Seven Days in New York - what fun
Jun 21st, 2012, 11:14 PM
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Seven Days in New York - what fun
At the end of April I was informed that I was to be a presenter at a conference and that conference was in New York. Yay! Since I live in Sydney Australia, I decided to turn the 2 day conference into a week-long trip (to get over jet lag so I did a good job at the conference of course!). I convinced my husband to join me and then set about working out what we could squeeze into our week. I should mention that we have both been to New York more than once before and at one stage I spent several weeks there so we were not constricted to going to the “must see” sights. So this is what we did – I warn you it is exhausting!
Our plane touched down at about 5.15pm on Saturday at JFK. I had vaguely wondered about catching the train into the city but in the end we decided that a taxi is so much simpler. The conference was to be held at the Marriott Marquis Times Square and we were offered a special conference rate for three nights so I elected to stay there for the first 3 nights of our trip. Whilst it is not my most favourite hotel in the world it is perfectly serviceable, and the ease for the purpose of the conference was too hard to go past. We settled into our room which had a partial view of the southern part of Times Square. After a quick shower and change we set off to the Press Lounge http://www.thepresslounge.com/ because I wanted to have a drink on a rooftop with a view of the sunset over the Hudson. We just made it to see the sunset. After a drink (or two) we made our way to Toloache for a by now late dinner. http://toloachenyc.com/ . I had read about this restaurant on Fodors, recommended by a number of people as a decent place to eat in the Theatre District. Since I didn’t want to venture too far on our first night this seemed like a good option – and it was. Shame the waitress decided to give us free tequila’s along with the other drinks we ordered. On top of the jet lag the drinks went straight to my head. But this did not stop us having a quick drink at The View before bed. http://www.theviewnyc.com/ We did one rotation (takes 45 minutes).
Despite the late night we arose at 7am to go for a run in Central Park. We are keen runners and like to run whenever we travel as it is a great way to see a city. And running in Central park, you certainly see the city. On a warm Sunday morning there were plenty of people about. Unfortunately my husband was not feeling very well so I ran(kind of in circles) and he walked, but we managed to get to the Reservoir and I ran around that before we headed back. We quickly changed and raced to St Patrick’s Cathedral for what we thought was 10am Mass. We were 10 minutes late because of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Luckily 10am Mass started at 10.15am. After that we caught a train up to the Bronx to Yankee Stadium because we had tickets for the baseball. I have only seen a few games of baseball in my life but this one turned out to be very enjoyable. We were not sure who we should barrack for (Yankees or Mets) but as we got to the stadium we realised that we would need hats. Since the merchandise available was Yankees that is who we cheered for. It seemed like a bad decision since the Mets were ahead by 3-0 until about the 7th innings. Then Yankees got 4 runs. 9th innings and Mets score another run to even it up. So there we had bottom of the 9th waiting for “our” team to get a run and guess what – we did! Such joy, such excitement. It was a great experience.
So we returned to our hotel and caught up on some business things in preparation for the next day. Then off we went to dinner at The NoMad. http://www.thenomadhotel.com/#/dining/ I had read about this restaurant in several places and it all sounded good. When we sat down I already knew that I wanted the roast chicken (DH had to comply) and the Milk and Honey for desert. Both more than lived up to their reputations. My appetiser was also delicious – smoked trout, DH had the Fruit de Mers and we had a little nibble on the radishes while we had our pre-dinner drink. I loved my desert but I have to say that DH’s was even better (and I would not have chosen it) – the peanut butter chocolate dessert is to die for!
