New York City

Having done the State, it was time to do New York City!

We left home with Jim and Gwen at 6am on Friday 21 September to catch the bus from opposite our house and the Metro train through the city to Union Station where we were booked on the 7.30am AMTRAK train to NYC. This was a 3.20 hour trip to Penn Station where we hailed a mini van cab to take the six of us to the Park Central hotel on 7th Avenue, just down from Central Park.

Friday: Walked down 7th Avenue to Times Square via several shops including the massive Toys 'R' Us in Times square, lunch at TGI Fridays, up the Empire State Building, wandered back to our hotel via Bryant Park, the Rockefeller Centre and dinner at Applebees.

Saturday: 7th Avenue has turned into a long street market so our walk downtown was very slow. Shopping attractions of Time Square area again proved too strong to resist including the Hard Rock Cafe, until we got caught in a 2 - 3 hour downpour, partially saved by the purchase of some $3 umbrellas from an opportunistic street vendor who suddenly appeared. Highlight for Olivia and Kieren was a visit to the world's biggest Build A Bear Workshop where they eventually left with a NYC police bear and a white rabbit wearing a I [red heart] NYC t-shirt. Dinner at the Times Square Planet Hollywood, complete with souvenir purchases on the way out of Planet Hollywood and the Virgin Megastore next door concluded a long day.

Sunday: If we thought Saturday was long ... Caught a taxi after our usual breakfast at Fluffy's down to catch the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. More souvenirs, circumnavigating the Statue and too many photos later, we caught the ferry back past Ellis Island to subway back up towards Times Square to catch the 1pm matinee of The Lion King. Rushed there, grabbed some food in the foyer and all of us enjoyed the fantastic production. We then tried to get the subway down to Ground Zero Eventually got there and walked around the reconstruction site. We should have done some research on this first as we were too late to visit the Ground Zero Museum Workshop which looked very worthwhile from what we could see in their window. After more subway dramas, we got back to our hotel and changed for a late dinner at [insert name of restaurant in theatre district].

Monday: Intended catching subway up Central Park West to 72nd Street but ticket machine was out of order and rather than walking two Avenues to buy tickets, we decided time was better spent walking up Central Park. Found the Dakota Building where John Lennon was living / shot, and visited the Imagine tribute in the Strawberry Fields part of Central Park. Walked back through the Park and the kids had a good play on one of the playgrounds in the Park. Then rushed over to FAO Schwartz toy store for a quick ten minute visit (kids played a $250 000 'walk on' piano and two more stuffed toys were added to the luggage to get home) before rushing back to the hotel, getting a limo to get all six of us back to Penn Station and the AMTRAK train back home. That trip seems to be the only time we stopped and relaxed in the whole four days. Walking into home around 7.30pm was nearly as much of a relief as was dropping the 25 kilograms of luggage that I was carrying.

Photos here.

Malcolm