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Here is our New York image gallery . The gallery will open in a new window, there you will see all the thumbnails, click on any of them to see a bigger version, or you can see a slideshow. Sorry about the advertisements, just ignore them (hey, free webspace is free webspace).
Mal’s review of our trip to New York. (with wee excerpts – shopping ones – from Morag)
Woke up to find it raining heavily, flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow then United Airlines to New York, arriving about 4pm. It was cloudy in New York and as we descended through the clouds there was a big – kerthump- and that was us on the runway. Caught a cab from the airport for fixed fare of $30 (plus $5 tip). Checked in at the Wellington (just south of Central Park), Mandy and David arrived in the lobby while we were waiting for the bellboy to take our bags up. They had flown in from San Francisco on their ‘big trip’ (San Francisco -> New York -> New Orleans-> Caribbean cruise -> New Orleans -> Auckland -> Launceston) from Tasmania.
After showers we met up again for Kahlua and chocolate, and planning. We decided on a noodle restaurant from the guidebook but on the way we spotted a sushi bar (‘East’) and decided on that instead. Had some selections of tempura followed by a big plate of sushi and sashimi ($37), and were vastly undercharged by the waitress … but left a big tip for her.
Decided to do an open-top bus tour to get a quick overview of the town. Sun shining so on with the sun-screen, but still a bit chilly when we got going. Also still managed to get sunburned on one patch along my arm, which I’d missed with the ‘slop’. These tours do give you a good quick view of the town so that you can decide which bits to look at more closely, but our promised 3-hour tour was more like 2 hours.
So we had plenty of time to wander about Central Park. We’d decided that Sunday afternoon would be a good time to do the Park as all the locals would be out and about – and we were right. Everybody was out rollerblading, cycling, playing baseball and promenading with their dogs. Dogs seem to be a real status symbol here- no mutleys to be seen, all looked like pedigree fashion accessories. The best animal fashion accessory though was the young woman wandering around with the snake wrapped around her waste and over her shoulder. What a real fashion accessory. Other sights in the park were Strawberry Fields – a memorial garden for John Lennon who lived across the road from the Park, some great buskers - using tall puppets to mime to cool soul sounds, and the park itself – fountains, lakes, picnic lawns – a great spot to see and be seen.
The park is huge and we spent about 4 hours there and only saw the southern third of it. For dinner we went further afield, caught the subway down to ‘Little Italy’ to a joint called ‘Spaghetti Trattoria’. I had lamb shanks, Morag had veal. Delicious!
Started at the visitors centre for info. And maps, then split up for shopping! Morag and Mandy went off to the ‘garment district’ while David and I went to the Virgin megastore. I got a bit bored after an hour and a bit, so headed off for a walk around the business district. Another sunny day so it was interesting to see folks sitting out in the sun, on steps, benches, wherever – grabbing a bite. Meanwhile, Mandy and I (Morag) were experiencing New York life – queuing for a ‘sample sale’ at one of the design schools. Huge rooms are rented by big designers for a few days or weeks and their latest designs are racked up for the punters to come and buy – at presumably cheaper prices than in the stores. The designer who was selling here was Max Mara, and there were some rather fabby classic designs being grabbed by the best of the New York bargain-hunting ladies…. LOTS of ‘ladies who shop’. This was the first morning of the sale, and it was an hour before we got into the actual sale room, after being entertained by the exploits and life stories of the 3 ladies in front of us.
We had planned to meet at the Hard Rock Café but on the way to it I spotted the ‘Motown Café’ so we decided to lunch there as well. We got the real hard sell from the waiter, immediately launching into a recommendation of all the biggest and most expensive dishes and cocktails. Basically we all decided on something like a burger and fries. Not bad food, with a bit of motown music in the background and a bit of memorabilia on the walls.