That is all I have time to report on for now. I will be back later
Our plane touched down at about 5.15pm on Saturday at JFK. I had vaguely wondered about catching the train into the city but in the end we decided that a taxi is so much simpler. The conference was to be held at the Marriott Marquis Times Square and we were offered a special conference rate for three nights so I elected to stay there for the first 3 nights of our trip. Whilst it is not my most favourite hotel in the world it is perfectly serviceable, and the ease for the purpose of the conference was too hard to go past. We settled into our room which had a partial view of the southern part of Times Square. After a quick shower and change we set off to the Press Lounge http://www.thepresslounge.com/ because I wanted to have a drink on a rooftop with a view of the sunset over the Hudson. We just made it to see the sunset. After a drink (or two) we made our way to Toloache for a by now late dinner. http://toloachenyc.com/ . I had read about this restaurant on Fodors, recommended by a number of people as a decent place to eat in the Theatre District. Since I didn’t want to venture too far on our first night this seemed like a good option – and it was. Shame the waitress decided to give us free tequila’s along with the other drinks we ordered. On top of the jet lag the drinks went straight to my head. But this did not stop us having a quick drink at The View before bed. http://www.theviewnyc.com/ We did one rotation (takes 45 minutes).
Despite the late night we arose at 7am to go for a run in Central Park. We are keen runners and like to run whenever we travel as it is a great way to see a city. And running in Central park, you certainly see the city. On a warm Sunday morning there were plenty of people about. Unfortunately my husband was not feeling very well so I ran(kind of in circles) and he walked, but we managed to get to the Reservoir and I ran around that before we headed back. We quickly changed and raced to St Patrick’s Cathedral for what we thought was 10am Mass. We were 10 minutes late because of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Luckily 10am Mass started at 10.15am. After that we caught a train up to the Bronx to Yankee Stadium because we had tickets for the baseball. I have only seen a few games of baseball in my life but this one turned out to be very enjoyable. We were not sure who we should barrack for (Yankees or Mets) but as we got to the stadium we realised that we would need hats. Since the merchandise available was Yankees that is who we cheered for. It seemed like a bad decision since the Mets were ahead by 3-0 until about the 7th innings. Then Yankees got 4 runs. 9th innings and Mets score another run to even it up. So there we had bottom of the 9th waiting for “our” team to get a run and guess what – we did! Such joy, such excitement. It was a great experience.
So we returned to our hotel and caught up on some business things in preparation for the next day. Then off we went to dinner at The NoMad. http://www.thenomadhotel.com/#/dining/ I had read about this restaurant in several places and it all sounded good. When we sat down I already knew that I wanted the roast chicken (DH had to comply) and the Milk and Honey for desert. Both more than lived up to their reputations. My appetiser was also delicious – smoked trout, DH had the Fruit de Mers and we had a little nibble on the radishes while we had our pre-dinner drink. I loved my desert but I have to say that DH’s was even better (and I would not have chosen it) – the peanut butter chocolate dessert is to die for!
That is all I have time to report on for now. I will be back later
Jun 22nd, 2012, 05:32 PM
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"We were not sure who we should barrack for (Yankees or Mets) but as we got to the stadium "
pardon, is barrack some sort of Aussie expression, or did you choose to insert the US president in your baseball opinions?!
I dont get it.
It would be a strange coincidence if barrack meant something in Australian.
pardon, is barrack some sort of Aussie expression, or did you choose to insert the US president in your baseball opinions?!
I dont get it.
It would be a strange coincidence if barrack meant something in Australian.
Jun 23rd, 2012, 04:57 AM
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Good on ya!
Running in Central Park is a treat! One of the great big city locales!
You picked a good game to see the crosstown rivals between the Mets and Yankees! It is always a good
(safe) thing to root for the Home team, but I bet there were a good bunch of Met fans in attendance
-john
Running in Central Park is a treat! One of the great big city locales!
You picked a good game to see the crosstown rivals between the Mets and Yankees! It is always a good
(safe) thing to root for the Home team, but I bet there were a good bunch of Met fans in attendance
-john
Jun 23rd, 2012, 01:25 PM
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Hi all, I am just starting a trek in the Australian outback and so won't be back to report in here for another week. I promise I will be back though- I have much more too tell.
BTW should I provide an Aussie dictionary?!
BTW should I provide an Aussie dictionary?!
