Thursday 9th July 2009
A big day in the Big Apple!
As part of our bus tour package we got tickets for a cruise along the Hudson River. The pier where the boat was didn't look too far away on the map so we decided to walk there - it ended up being about a mile and took us about 25 minutes so nearly missed the boat. Luckily we got there just in time...
The cruise started just south of where that plane landed on the river recently, then kept going south down the island past a few interesting buildings and sights (a driving range, celebrity owned apartments, the Food Network headquarters etc.), past wall street and where the twin towers used to be, then kept going down to the Statue of Liberty where it turned around and went back the same way it came.
The Statue of Liberty (taken from the cruise boat)
We met some Aussies on the cruise who told us we could take the bus back to Times Square so that's what we did. Once we got back to Times Square we decided to do another bus tour (also part of our package) - this time of uptown New York. This one took us up to Columbus circle, past the Trump Tower, then up the entire western side of Central Park, out through Harlem and past the Apollo theatre (where the Jackson 5 had got their start) then back down the other side of Central Park.
The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. This was the day after Michael Jackson's memorial and the white fence on the left is actually a board where people were writing messages.
We decided to jump off the tour halfway down 5th avenue and find a deli to get some sandwiches to have a picnic in the park. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the first cafe we came to was in a church but was in the process of having a fire drill, and then after walking for ages along 5th Avenue we didn't find any until we got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but found out you had to buy $20 tickets even to get to the cafe. We weren't really interested in seeing the museum at that stage so Mel had the bright idea of getting on a bus and heading down 5th Avenue until we saw one - lucky we did because there wasn't another one until the bottom end of the park! Anyway we got some really nice sandwiches and a couple of drinks and took another bus back up along side the park and had a lovely little picnic on one of the grassy hills, then wandered around and took a few photos.
The famouse "Literary Walk" in Central Park seen in just about every movie set in New York.
For those that aren't aware, Central Park is actually a huge place - took us 20 minutes to walk from one side to the other, and it would probably take literally all day to walk the entire length. Here's a good image (not ours) that shows how big it is in comparison to all the other buildings...
After our relaxing little picnic we caught the Subway back to the Empire State Building (again as part of the tour) and went to the 86th floor observation deck where you can see just about everything - what a fantastic view!
This is a photo we took from the top of the Empire State Building. You can see Central Park on the top left.
On our way back to the hotel from the Empire State Building we bought some shorts for Paul and also went to the biggest Toys 'R Us store we've ever seen. It was three storeys and even had its own Ferris Wheel and life size T-Rex animatronics thing, and an Empire State Building made out of Lego! After that we went back to the hotel, but decided we were hungry so went to "Restaurant Row" (46th Street) and found a nice Thai place called Bangkok House.
The ferris wheel in the Toys 'R Us store.
A big day in the Big Apple!
As part of our bus tour package we got tickets for a cruise along the Hudson River. The pier where the boat was didn't look too far away on the map so we decided to walk there - it ended up being about a mile and took us about 25 minutes so nearly missed the boat. Luckily we got there just in time...
The cruise started just south of where that plane landed on the river recently, then kept going south down the island past a few interesting buildings and sights (a driving range, celebrity owned apartments, the Food Network headquarters etc.), past wall street and where the twin towers used to be, then kept going down to the Statue of Liberty where it turned around and went back the same way it came.
The Statue of Liberty (taken from the cruise boat)
We met some Aussies on the cruise who told us we could take the bus back to Times Square so that's what we did. Once we got back to Times Square we decided to do another bus tour (also part of our package) - this time of uptown New York. This one took us up to Columbus circle, past the Trump Tower, then up the entire western side of Central Park, out through Harlem and past the Apollo theatre (where the Jackson 5 had got their start) then back down the other side of Central Park.
The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. This was the day after Michael Jackson's memorial and the white fence on the left is actually a board where people were writing messages.
We decided to jump off the tour halfway down 5th avenue and find a deli to get some sandwiches to have a picnic in the park. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the first cafe we came to was in a church but was in the process of having a fire drill, and then after walking for ages along 5th Avenue we didn't find any until we got to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but found out you had to buy $20 tickets even to get to the cafe. We weren't really interested in seeing the museum at that stage so Mel had the bright idea of getting on a bus and heading down 5th Avenue until we saw one - lucky we did because there wasn't another one until the bottom end of the park! Anyway we got some really nice sandwiches and a couple of drinks and took another bus back up along side the park and had a lovely little picnic on one of the grassy hills, then wandered around and took a few photos.
The famouse "Literary Walk" in Central Park seen in just about every movie set in New York.
For those that aren't aware, Central Park is actually a huge place - took us 20 minutes to walk from one side to the other, and it would probably take literally all day to walk the entire length. Here's a good image (not ours) that shows how big it is in comparison to all the other buildings...
After our relaxing little picnic we caught the Subway back to the Empire State Building (again as part of the tour) and went to the 86th floor observation deck where you can see just about everything - what a fantastic view!
This is a photo we took from the top of the Empire State Building. You can see Central Park on the top left.
On our way back to the hotel from the Empire State Building we bought some shorts for Paul and also went to the biggest Toys 'R Us store we've ever seen. It was three storeys and even had its own Ferris Wheel and life size T-Rex animatronics thing, and an Empire State Building made out of Lego! After that we went back to the hotel, but decided we were hungry so went to "Restaurant Row" (46th Street) and found a nice Thai place called Bangkok House.
The ferris wheel in the Toys 'R Us store.
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