By now it was 3pm so we headed off for shopping again. David went his own way while the rest of us went shoe shopping in the ‘shoe street’. Morag and I bought sports shoes (about $45 to $60 each) while Mandy went for some fashion shoes… but mind you, they were rather plain and sensible compared to some of the amazing ‘fashion’ shoes that were available!!
It was quite late by the time we got together in the evening and decided to eat in Chinatown. Caught the subway down there and had a wander around. Decided on one at random and ordered four main courses – turned out to be a bit of a feast. I was too tired to experiment with anything so went for a plain chicken dish. David and Mandy ordered huge plates of sizzling baby octopus and squid – which were readily attacked by all.
Tourist day today. First off - downtown to the Empire State Building and up to the viewing platform. Another nice sunny day, so great views over New York. Then to the ferry terminals for the Staten Island Ferry. This is a free commuter service but it goes right past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Once we got to Staten Island we got straight back on the ferry and came back. Good views of Liberty, a good trip to do.
From the terminals we walked up to Wall Street and managed to get some of the last few tickets for the day to the viewing gallery (and information centre). Nowadays most stockmarkets are all electronic, so it was quite an interesting experience to see a trading take place face-to-face on the trading floor, especially for me.
Dinner was American cuisine at Lola’s (hostess Sonja, with the most enormous bosom we’ve ever seen). For starters we both had prawns (shrimps) on a buckwheat pancake with crème fraiche sauce. I had a grilled pork chop with mashed potatoes for main course while Morag had yummy rack-of-lamb.. The food sounds quite plain but was absolutely delicious. The place has live music in the bar area, we’d hoped for some soul, or rhythm and blues, but Tuesday night was jazz night.
We decided to make this a big shopping day, starting at Bloomingdales (which I thought would be quite swish, but it was just like a suburban Myer). Macy’s was more impressive with some nice art-deco ceilings and light fittings, and old wooden escalators. What was the gear like and what did we buy – I’ll hand over to Morag for that.
Morag here ….. lots of sales on in the big department stores - unfortunately we didnae get time to hunt out some of the out-of-the-way bargain shops. So we only had time to ‘do’ a bit of Bloomingdales and Macy’s. I stayed in the fashion areas of the stores and came away with a few pieces by Liz Claiborne, an American designer…. all at sale prices – I cannae resist a bargain!!
After Macy’s we hit ‘Gap’ to buy some casual trews and a leather belt for me, and some casual tops for Morag. Much cheaper prices than the UK.
We’d booked a big night out, the ‘Wizard of Oz’ at Madison Square Gardens (with Mickey Rooney as the wizard). I’d rather have been upstairs at the New York Knicks v. Miami Heat play-off game (basketball), but the show was OK. The crowd was rather ‘into’ the whole thing, and there were lots of wee ‘Dorothy’ characters dressed up the well-known costume – blue gingham dress, red spangly shoes and carrying a small wicker basket – with a stuffed dog – Toto…. Very bizarre.
For a quick meal after the show we decided to revisit the Sushi bar (East) and had another fill of tempura, sushi and sashimi – and the waitress charged us correctly – about $90 for the 4 of us.
There was just time for one final lot of Kahlua and chocolate before Mandy and David went off at midnight to pack for their 6:30am flight to New Orleans the next day.
Our final day in New York. Got up about 10am and packed everything up and checked out about 11:30am for coffee and muffins at "Fluffy’s Deli" just up the road. Headed down to Canal Street to buy me a genuine Tag Hueur watch for $10, and Morag picked up some CK sunnies for $5. Wandered through Greenwich Village and Chelsea toward midtown. These are quite nice leafy areas with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. If we were to live in New York for a while this would be the ideal area to live, if we could a) afford it, b) find a place available.
Morag wanted to try some cajun food so lunch at ‘Cajun’ was ideal. We both had "Po’ Boys", mine came with blackened chicken breasts while Morag had shrimps. Like a big burger with fries, pickles, salad and spicy slaw.
