Wednesday 8th July 2009
We had already purchased tickets to Chicago (the musical) so after sleeping in we got a little bit dressed up and went to see the matinee session at 2:30pm. It was in the Ambassador Theatre which is quite small, so at first we were a bit disappointed that it wasn't a big production but soon got over it and enjoyed the show and the music. Our seats were upstairs, right at the very front, in the middle, so that certainly helped! For those of you that have seen the movie it has all the same songs but is quite stylised as most live shows are, but one thing that was interesting was the band was all on stage on this big almost choir stand type thing but that was integrated as part of the stage e.g. there were stairs in the middle that a lot of the actors used to make their entrance on stage, and they would talk to the conductor as part of the show as well.
After Chicago we did a night (well, twilight) but tour of downtown and Brooklyn. The tour guide was very good - rather than spouting out historical facts and figures like some of the others we had he explained interesting parts of the city, like how the Empire State Building has been re-furbished to use 20% less energy, and the more personal aspect - the attitudes of New Yorkers in general and what they have acheived (like how the nobody thought the Flatiron building would still be standing today) and the changing face of the different districts.
This is a picture of the Flatiron Building (seen in movies such as Spiderman)
After the night tour we had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe in Times Square and the biggest thing that struck us about it all was that it was our first taste of the New York night life. Even though it was about 10:30pm it was still packed and still a 25 minute wait to get in and then when we left at about 11:30pm the streets were still as busy as it was during the day! The shops were still open, there were still street performers and hot dog stands and still just as many cars and people. When you take into account that there are 1.6 million residents on an island that is 13 miles x 2.5 miles (at it's widest) plus around another 2 million workers and tourists at any one time it gives an idea of what it's like. It truly is the city that never sleeps!
This is a picture of the Flatiron Building (seen in movies such as Spiderman)
After the night tour we had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe in Times Square and the biggest thing that struck us about it all was that it was our first taste of the New York night life. Even though it was about 10:30pm it was still packed and still a 25 minute wait to get in and then when we left at about 11:30pm the streets were still as busy as it was during the day! The shops were still open, there were still street performers and hot dog stands and still just as many cars and people. When you take into account that there are 1.6 million residents on an island that is 13 miles x 2.5 miles (at it's widest) plus around another 2 million workers and tourists at any one time it gives an idea of what it's like. It truly is the city that never sleeps!
The Empire State Building seen from Brooklyn (seen in in movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and Godzilla)
Mel and Paul on the night tour (not seen in any movies... yet)
No comments:
Post a Comment