Life in the Big Apple - Part one

December 2016 brought with it my Wife’s 40^th birthday, as part of the celebration she had decided that she wanted to go to New York.  It had always been a place that she had dream of visiting so it was time to make this dream come true.

We booked the holiday through a local travel agent and I was left to book any additional trips to enhance the experience.  It was also arranged with friends and family to just make contributions towards the trips as part of her Birthday present.  Initially I thought of the things that need to be done while in New York, A Broadway Show and A helicopter ride.  As it turns out we did neither of these. The trip I eventually booked was to be much more spectacular.

We arrived in New York on a cold December afternoon and decided to go and explore, our hotel was on West 58^th street so was a nice easy walk to Central Park and was just a block or 2 from Columbus Circle but we decided to head downtown.
A few blocks further and we were on Broadway so we turned right and kept walking until we reached Times Square.  We had already seen quite a few of the main sights during the flight.  As we landed in Newark, New Jersey we saw the Manhattan Skyline, Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building and even managed to get a glimpse of the statue of Liberty but now it was time to see the city from ground level.  Even though I have been to New York a couple of times before I was still excited to explore it all over again.

Inevitably we reached Times Square and, as usual, it was really busy. There were people everywhere so on this occasion we didn’t really see too much other than the spectacle of screens and people. 
By now we had started to get hungry and tired and decided to find somewhere to have lunch.  Luckily we stumbled upon a deli style diner called Cafe Metro.  We were a little confused when we first went in as there was quite a lot to take in.  We opted for one of the sandwiches and placed our order and were amazed when they took one of the ready-made sandwiches and placed it into the Pizza oven for a minute or two before wrapping it in silver foil and slicing it in half.  The result was just a little short of amazing.  The crunch of the bread and the flavours were stunning.  If I ever return to New York I will find this little gem again.  Next time I will try the soup.

After out pit stop we continued exploring and found ourselves on Fifth Avenue, heading back in the direction of our hotel.  We spotted the Chrysler Building again and continued on Fifth until we reached the Rockefeller Centre.  With it being December they had erected the famous Christmas tree and the Ice Rink was already busy with skaters.
After a little more exploring we decided to head back to our hotel. 

We did tell ourselves that we needed to stay awake until at least 9pm New York time so we stood a little chance of beating the Jet Lag so we went to a local Deli and picked up beer, crisps and cookies and went back to the hotel room to watch some TV.  Sadly 9pm was too much to ask of us and by 7.30 we were tucked up in bed.

The next day we were up really early, partly because of the time difference, partly because we wanted to do some more exploring.  There was a real difference in being out and about while it was still getting light. There were still a few people wandering around but the atmosphere felt quite chilled out and less hectic than the previous evening.
Before we made our way downtown picked up a cup of Coffee to help us on our way.

Before we had left the UK my parents had told me about a Diner called Junior’s where they had eaten breakfast everyday while they were in New York.  We decided to test it out and after a little searching we found it tucked away behind Times Square.
It did everything you expect of a New York Diner.  There were loads of tables placed closely together, waitresses in their traditional uniforms carried coffee pots and kept the cups topped up to the brim and there was a real buzz about the place.  We placed our orders and ticked off another New York Stereotype from our list.  Yes, the portions are massive!!! 
If you do ever find yourself in the US then feel free to take the breakfast Challenge.  I had heard about this a little while ago but ordering breakfast bought the idea back to the front of my mind.  Next time you go to a Diner, try to order your breakfast without the waitress asking a question.  It is almost impossible; there are so many variances in your breakfast choices.

After we had taken on the mammoth breakfast we headed out for some more exploring.  We had a list of things to see and we were adamant to make this list shorter by the end of the day.  As we were on Times Square we decided to just carry on down Broadway.
In hind sight it would have been good to stick with this idea but we ended up covering more ground than we needed to.  We managed to find the Flat Iron Building, Washington Square Park and then we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge.  Again, Hindsight would have been a wonderful thing as we found the bridge but could not get a decent angle to see it well enough for a photograph.  We ended up in the middle of the Police car park.
From here we headed towards the Financial District and continued walking down to South Ferry where we actually found much better views of the Bridge.