Jul 1st, 2012, 11:15 PM
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Okay I am back. Sorry for the interruption. The trek was fantastic by the way and hopefully I will report on it in the Australia board.
Meantime in New York….
Monday and Tuesday were conference days. My presentation went pretty well and the conference was interesting. We only had time for a Monday evening activity where we went to Jazz Standard http://jazzstandard.net/red/index.html for the 9pm show. We also ate dinner there (food provided by Blue Smoke) where I ordered the pulled pork platter and DH ordered the ribs. We shared both meals which were way too much but I am embarrassed to say that the size did not stop me finishing it! Delicious. The music was good too.
I was supposed to meet my friend from Sydney for a run in Central Park on Tuesday morning but I missed that appointment. Luckily there would be another chance later in the week.
On Tuesday it was the last day of the conference and also the last day of the conference rate at the Marriott Marquis so I had decided to move hotels to something cheaper. (Even though it was a business trip, it is my business so I did not want to waste money, and the rates went up considerably at the Marriott Marquis). I had wondered about moving to a completely different area of town but I really did not fancy taking up too much time moving. Added to that we had planned to see several shows and wanted to remain reasonably close to Central Park, so in the end I decided to just move around the corner to the Broadway @ Times Square- http://applecorehotels.com/broadway-...-square-hotel/. What a little gem this turned out to be for a lower rate! I had debated in my head about whether I should move when I checked out of the Marriott (during lunch time at the conference) or later in the day. The move was going to be a bit of a hassle because I had move all the luggage myseldf and because the hotel was only half a block it was not worth catching a cab. So whilst listening to the conference papers with one ear I was thinking about the logistics of moving when I remembered – Oh My God – left the passports in hotel safe and I checked out of the room 2 hours ago. With heart in mouth I ran to the hotel reception. They let me go back to the room but when I got there the safe was open and no passports (and also no cash that I had left also). I rang the reception in a panic but luckily the passports and some Australian Dollars had been handed in. (Funny I thought there were some US Dollars also but at that stage I was just happy to get the passports back so I didn’t complain; and I couldn’t be totally sure about the US dollars anyway. Phew – crisis averted. And at the end of the conference I moved across the street, checked in and waited for DH.
He had been on strict instructions to return by 6pm so that he would have time to change before walking to the theatre to see The Book of Mormon. We had been lucky to get tickets. I had only found out about the New York trip about 6 weeks before. But when I told DH he was with a friend who said “he knew a guy”. Well turns out he really did know a guy. His wife’s cousin was the producer of the show. So not only did we nab tickets but also had very good seats. We loved the show, laughed out loud all the way through. After that I had organised to have dinner at Oceana http://www.oceanarestaurant.com/. It was only a block or two away but as we walked out of the theatre it was raining quite hard. I did not want to spend $5 on an umbrella because I had one back at the hotel (as well as a rain jacket). So we thought we would make a dash for it. By the time we arrived at the restaurant my hair and dress were sticking to my skin. The wait staff was very sweet though and helped me dry off. We really enjoyed this restaurant. My husband particularly as he ordered lobster which he does not often have since I am allergic. We also enjoyed the sommelier’s recommendations for the wine. So we had yet another late night in New York (but at least we did not have to get up quite so early the next day.
Meantime in New York….
Monday and Tuesday were conference days. My presentation went pretty well and the conference was interesting. We only had time for a Monday evening activity where we went to Jazz Standard http://jazzstandard.net/red/index.html for the 9pm show. We also ate dinner there (food provided by Blue Smoke) where I ordered the pulled pork platter and DH ordered the ribs. We shared both meals which were way too much but I am embarrassed to say that the size did not stop me finishing it! Delicious. The music was good too.
I was supposed to meet my friend from Sydney for a run in Central Park on Tuesday morning but I missed that appointment. Luckily there would be another chance later in the week.
