Day 5 New York and……

Last night we went to the New Amsterdam Theatre to see Aladdin. It was spectacular! From the theatre décor to the props and scenery, from the acting to the singing…..we enjoyed every minute. We managed to get tickets in the front row of the mezzanine level.

After the show ended we walked about 5 blocks to Times Square. At 9.30 pm in about – 6 degrees with an icy wind blowing, Tine Square was buzzing! This is when you see why NY is known as the city that never sleeps! (We were freezing as we didn’t have our kappies with us as we were trying to have decent hairdo’s for the theatre, and beanies make my hair flat and Willians take off!) Vanity!

We walked back to our hotel, picking up some pizza for a late supper – all food outlets are open and busy at this time of a weeknight! By this stage, we were both frozen!

Today was going to be our last full day in New York. We woke up this morning, opened our blinds,  and it was snowing!

We ventured out – and walked to the subway with snowflakes falling on us. Wonderful!

We caught the subway downtown and walked to board the ferry to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. (Many ferries take you past the statue, but only this one dock at the island. By now it was snowing harder. But nothing deters us. We sat on the top deck of the ferry in the snow (having wiped the snow off our bench to sit down).

The statue is huge! When you stand next to it you realize the magnitude of it. I think it is 67m in height! And to think it was built in France and shipped across the Atlantic in sections in the late 1800s!

Whilst we were walking around the museum on the island, William received notification that due to the storm due to hit NY late on Fri, our flight to Miami on Saturday morning had been cancelled! However, they would rebook us on another flight……on Sunday! We have our first day at Disney World booked on Sunday!

So to cut a long story short we hot-footed it back to our hotel. William changed our flights to today at 16.10. We packed, checked out, hailed a yellow cab (yip we did it) and arrived at LA Guardia Airport set for Miami.

I am typing this blog on our flight to Miami. Thus far we have not been able to change our car hire from tomorrow until today, and we don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight,  but we will get it all sorted when we land.

The silver lining is that we may now have time to drive to Key West which we weren’t going to be able to do tomorrow before we head up to Orlando.  Clearly, lots of other people had the same idea as we did, based on the chapter around us!

I think I have waffled enough….my apologies if I bored you!

Chat from Miami or Orlando!

Day 4 New York

So today we have had a slower day!  We have muscles complaining about the amount of walking we have been doing – Monday was 17 km, Tuesday was 18 km and yesterday was 19km.  Not bad hey!

We caught the subway to Downtown New York this morning (please note I am getting the NY linger!)

We went to visit the 911 Tribute Memorial Museum, and then the 911 Memorial Museum – the latter being far more informative and interesting, in our opinion.  The latter is on the site where the Twin Towers were hit.  To see how the steel pillars were bent with the impact, and hear recordings of family members who lost their loved ones was chilling.  A day that will never be forgotten by those of us who are old enough to remember it.

The building below is called the Oculus – very strange architecture!  It is a shopping centre and a hub of subway stations.

We then proceeded across the road to the One World Observatory – the highest building in NY.  We zoomed up 102 floors in 47 seconds!  (Your ears take a little longer to get there!) Here we had 360 degree views of NY.  Again it was beautifully clear.  We sat and shared a pepperoni flatbread for lunch – quantities are huge! – admiring the view.  There is no outside deck here, so our pics may not be very clear – apologies!

We almost got lost finding our train back to Midtown, but we managed!  We walked up to Times Square to see it by day.  Not as exciting as it is at night!

We returned to our hotel to book tickets for a Broadway show – we are off to Aladdin this evening! So excited!   (The song from Aladdin – A whole new world was our opening dance at our wedding).  And I needed to do a little work.

Today has been chilly, but not as cold unless you got hit by the wind! I think we got to 0 degrees in the “heat” of the day!

When we get to Miami on Saturday it is forecast to be about 15 degrees – we are going to feel like it is mid summer!

That is all for today from The Travelling Taylors.

Day 3 – New York

What a day we have had!  It has been crystal clear and FREEZING!  We left the hotel this morning wrapped up to the nines, and caught the subway to Hudson Yard.  Strangely there were not many people around – but I suppose all people in their right minds were not walking the streets at about -8!

First on our agenda was The Vessel.  As you can see from the pic below, it is a strangely shaped building!

We then proceeded up 100 floors to The Edge – a protruding “balcony” where you can see New York and surrounds.  Magnificent!  On the balcony floor is a glass piece where you can stand – ie nothing between you and the ground 100 floors down.  (Dylan – we thought of you as we know how you can’t walk over any glass – let alone 100 floors up!)  I eventually managed to step onto the side of it, but could not breathe while I was on it!  William just walked on and took pics!

We then came back down to ground level, and proceeded to walk (still in sub zero temperatures) along The Skyline – an elevated pathway with gardens that runs for about 2km.  Unfortunately the gardens were not looking too good, but not much can withstand these temperatures!

We popped in at the Chelsea Market and had a quick bite to eat at Tacos No 1 – a place that William really wanted to try.  As you all know I don’t eat spicy food, so asked for just guacamole to be added to my chicken taco.  Unfortunately the Mexican man did not understand, and I got my chicken taco with everything except guacamole!  My mouth burned for hours afterwards!!!!!  Even a Donkin Donut (yes, they are still going strong here!) didn’t help!