After we had explored this area and had a look around Battery Park we were freezing cold.  The wind was really cold and we’d been walking for hours so we decided that we were going never going to make it back to our hotel on foot.  After a little bit of discussion we decided to buy tickets for the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour and opted for the 48 hour ticket.  With this we were able to get straight on the bus and headed Uptown. 

The tour took us back past South Ferry, the Financial District and the Brooklyn Bridge before heading back to Central Manhattan via Chinatown and Little Italy.  On the route we saw the United Nations Building and went past the World Famous Waldorf Astoria.  As the bus approached 5^th Avenue the traffic really started to build up so we decided it may be time to return to our original method of transportation and walked for a little while.

By now it was early afternoon so we found a bar where we could have some food.  The Bar we found was called Cassidy’s and we just happened to spot a sign pointing it out.  It was quite busy when we got there so we had to wait to get a table so we had a couple of beers in the bar section.  After our experience here I can recommend this bar.  They have a Goose Island IPA on draft, I had the best burger I have had for a long time and the onion rings were amazing!!!

As it was Saturday we decided to go out and try the New York evening Dining experience and had booked a table at an Italian restaurant. I am not sure I was really a fan.  The first thing we noticed was the people in the restaurant.  It seemed to be full of older men with younger ladies.  The couple next to me consisted of a man who had to be in his 60’s at least with a girl who could not have been older than 25. 
The meal itself was decent but I cannot say much more about it.  We much preferred the Bar culture.  This evening we tried the bar that was the influence for McLarens bar on How I Met Your Mother, McGees on West 55^th street, but we much preferred Tanner Smiths and found ourselves there on more than one occasion.  The atmosphere was great, the staff were friendly and the beer was good.  The Toasted lager was a nice local brew and I recommend the 1911 Cider.  The only negative comment was that the bar was really dark and relied on candle light so if you did need to see the menu you had to use one of the candles and get this as close to the writing as possible.  Luckily there were no incidents.

The next day we planned on using the bus tickets as much as possible and thought we should explore downtown a little more and try to get on one of the Uptown buses. First we decided to visit the Empire state building thinking that if we did it early enough it may not be too busy.  Initially it didn’t look like the queues were too bad but as there are only a limited number of lifts to take people up the queue does move quite slowly.

The first lift takes you up to the 80^th floor and allows you to look at the city through the windows so on a cold or wet day you can still get the amazing views without being subjected to the elements, next you go up to the 88^th floor where you are outside.  The views are better but there are so many more people clambering to get to the barriers.

There is an option to go to the 102^nd floor but we decided not to go any further up.  

Instead we went and found the Downtown bus.  Over the next few days we used the buses to explore Downtown and Uptown New York.  We went to Ground Zero and the 911 Memorial, went past Katz Diner that was made famous in When Harry Met Sally, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, we saw the Dakota Building and Strawberry Fields in Central Park and ventured into Harlem.  Even though we had the bus pass we still managed to exceed our step counts every day.

One of my wife’s dreams was realised when we went to view the Gustav Klimt exhibition.  Even I can even admit to being impressed by it.  The level of detail that is in the faces is incredible when you get up close.  After the gallery we got back on the bus and ended up by the Plaza so we went to find Tiffany’s and walked past Trump Tower.

One of the things that everyone recommended us to do was to visit the Top of the Rock after dark.  The Empire State building is impressive but there is one real drawback with it, you cannot see the Empire State Building!!  From the Top of the Rock you can.

Sadly when we went to go up we had chosen a day with zero visibility so they recommended that we booked for another day so we purchased our tickets for a later date.

End of Part one