On Tuesday it was the last day of the conference and also the last day of the conference rate at the Marriott Marquis so I had decided to move hotels to something cheaper. (Even though it was a business trip, it is my business so I did not want to waste money, and the rates went up considerably at the Marriott Marquis). I had wondered about moving to a completely different area of town but I really did not fancy taking up too much time moving. Added to that we had planned to see several shows and wanted to remain reasonably close to Central Park, so in the end I decided to just move around the corner to the Broadway @ Times Square- http://applecorehotels.com/broadway-...-square-hotel/. What a little gem this turned out to be for a lower rate! I had debated in my head about whether I should move when I checked out of the Marriott (during lunch time at the conference) or later in the day. The move was going to be a bit of a hassle because I had move all the luggage myseldf and because the hotel was only half a block it was not worth catching a cab. So whilst listening to the conference papers with one ear I was thinking about the logistics of moving when I remembered – Oh My God – left the passports in hotel safe and I checked out of the room 2 hours ago. With heart in mouth I ran to the hotel reception. They let me go back to the room but when I got there the safe was open and no passports (and also no cash that I had left also). I rang the reception in a panic but luckily the passports and some Australian Dollars had been handed in. (Funny I thought there were some US Dollars also but at that stage I was just happy to get the passports back so I didn’t complain; and I couldn’t be totally sure about the US dollars anyway. Phew – crisis averted. And at the end of the conference I moved across the street, checked in and waited for DH.
He had been on strict instructions to return by 6pm so that he would have time to change before walking to the theatre to see The Book of Mormon. We had been lucky to get tickets. I had only found out about the New York trip about 6 weeks before. But when I told DH he was with a friend who said “he knew a guy”. Well turns out he really did know a guy. His wife’s cousin was the producer of the show. So not only did we nab tickets but also had very good seats. We loved the show, laughed out loud all the way through. After that I had organised to have dinner at Oceana http://www.oceanarestaurant.com/. It was only a block or two away but as we walked out of the theatre it was raining quite hard. I did not want to spend $5 on an umbrella because I had one back at the hotel (as well as a rain jacket). So we thought we would make a dash for it. By the time we arrived at the restaurant my hair and dress were sticking to my skin. The wait staff was very sweet though and helped me dry off. We really enjoyed this restaurant. My husband particularly as he ordered lobster which he does not often have since I am allergic. We also enjoyed the sommelier’s recommendations for the wine. So we had yet another late night in New York (but at least we did not have to get up quite so early the next day.
Jul 1st, 2012, 11:54 PM
#13
Looks like you had a great time Aussiefive. Thanks for the tips, filing them away in my "Next trip to NYC" folder.
Where was your Outback Trek?
POMAH, I'd have thought the meaning was pretty self evident, and let me just say, you'd want to use "barrack" rather than the American "root" to describe encouraging your team if you were in Australia or New Zealand!
Google it - and you'll see why.
Where was your Outback Trek?
POMAH, I'd have thought the meaning was pretty self evident, and let me just say, you'd want to use "barrack" rather than the American "root" to describe encouraging your team if you were in Australia or New Zealand!
Google it - and you'll see why.
Jul 2nd, 2012, 11:30 PM
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Thanks for the positive feedback keveryone. Just a quick update tonight as I have to go out.
Wednesday dawned grey and drizzly. A bit of a shame since today I had no meetings scheduled,. Conveniently I had met everyone on the two conference days so that left the rest of the week for me to play. DH had a meeting though. Since I am nominally a director in his company it was okay for me to attend and then we decided to carry on sightseeing after that.
His meeting was on Riverside Drive at 135th St. - not necessarily the best part of the city but that was kind of the point. My husband works in community development and he was visiting the Broadway Housing Communities. It was quite inspiring to see what they have done and I think DH got some ideas for his projects back in Sydney.
