29th September - New York

We have had a massive day today, and while it was a bit overcast today, it was still quite hot.  We started by getting up early and heading up to Central Park where we hired a couple of bikes.  We spent the next hour and a half riding around basically the entire perimeter of the park (there is a roadway that you can follow that has designated bike lanes).  I almost died twice (nobody told me there were going to be hills!!) but it was a pretty cool way to see the park (well Wade saw the park, I was too busy concentrating on where I was going!!).  We stopped a couple of times on the way around, the highlight though was probably the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.  The GoPro also got its first workout!  After dropping the bikes back we walked via Columbus Circle back to the hotel.  

After round 2 of showers (BTW - this hotel has the best shower - we are thinking of renovating our bathroom at home to include some of its features), we hit the streets again.  This time we walked across to 12th Avenue where we visited the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.  We wandered around the deck of Intrepid for a while, checking out all the jets that have been used over the years.  We also had tickets into the Space Shuttle Pavilion.  This holds the space shuttle Enterprise, which was actually the prototype for the eventual Space Shuttle.  It never actually went into Space, but was used to test the various features.

Once we were done here we grabbed some lunch and then jumped on the subway to go further downtown to check out the 9/11 Memorial.  We had tried to do this last year when we were here, but the line to get in was ridiculous.  This time around, the memorial is actually an open area (not hidden behind barriers), so that made it a whole lot easier!  The memorial was really well done too.  There is a lot of construction going on around still (amazing given it is 13 years on), but it looked like One World Trade Centre was almost ready to open.

After this, just in case we hadn’t walked enough already, we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  This was another thing we were going to do last time we were here, but it was a public holiday and there were just too many people trying to do the same thing.  This time it was much better and I’m really glad we did it.  The bridge is amazing - basically a timber walkway that runs above the traffic, and there were some great views along the way.  Once we got to the other side we headed towards DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) where there is a view of both the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge and back across to the city.  After this we caught the subway back to the hotel for a rest.

Tonight we hit 5th Avenue for some shopping and a little visit to Tiffany & Co where a purchase was made (I was told that this was my anniversary present, so if he forgets on the actual day he is covered!!).

Here are some pictures from today:

Biking around Central Park

Columbus Circle

Streets on the way to Intrepid

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

One World Trade Centre & Memorial

Brooklyn Bridge

DUMBO

Speaks for itself!!

28th September - New York

Day 4 - New York

We had a bit of a slower morning this morning after a bit of a sleep in (well for me anyway)!  We had the Jets NFL game to go and see today and Wade needed something appropriate to wear to the game apparently.  In true Wade fashion we searched high and low (probably walked about 6kms in total) to buy a shirt that we had seen the night before at the first shop we looked in!! 

By this stage it was after 11am and the game started at 1pm at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey.  We quickly ran up to the room, got changed and hit the streets again to walk the 18 blocks to Penn Station.  From here we then had to find the NJ Transit, buy a ticket (no free transport to games here and it cost us $21 return for both of us) and get on a train with thousands of other people!  This train only took us one stop to Secaucus, where we then had to get on another train to MetLife Stadium!  It was a bit of a trek, but well worth it.

When we got to the stadium there were people everywhere - we couldn’t believe how massive the stadium was and just how many people were there (the stadium wasn’t full but can hold just over 80,000 people when it is).  Honestly though, once we were in our section, I didn’t really notice the people again until we left (ie. no line up for the toilets and only a short line for our food section).

I really don’t know much about the game (well any sport for that matter - thanks to many years of only doing ballet!), but had heaps of fun.  Poor Wade had to spend half the game telling me what was happening (although I guess that is only fair given how far we walked to get his t-shirt this morning)!!  

The section we were in had a lot of passionate fans (actually let’s be honest - I’m not sure why they are fans - they spent most of the time telling the Jets that they “sucked”!!).  Well the Jets probably did “suck” - they lost their third game in a row - but it was still definitely worth the experience and we both had a great time.  At half time we went and stood in the standing part of our section, to have a bit more food and this gave us a bit more space to move around (although the seats here were definitely much more comfortable than the Fenway Park ones) and a quick escape to the exit when it was all over!  

We were on the first train back into the city, but it took almost an hour and a half to get back to Manhattan afterwards (the trains weren’t really in sync so we stood at Secaucus for nearly 45 minutes waiting for the second train to come).  By the time we walked back to our hotel it was almost 5.30pm, so after a quick shower and change, we hit the streets again.  This time we caught the subway down to 34th St to a rooftop bar we had found.  The bar had a really good view of the Empire State Building and had a band playing while we were there.  We stayed for a few hours before walking back in the direction of our hotel, to have some dinner (a mix of chinese/thai food tonight at an Asian Fusion restaurant), stopped off for another drink at our hotel bar (which has an amazing view of Times Square) and then off to bed.

Here are some pictures from today:

Some pics from our morning walk!

On the Train to MetLife

MetLife Stadium -Jets v Lions

Rooftop Bar

View from our Hotel Bar

27th September - Boston to New York

We left Boston this morning and caught our flight to New York.  We arrived at JFK at 10.30am but it was almost 1pm by the time we dropped our bags off at the hotel and hit the streets.  In true American Airlines/JFK fashion, it took forever for our bags to come off the plane (well actually Wade got his bag, it took 45 minutes for mine to come off) and after that we had the usual crazy cab ride into the city!  We are staying at the Novotel again, which is the same place we stayed at in 2009 when we did our round the world trip, but it has been upgraded since then.  Our room is really nice, on the 31st floor and has a pretty good view (and if you strain your neck to the side looking out the window, you can see Times Square)!

It was a beautiful day in New York today - actually it was hot - it got up to around 28 and felt every bit of it!! We jumped on the subway and headed across to Williamsburg and to the East River State Park to Smorgasburg.  This is a food stall market that is run each Saturday in the park.  We wandered around the stalls and eventually picked something to have for lunch (Brooklyn Cream Pie cheesecake bites, chicken parma sliders, meatball sliders and mac & gravy) and we ate it along the river where there was a great view looking back towards the city.

After this, we walked back to the subway and headed out to Coney Island.  The subway ride there and back was an experience in itself as it was nearly an hour each way - we definitely encountered a few “special” characters on these trips!  Coney Island was pretty much as we expected it to be.  As a bonus for Wade though, there was a hot rod show on while we were there (I guess it was only fair I didn’t complain about this given all the shops I drag him into!).  After a wander along the boardwalk, we headed back to the subway and back into Manhattan.  We got off at 42nd Street and walked through Times Square back to the hotel to rest our feet.

After a bit of a rest we hit the streets again and went and grabbed some dinner.  Tonight’s dinner was at Tonic Bar, a restaurant/bar on 7th Ave.  I’m not sure if Wade knew in advance, but there were 9 TV’s that could be seen from our table, and each was playing a different sporting game (mostly college football)!  Dinner was actually pretty good too, and after we finished we had a bit more of a wander through Times Square and then called it a night (we have done a lot of walking over the last 3 days and everything was hurting so we gave into it!).  A quick pit stop at Duane Reade to get an ice cream and that was it for the night!

Here are some pictures from today:

Smorgasburg/East River State Park

Williamsburg

Coney Island

Times Square

View from our room