We ended up back at Macy’s for Morag to do a bit of last minute shopping, then back to the Wellington for our 5:15 bus to the airport. We were sick of waiting for the bus by 5:30 so we got a refund and caught a cab instead. Even in peak-hour traffic it only cost and extra $10 to get there by cab compared to the bus.
Got very little sleep on the overnight flight, even though it was half empty and we could spread out a bit. After changing at Heathrow we finally got home about 4pm, absolutely knackered. I had a power nap between 5 and 6pm, then we had home-made fish and chips and watched telly until 11-ish. Slept solidly for 12 hours and were very grateful for the postie NOT ringing our doorbell at 7.20am to deliver any mail – as is his normal custom.
Morag’s version of events…. for Thursday..
we had a very relaxing day on thursday.... packed up and finally checked out about 11am, then to fluffies for a muffin etc... then jumped on the subway down to Canal Street, and wandered along the stalls -- mal bought a genuine 10usd Tag Heuer watch!!!!, and i bought some trendy wee sunglasses -- a mere 5usd....
then we went wandering thru SoHo, Greenwich village... into the back streets, and found some wonderful narrow leafy streets with very des-res in them..., then up thru Chelsea (west from 8th Ave).. and had lunch at Cajun (cnr 8th Ave and 16th St) ... blackened chicken etc..., then further up 8th Ave till 34th St. --- quite a walk all up, but a very nice wander.. Had a quick cosmetics buy in Macy's, then jumped on the subway homeward... for another quick fix in Fluffies... and then reclaimed luggage at the hotel (now grown to 3 bags!!), changed into the comfy flight clothes, and waited for our 5.15pm bus to the airport....
well, by 5.30, i dashed back into the shop and they rang up to find out what was going on.... 'caught in traffic, and would be 20 mins' !!!!! So, on the advise of the doorman, we got our 38usd back from the shop and jumped in a cab... her first words after picking us up was 'i just gotta stop for some cawfeee' and yes.. she bipped her horn outside Fluffies (she's a regular), and double parked and raced in to pick it up!!! well, what could we do???? then we were on our way SLOWLY.. the traffic was horrendous.. she abused a young cop who wouldn't let us drive down the road she wanted to go down, then we crawled along in the traffic... with 3 fire engines blasting their horns trying to get thru -- and then everyone started blasting!!!!!! SO New York!!! now, sense would dictate that you probably wouldnt follow the fire engines incase you got trapped behind them, but NO, she was after them, and thankfully we didnae get trapped behind them. So, 25 minutes later, we were at 55th Street and 2nd Ave... we'd done a huge loop!!! then we got onto the faster moving bit and drove way uptown.... up the eastside.... i was actually wondering if she thought we were going to La Guadia... but no, after we crossed the toll bridge (3.50 usd) we zipped along and in no time arrived at JFK.. and at only 38usd on the meter... i felt for sure that it was going to take longer and was whispering to Mal during the trip that it was going to be 45 usd maximum that we would pay.. if it were over that amount. So, we got to see a bit of the upper eastside in our adventure, and got to JFK in plenty of time.
Our flight home was only half full, so as soon as it looked as if everyone was on, there was all sorts of seat shuffling... we had 2 near the windows, but the 3 seats in the middle (ideal for sleeping) were all taken with 1 person each row... i was a tad slow to grab one. So, after dinner, Mal moved up to a 2 window seat to stretch out, and i had our 2 to myself. Thankfully i did get some sleep, but poor ol Mal didnae.
we got into heathrow 9am, and couldnt transfer to an earlier flight to Edinburgh, cos our bags were booked on the 1pm flight... so we sat, and i lay out on the seats and got another hours sleep. By the time we got home after 4pm we were both well knackered, and mal crawled into bed for a couple of hours while i unpacked in the back bedroom.
unfortunately for both saturday and sunday we've been operating on NY time.. and not being sleepy till after midnight... then waking at midday!... that WILL have to change tomorrow but. when we're both back at work. AND i've scored myself a sore throat and runny nose etc out of it too.
The End