Since it was still drizzling we thought a museum would be best so after the meeting we got on the bus and headed up to the Cloisters (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art specialising in mediaeval art) http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/ The bus was a slow way of getting there but it provided us a bit of a view of neighbourhoods that we would never have visited otherwise. We enjoyed the visit to the museum, particularly the guided tour of the gardens. We walked back through the Fort Tryon Park to the subway and got off at 125th Street. We walked through Morningside Park, up to Columbia Univeristy and on to St John Divine Cathedral, which was alos well worth a visit. After a quick coffee and cake in a very nice café frequented mainly by students we caught the subway back to Times Square to get ready for our evening.
This night we had tickets to Venus in Fur. http://venusinfurbroadway.com/ It was the last week at this theatre and I was pretty excited to be going since I had heard how amazing Nina Arianda was. And I was not disappointed. I loved the play and loved loved loved her performance. And a bonus was that we sat right behind Uma Thurman. I could have touched her – but I resisted. After the play e had dinner at DB Bistro. I had the burger, DH had the bouillabaisse. Another great night in New York and for once we were home before midnight.
Wednesday dawned grey and drizzly. A bit of a shame since today I had no meetings scheduled,. Conveniently I had met everyone on the two conference days so that left the rest of the week for me to play. DH had a meeting though. Since I am nominally a director in his company it was okay for me to attend and then we decided to carry on sightseeing after that.
His meeting was on Riverside Drive at 135th St. - not necessarily the best part of the city but that was kind of the point. My husband works in community development and he was visiting the Broadway Housing Communities. It was quite inspiring to see what they have done and I think DH got some ideas for his projects back in Sydney.
Since it was still drizzling we thought a museum would be best so after the meeting we got on the bus and headed up to the Cloisters (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art specialising in mediaeval art) http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/ The bus was a slow way of getting there but it provided us a bit of a view of neighbourhoods that we would never have visited otherwise. We enjoyed the visit to the museum, particularly the guided tour of the gardens. We walked back through the Fort Tryon Park to the subway and got off at 125th Street. We walked through Morningside Park, up to Columbia Univeristy and on to St John Divine Cathedral, which was alos well worth a visit. After a quick coffee and cake in a very nice café frequented mainly by students we caught the subway back to Times Square to get ready for our evening.
This night we had tickets to Venus in Fur. http://venusinfurbroadway.com/ It was the last week at this theatre and I was pretty excited to be going since I had heard how amazing Nina Arianda was. And I was not disappointed. I loved the play and loved loved loved her performance. And a bonus was that we sat right behind Uma Thurman. I could have touched her – but I resisted. After the play e had dinner at DB Bistro. I had the burger, DH had the bouillabaisse. Another great night in New York and for once we were home before midnight.
Jul 3rd, 2012, 07:09 PM
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Oops. Sorry about all the typos. Just shows that you should not rush these things. The restaurant we went to on Wednesday was actually called DB Bistro Moderne http://www.danielnyc.com/dbbistro.html#intro but you probably guessed that.
So on Thursday morning we awoke early to meet my friend for a run in Central Park. (Another thing I forgot to mention but probably only important to me, was that we went for a run in the drizzle on Wednesday morning. My main memory of that was hopping over puddles as we ran around the reservoir).
This Thursday morning we were to meet my friend at 6.30 am at Columbus Circle gates. Since we had a relatively early night the night before we found this no problem. The morning was warm and sunny. My friend is participating in the Triathlon on 8th July and she was keen to run around the less popular direction as that is the way the triathlon run will be run. She said this was the harder direction because of the steepness of the hills (not sure as we tested the other way later). I struggled a bit due to the extra food, drinks and lack of sleep (possibly mostly due to the extra drinks).
