Hi folks and welcome back, either turn off now or settle
back in as this one’s going to be a novel in chapters.
Let me tell you a tale, a tale of a trip, a trip to New York
City, possibly, the craziest city on Earth.
Days One & Two:
12 – 13 Mar 2011
This tale starts as all our tales do, on a clear crisp Saturday
morning. Once more driving South West around the tip of Lake Ontario to Buffalo
over the border, however this time the crossing didn’t go quite as fast as our
last trip. The traffic to get into the US in mid morning is horrendous and we
had to wait in line for over an hour, just to be questioned by a surly Customs
official, something we’ll have to get used to I guess or else try and get there
as early as possible. From Buffalo we
took a roundabout route to our next destination, Binghamton, thanks to the fact
we had no toll ways programmed into the GPS. This wasn’t such a problem in the
end, as we saw places we would not have otherwise. The scenery in Northern New
York State is very pretty and there still was quite a bit of snow around with a
number of ski resorts nearer Lake Erie still open.
We arrived in Binghamton late afternoon and after some
issues over our room, had dinner and an early night. Sunday morning, early
breakfast and head off to the big lights. The Spring thaw has started over here
so all the rivers in the North of the state are on the rise with flooding
expected in many areas, signs of this could be seen around some towns.
We made it to Newark airport around lunch time, we had decided
before going that we didn’t want to go anywhere near Manhattan Island with a
car, so we found long term parking near the airport, dropped the car, got taken
to the airport then picked up a shuttle from there into New York City (NYC). On the drive in we got our first glimpses of
the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty, we also went through the
Holland Tunnel, the same one that gets blown up in one of those Sylvester
Stallone disaster movies, I thought it best not to point this out to Chelle,
though she did tell me later it had crossed her mind. The bus dropped us
outside Grand Central station which gave us our first opportunity to take one
of the 13,000 yellow taxis in the city to our hotel.
The hotel we stayed at was the Beekman Towers, a 26 story
building on the Eastside of the city, one block up from the UN buildings. We
could see the flags out front of the UN from our room. At one time the hotel
used to be a hostel for young catholic students and so the rooms are self
contained with one bedroom (the kids, got the bedroom) a lounge sitting room (Mum
and Dad got the lounge) and a small kitchenette, though it was very light on
for cutlery etc, we had to get some plastic ones later on. The rooms are a bit
dated but all this was made up for by the location, it only taking 15-20 Mins
to get to Times Square and Central Park.
Once we were unpacked, it was time to get out and about. By
heading directly West we first came to Rockefeller Plaza, two blocks of towers
that house amongst others, Radio City Music Hall, the NBC studios, many
up-market stores and at this time of year an outdoor skating rink. After
getting photos we made our way to Times Square, hopefully to leave a message at
the hotel that Natasha’s godmother, Jenny, her sister and father were staying
at. One of the pleasant surprises of the trip was to find out that Jenny would
be in NYC at the same time as us, a great opportunity to catch up.
Unfortunately getting in touch wasn’t going to be quite that easy as our mobile
wouldn’t work in New York, mobiles are starting to become the bane of my
existence and Facebook was giving us grief as well.
Message left, it was time, by Ryan’s stomach, for lunch and
it had to be McDonalds, where Chelle got to taste some of the New Yorker’s
courtesy, Not!!! Chelle and I grabbed a
slice of pizza each, a slice of pizza in
the States being the same size as a small pizza in Aus. We then headed down Broadway towards Macys and
the Empire State building with the idea of going up it. If you don’t have pre-booked
tickets, you can expect to wait in line to go up the tower for sometimes as
long as an hour, and around the base there are guys trying to sell you tickets
for the tower and other attractions. As we didn’t have tickets, we decided not
to buy any there and went back up town looking for a tourist centre that would
sell some. For those that haven’t been to New York before, here’s a tip, there
are any number of attraction packages you can buy on line, do that before you
go. We ended up buying a New York Pass that gave us entrance to at least six
attractions and a harbour cruise. So back up to the Rockefeller Plaza (to get a
New York City pass)via Times Square, on the way we found time to stop in at
Toys R Us, three levels of toys with its very own Ferris wheel inside, toy
heaven (but not the best, - that was still too come.) Picking up a pass at Rockefeller Plaza, the first attraction we saw was the Top of The
Rock, a three story observation deck at the top of the highest tower in the
Plaza 850” above street level. The view from there is fantastic as it’s North
of the Empire State and so gives a better view out over Central Park and to the
Hudson and East rivers, also it’s a bigger observation area, not as crowded and
not as obstructed by netting so you get better photos. Getting back down to
earth, it was back to the hotel via a convenience store for dinner.
Sunday night was rest, restore communications and sit at the
window and watch all the bright lights and traffic of New York city (another of
those pinch yourself moments) while the kids scrolled through the TV channels
to find something to watch.
Well two days down, but there’s more so stay tuned.
