!  We felt right at home with the rest of the New Yorkers who were out and about that day (and there were loads).  There was some skateboarding race going on in the park, so we dodged in amongst the boarders and other cyclists, runners, walkers, dog walkers, you name it.  Mark spotted the famous statue of Balto the dog (the lead sled dog that took antitoxin for the deadly diphtheria epidemic to Alaska), we passed the zoo and saw a few baseball games going on (both for the little ones and adults).  Later on we stopped for an ice-cream (well for me) and a hot dog (for Mark) whilst watching part of a baseball game.  We also stopped to watch some guys sailing little boats on one of the ponds, and had it not been fully booked, Mark would have given it a go.  The park was completely a-buzz and it was such a great vibe to be apart of. 

At some point we also made our way to the Top of the Rock (the observation deck at the Rockefeller Centre) with its fantastic views across New York and of the Empire State Building.  In the Rockefeller Centre was the NBC Studios, which we did a tour of too…seeing the studios of ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ and Dr Oz.

We walked along the New York Skyline, stopping to enjoy a yummy red velvet cupcake.  We had an awesome dinner in the Spice Market, in the Meat Packing District.  We met up with Nick and Tammy (Mark's ex-colleague from Barclays and girlfriend who are now living in New York) posed for a photo on their apartment's roof terrace with the most fantastic view of the Empire State Building and went out for dinner with them too to a fantastic Italian place in the Garment District.  We also shopped up a storm, Mark's store of choice was the huge Apple Store, which we frequented a few times over the course of our holiday and mine was the absolutely huge Macy's, (taking up a whole New York block), which to my delight was having a sale, but since my size is a little bit 'different' at the moment...I focused my attention on shoes (almost a whole day later and 5 pairs of shoes, I decided it was time to call it a day).  

We did make our way back to see the 911 Memorial site, and even with a booking, the queue was unbelievable for both the memorial museum, as well as the site where the World Trade Centres had once stood and the now almost finished World Trade Centre 3.  From there we queued yet again (which thankfully wasn't nearly as bad, as it had been the first day we had gone) for the ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty.  Unfortunately the statue itself was closed for renovations, so we couldn't go up it, but nevertheless we took some great photos both of the humungous statue and the views of Manhattan across the water.  We tried our hand at catching the subway, which we thought would have pretty simple considering our 9 and 10 years in London...but yet after about 5 trains went bye and still none that was going to where we wanted to go, we realised we actually had to walk a little further on the platform to get another line!!

As with all holidays, before we knew it our time was up and it was time for our holiday to draw to a close, heading back to the JFK for our long journey home...including a 2 hour stop at London Heathrow en route.  The holiday had been fantastic!!  We thoroughly enjoyed seeing New York in the summer and experiencing the atmosphere and vibe of the city and it's people.  We look forward to making another trip there in the hopefully not too distant future to see it in the Winter...and with an additional mini Wood in tow.