After we left her we ran back down Broadway to our hotel for breakfast (I forgot to mention that this is included in the room rate, as is free Wi-Fi). I had planned a fun day of mainly walking. We planned to stay out all day and go straight to our evening activity. Our first stop was the Staten Island Ferry. On a trip a few years ago we had done the SOL Ellis Island trip but the free Staten Island trip was too much to pass up. We arrived to a huge crowd. I told my husband that we needed to go upstairs on the right hand side. He asked “do you think everyone else knows that?” You only had to see the number of guide books and hear the number of different languages spoken to know that this was tourist central. The return trip was good, with plenty of good photo ops and before we knew it we were walking up Broadway and standing next to the bull. We wandered down Wall Street for a bit and then decided to head towards the 9/11 memorial. I had looked at booking tickets but all the time slots I wanted were booked out. We decided to visit the museum and found that the tickets included a visit to the memorial as well. We found the museum very interesting. Then we lined up for the memorial visit. I am glad we had a chance to do this.
Our next port of call was to walk across Brooklyn Bridge. We then walked to Brooklyn Heights, had a quick wander along the promenade and then had a late lunch in a Greek Restaurant in Montague Street. By now it was after 4pm and still wanted to walk the Highline Park before our evening show.
We caught the subway back to 14th Street and nearly missed our stop as we were dozing on the train. We quickly jumped off and on the way towards Gansevoort St we found a lovely little park to sit in and recuperate. We then found the stairs to the Highline and walked up. I had intended to have drinks on top of the Gansevoort Hotel but when we first walked up to the Highline and looked at some of the information boards I spied a cute smaller rooftop bar just across the street. So off we went for a couple of quick Margaritas before heading back to the Highline Park. Not very far along was a competition between two teams of Step Dancers. After this we kept heading up to the end. The atmosphere in this park was amazing. Everyone just seemed excited to be there. And no wonder as the park is really good, with lots of different views to be taken in along the way.
We managed to get to 28th Street where our show was by 7.30pm. Just in time for our 7.45 booking at Sleep No More. http://sleepnomorenyc.com/ As soon as I had heard of this show I knew it would be one for us. We see quite a bit of theatre and are always up for something a bit different. Plus we are pretty fit so the thought of standing (and walking and running up and down stairs) for 2 hours did not bother us. We quite enjoyed the experience and are happy to say we did it but as a bit of theatre we did not love it. The plot is quite hard to follow and whilst I understand that the idea is to discover it for yourself I spent all my time worried I would miss something. (And I did! I missed the bath scene even though I knew about it). After the show though there was a bar and first a jazz band, then a rag time piano player and then a ragtime band (I think) playing which we really enjoyed. We had missed dinner and it was late so when we got back to Times Square we wandered around looking for an eating option and eventually forced to eat Sbarro Pizza – not our finest dining moment!
Friday was our last full day in NYC and we decided to make full use of this by sleeping in! Our first and only proper sleep in all week. We missed the hotel breakfast. We were still trying to work out what we would do that night as it was the only night I had not pre-planned. Having travelled over on the same plane as the Australian Ballet Company it was tempting to see them perform at the Lincoln Centre. But I have seen a lot of that company and it seemed like a waste to see something we can easily see in Sydney. So we opted to try to get tickets to One Man 2 Guvnors. We walked to the theatre but while we waited there were two women arguing about what discount they should get so DH got a little impatient and we walked out. We could see that Once was playing just across the road but since it had just one all those Tony Awards the previous week we doubted that we could get tickets. Luckily DH is an “asker” – we asked and received 2 cancellation tickets. So evening activity was sorted and I was very happy.
We then headed straight to Washington Square but as we walked from the subway DH reminded me that we would be in a plane for the entire Saturday night and Sunday and would therefore miss Mass this week so why don’t we just pop in now to the conveniently located church that we just happened to be walking past, and Mass just happened to be on! (He knew all this since earlier in the week he had attended while he was at his conference). After Mass we walked up Bleeker St and decided to have our breakfast/brunch at Cornelia St Café. Then walked back down Bleeker street and had coffee and dessert at Café Reggio.
We were now ready to shop. I needed to visit REI to buy a shirt for my trek the following week but before that we thought we would browse and perhaps by some gifts for our kids (adults). 3 hours later and about 10 bags later we were done! We had gifts, trekking gear (more than just a shirt), shoes, jackets and many other assorted items. We had a lot of stuff to carry back on the subway! We just had time for a quick change at the hotel, and also to make a quick booking for a midnight session at the Comedy Cellar before we went to see Once. Once is described as a game changer in musicals. We absolutely loved it.
