Part 6 - New York

We arrived in New York late Saturday afternoon and grabbed a cab from the airport to our hotel.  Our hotel, The Novotel, has a great bar that looks down towards Times Square, so our first stop after checking in was the bar.  We had a few drinks here, before heading out to grab some dinner.  Apparently there was some big UFC fight on that night and because I'm such a massive fan of UFC (note the sarcasm) it made perfect sense that the next stop was to find an Irish Pub where we would watch the fight.  Wade clearly got me at a weak moment!  Wade promised me the fight would be on at around 10pm, but 10pm came and went, and so did 11pm and so did 12am - and still no fight!  Finally around 12:15am it happened and as soon as it was over we headed back to our hotel to bed!

After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning, we hit the streets for what we end up being a typical day in NYC - lots of walking!!  We took a walk through Bryant Park and Grand Central Station before grabbing a subway down to Spring Street and Little Italy.  We had part 1 of lunch at Lombardi's Pizza, which is one of the oldest pizzeria's in the US.  After this, we then walked down to Chinatown where we grabbed some dim sum for part 2 of lunch!  We had plans of going to the new One World Observatory next, but it was becoming overcast and there was a chance of a rain/storm, so we decided to hold off on this until the sun was out.  Instead we decided to walk down to Battery Park.

In all the times we have been to New York together, we have never been over to the Statue of Liberty.  I went with mum in 2002, but Wade and I never have.  This is largely because the line was always so long and we couldn't be bothered waiting!  We got there this time though, and for the first time ever - there was no line at all!  We bought our tickets and walked straight onto the boat to head over to Liberty Island.  We wandered around the island for a while, taking in the views looking back at the city and the statue, and then jumped back on the boat - just in time too, as the rain started just as we got back to the city.  We got the subway back to our hotel and had a bit of a break before grabbing dinner.

Another slow start on Monday and because the sun was shining, we decided to head straight down to the World Trade Center site and head up to the new One World Observatory.  The views were amazing - you could see forever, and it was definitely worth the visit.  After this, we took the subway up to 72nd St and wandered into Central Park to check out Strawberry Fields, where there is a tribute to John Lennon.  We sat there for a while, listening to a busker play a couple of Beatles songs, and then it was off to grab some lunch.  We walked a few blocks away to Gray's Papaya - which is a famous hot dog restaurant (it's been shown in lots of movies and tv shows).  The hot dogs were really good - the papaya fruit juice - not so much!  After that we wandered through Central Park and made our way back to our hotel.

For our last night in New York, we went to a roof top bar, 230 Fifth, which had some great views of the city, including the Empire State Building.  After a few drinks we grabbed some dinner and walked back to our hotel through Times Square.

Here are some pictures from our time in New York:

View from Novotel bar

Bryant Park

Grand Central Station

Lunch at Lombardi's

Dim Sum in Chinatown

Statue of Liberty

Views from One World Observatory

Central Park (Strawberry Fields)

Speaks for itself!

More Central Park

230 Fifth rooftop bar