Our last full day in New York turned out to be a relaxing and enjoyable one. The weather today was a bit average, but it didn't quite make it to full rain, only drizzle, and didn't affect our plans.
After another awesome day of sleeping in, we had left over Chinese food for breakfast to save ourselves some money. Having a microwave in the hotel was super convenient, so we made the most of huge portion sizes that American's seem to give.
After breakfast, we went for a stroll to the East Side of Manhattan, walking up next to Central Park, then through, to get to the Guggenheim Museum.
The museum, designed by Ben's favourite architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, is an amazing piece of artwork its self. We got admitted using our City Passes, and made our way through the museum. The design is awesome, it is a circular ramp that rises 6 levels, with galleries off some parts of the main walkway. This means you don't miss anything, and the flow of traffic is great. The main artworks shown was an exhibition of Picasso, so it was cool to see some of his interesting works. We don't do that thing were we stand and look into something for too long, we just have a quick appreciation then move to the next.
To keep a bit of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ben bought some mugs designed by him from the gift shop.
After a few hours there, we walked back to our hotel. All rugged up, and with hoods on, the slight drizzle did not bother us. We skipped lunch, being super full from brekkie, and after a quick stop at the hotel, we made our way to Times Square, as there is a ticked booth "under the red stairs" that sells heavily discounted tickets for Broadway shows on the same day. The downside? You have to wait in line.
So we caught the subway, and made our way down to Times Square. We pushed, and shoved through the day time shopping crowds.. however, it was really quiet compared to at night. When we arrived at the ticket booth about 2.30 (it opens at 2) we were stoked to find there was a few people, but not many waiting. Total time in line, to save 40% of a show... 5 minutes. We decided to see Jersey Boys, even though we both don't really enjoy musicals. We were keen on the Lion King, but tickets were expensive an it was pretty much the only show that didn't have discount. We bought our tickets for about $70, which is a steal really for where we were in the seating. We pocketed them, and made our way back up to the hotel.
As we had to be up the next morning at 4.30am to get the shuttle to the airport, we packed all our stuff in the afternoon when we got home.
After packing, showering and making sure we were good to go in the morning, we went out for dinner before the show. As a bit of a cycle, we ate at the same diner we did on the first full day in NYC.
Another easy subway trip, and we arrived just near the theatre were the show was being held. We bought some beverages (which um, cost $27 for a Malibu and Coke, and a beer... ) and were seated in the old 1920's theatre.
The show was really entertaining, showing the story of the formation of the Four Seasons band, and the struggles they went through to be noticed. It was cool how they connected it all around their songs. We both really enjoyed the show, which was great considering we both don't normally do musicals.
We finished off the night was some gelati on the way home from the show, and what a great end to our time in NYC. We have had such a fantastic time here. We highly recommend it to any one. The longer you can spend here, the better. It is an amazing city for so many reasons.
Well, almost good ending. Arriving back at the hotel, we decided to pay any charges so we could just leave in the morning. Turns out Steph racked up a $149 phone bill to her Mum at home... for a mere 9 minutes. We lost it.. with laughter. Both thinking the desk attendant was joking, she laughed too and said "noo.. really". We still laughed.. won't be calling home again anytime soon.
Steph and Ben