When we left the theatre it was only a little after 10pm so we decided to catch the subway to 28th st so we could have drink at 230 5th. But when we saw the line to get in we abandoned that plan and headed straight to MacDougall St (by taxi). We located the Comedy Cellar then looked for somewhere to eat (not hard on that street). We ate at an Italian restaurant. It was good but I cannot remember the name of it. Only that it had been there since about 1918. The Comedy Cellar was only so so. We laughed but by the time it finished it was after 2am and I was really too tired.
On the last morning we were determined to run in Central Park again. We made sure we were up by 7 so it would not be too hot. This time we ran around the loop in the more popular direction. I would not say it was any easier. When we finished we decided to walk to the Boat house. We had 15 minutes to wait before the main restaurant opened for breakfast so we waited, had breakfast,, took photos and then walked back through Central Park again, enjoying the sunshine. We checked out of the hotel and had about 3 hours to kill before our car to the airport would arrive. We walked to Bryant Park, then on to the library which we visited (even though we had been before), then on to Grand Central Station. Then back to Bryant Park where we sat and had our last couple of Margaritas before we left for the airport and our long journey home to cold and wet Sydney.
So on Thursday morning we awoke early to meet my friend for a run in Central Park. (Another thing I forgot to mention but probably only important to me, was that we went for a run in the drizzle on Wednesday morning. My main memory of that was hopping over puddles as we ran around the reservoir).
This Thursday morning we were to meet my friend at 6.30 am at Columbus Circle gates. Since we had a relatively early night the night before we found this no problem. The morning was warm and sunny. My friend is participating in the Triathlon on 8th July and she was keen to run around the less popular direction as that is the way the triathlon run will be run. She said this was the harder direction because of the steepness of the hills (not sure as we tested the other way later). I struggled a bit due to the extra food, drinks and lack of sleep (possibly mostly due to the extra drinks).
After we left her we ran back down Broadway to our hotel for breakfast (I forgot to mention that this is included in the room rate, as is free Wi-Fi). I had planned a fun day of mainly walking. We planned to stay out all day and go straight to our evening activity. Our first stop was the Staten Island Ferry. On a trip a few years ago we had done the SOL Ellis Island trip but the free Staten Island trip was too much to pass up. We arrived to a huge crowd. I told my husband that we needed to go upstairs on the right hand side. He asked “do you think everyone else knows that?” You only had to see the number of guide books and hear the number of different languages spoken to know that this was tourist central. The return trip was good, with plenty of good photo ops and before we knew it we were walking up Broadway and standing next to the bull. We wandered down Wall Street for a bit and then decided to head towards the 9/11 memorial. I had looked at booking tickets but all the time slots I wanted were booked out. We decided to visit the museum and found that the tickets included a visit to the memorial as well. We found the museum very interesting. Then we lined up for the memorial visit. I am glad we had a chance to do this.
Our next port of call was to walk across Brooklyn Bridge. We then walked to Brooklyn Heights, had a quick wander along the promenade and then had a late lunch in a Greek Restaurant in Montague Street. By now it was after 4pm and still wanted to walk the Highline Park before our evening show.
We caught the subway back to 14th Street and nearly missed our stop as we were dozing on the train. We quickly jumped off and on the way towards Gansevoort St we found a lovely little park to sit in and recuperate. We then found the stairs to the Highline and walked up. I had intended to have drinks on top of the Gansevoort Hotel but when we first walked up to the Highline and looked at some of the information boards I spied a cute smaller rooftop bar just across the street. So off we went for a couple of quick Margaritas before heading back to the Highline Park. Not very far along was a competition between two teams of Step Dancers. After this we kept heading up to the end. The atmosphere in this park was amazing. Everyone just seemed excited to be there. And no wonder as the park is really good, with lots of different views to be taken in along the way.
We managed to get to 28th Street where our show was by 7.30pm. Just in time for our 7.45 booking at Sleep No More. http://sleepnomorenyc.com/ As soon as I had heard of this show I knew it would be one for us. We see quite a bit of theatre and are always up for something a bit different. Plus we are pretty fit so the thought of standing (and walking and running up and down stairs) for 2 hours did not bother us. We quite enjoyed the experience and are happy to say we did it but as a bit of theatre we did not love it. The plot is quite hard to follow and whilst I understand that the idea is to discover it for yourself I spent all my time worried I would miss something. (And I did! I missed the bath scene even though I knew about it). After the show though there was a bar and first a jazz band, then a rag time piano player and then a ragtime band (I think) playing which we really enjoyed. We had missed dinner and it was late so when we got back to Times Square we wandered around looking for an eating option and eventually forced to eat Sbarro Pizza – not our finest dining moment!
Friday was our last full day in NYC and we decided to make full use of this by sleeping in! Our first and only proper sleep in all week. We missed the hotel breakfast. We were still trying to work out what we would do that night as it was the only night I had not pre-planned. Having travelled over on the same plane as the Australian Ballet Company it was tempting to see them perform at the Lincoln Centre. But I have seen a lot of that company and it seemed like a waste to see something we can easily see in Sydney. So we opted to try to get tickets to One Man 2 Guvnors. We walked to the theatre but while we waited there were two women arguing about what discount they should get so DH got a little impatient and we walked out. We could see that Once was playing just across the road but since it had just one all those Tony Awards the previous week we doubted that we could get tickets. Luckily DH is an “asker” – we asked and received 2 cancellation tickets. So evening activity was sorted and I was very happy.
We then headed straight to Washington Square but as we walked from the subway DH reminded me that we would be in a plane for the entire Saturday night and Sunday and would therefore miss Mass this week so why don’t we just pop in now to the conveniently located church that we just happened to be walking past, and Mass just happened to be on! (He knew all this since earlier in the week he had attended while he was at his conference). After Mass we walked up Bleeker St and decided to have our breakfast/brunch at Cornelia St Café. Then walked back down Bleeker street and had coffee and dessert at Café Reggio.
We were now ready to shop. I needed to visit REI to buy a shirt for my trek the following week but before that we thought we would browse and perhaps by some gifts for our kids (adults). 3 hours later and about 10 bags later we were done! We had gifts, trekking gear (more than just a shirt), shoes, jackets and many other assorted items. We had a lot of stuff to carry back on the subway! We just had time for a quick change at the hotel, and also to make a quick booking for a midnight session at the Comedy Cellar before we went to see Once. Once is described as a game changer in musicals. We absolutely loved it.
When we left the theatre it was only a little after 10pm so we decided to catch the subway to 28th st so we could have drink at 230 5th. But when we saw the line to get in we abandoned that plan and headed straight to MacDougall St (by taxi). We located the Comedy Cellar then looked for somewhere to eat (not hard on that street). We ate at an Italian restaurant. It was good but I cannot remember the name of it. Only that it had been there since about 1918. The Comedy Cellar was only so so. We laughed but by the time it finished it was after 2am and I was really too tired.
On the last morning we were determined to run in Central Park again. We made sure we were up by 7 so it would not be too hot. This time we ran around the loop in the more popular direction. I would not say it was any easier. When we finished we decided to walk to the Boat house. We had 15 minutes to wait before the main restaurant opened for breakfast so we waited, had breakfast,, took photos and then walked back through Central Park again, enjoying the sunshine. We checked out of the hotel and had about 3 hours to kill before our car to the airport would arrive. We walked to Bryant Park, then on to the library which we visited (even though we had been before), then on to Grand Central Station. Then back to Bryant Park where we sat and had our last couple of Margaritas before we left for the airport and our long journey home to cold and wet Sydney.