We were heading for the Rockefeller Centre when we looked up and saw the most beautiful cathedral – St Patricks.  We went in and it was beautiful inside.  The only disappointment for us was the St Patricks Cathedral Souvenir Shop in the Cathedral!  We then continued to the Rockefeller Centre, and were taken on an interesting tour of all their buildings.  To end that off we went up to Top of the Rock (Top of the Rockefeller Centre) 70 floors up where we, again, had stunning, clear views of this metropolis.  It was interesting to look down on Central Park where we had walked on Monday in the snow!

Back onto the subway we hopped – we are becoming pro’s at navigating the subway – and off we hopped at Byrant Park – where there is an ice rink at this time of year.  Outdoors!  And we popped in at the Public Library where many a movie has been filmed.  Unfortunately, due to renovations we could not see much.

Our last outing of the day was to the Empire State Building.  Up 86 floors and again amazing views.  We chose to go up at sunset to get a different perspective of the city.  It was freezing standing outside there, and when I put my gloves back on (as you can’t work your cell phone camera with them on), the heat packs I had in my gloves felt like they were burning my hands! (Liza, I found the heat packs you spoke of at a pharmacy here today – thanks for telling me about them!) 

After all this, the Terribly Tired Travelling Taylors walked the 1.1 km back to our hotel, picking up some supper at Jollibees – similar to KFC but 100 times nicer! – and flopped down to eat it.  It is only just after 8pm here now, but it won’t be long until we are lights out!

Day 2 of New York

Let’s start off by saying that we are The TIRED Travelling Taylors!

We have walked over 18 km today, with a fair bit of inclines and so we both have muscles telling us to slow down!

We started off today by getting on the hop On Hop Off Bus – unfortunately, this was a real letdown!  We both remembered doing the Hop On Hop Off in CT some years ago with Willliam’s beloved Uncle Theunis, which was really informative, but this was quite the opposite – silly remarks in the audio and not much information.

We left the bus to see Little Italy and Chinatown.  What we did not know was that most things around NY only get going around 11.00!  So W and I walked around some quite dodgy, very quiet streets.  We did manage to buy a few bits and bobs to take home and saw grapefruit about 3 times the size of what we get at home.

We hopped back on the bus and went to the next stop – Brooklyn Bridge.  We walked across the pedestrian walkway above the bridge which is 1.8 km.  It links Manhattan Island to Brooklyn across the East River. Once in Brooklyn, we walked to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).  An interesting “Yuppie” are.  We went to a market called Timeout Market (thought of you, Neil) and enjoyed a warm hot chocolate and decadent choc cookie while we thawed out a little and rested our weary limbs!

We then walked back over the Brooklyn Bridge and headed off to find Wall Street.  Then off to the Charging Bull, which is a bronze statue celebrating the “can do” spirit of NY.  While queuing to take a pic of W with the bull, we noticed that the queue at the rear was longer than the queue we were in.  So after having taken the pic we went around to see what the attraction at the rear was…. To put it crudely….. everybody wanted their pic taken holding the bull’s balls!!!!!!

The next place we visited today was the Roosevelt Tram.  These trams link Manhattan Island to Roosevelt Island, crossing the East River.

We hopped off the subway at Grand Central Station – it makes CT station look tiny!  Imagine lights like these in CT station!

Off we went to do some shopping as buying water, etc at the local 7 Eleven is very costly.  Our trip back from the shops did not go according to plan.  We ended up walking quite a distance (with poor W lugging our purchases). 

For supper, we popped down to the Pizza Shop on the corner and bought some delicious pizza slices.

Tomorrow our maximum is -5 degrees – and a minimum of – 11.  A little chillier than today’s maximum of 5.

On tomorrow’s agenda are Madame Tussauds, Empire State Building, and a few other places as well.  Hopefully less walking!

This last pic is the view from our hotel room at about 17.45 – it gets dark here early!  Not a bad view from our bed!

Day 1 in New York

Our travels from SA went well. We left CT at about 35 degrees and arrived in New York at 0 degrees! A bit of a shock. We could not get off the plane for about an hour as they could not get the stairs to the plane! They went to get a kit to fix it, and that also did not work, so they ended up having to move the plane to another spot! (So it’s not only in SA that things don’t work!) William’s luggage was nowhere to be found after we cleared customs, but fortunately, we spotted it at the BA counter, so all was well! We then found our way on the Air Train and subway into NY, and walked to our hotel.

After unpacking and a quick shower, we headed out on foot – rather chilly – and found Time Square…..wow!

We grabbed a bite to eat, and headed home – I crashed just after 19.00, and William was a little after me. We both slept like the dead!

We started off today by finding our way on the subway system to Central Park. And when we got there, it was snowing! Our first time in snow…..so exciting! We had hoped we would see some snow! We kept walking to try and keep warm. In fact my watch tells me we have walked just over 17km today!

We then went to MOMA – Museum of Modern Art – Charlene, I hope that you are proud of me! We felt like fish out of water, but it was good to be inside and thaw out a bit. (I think it took us longer to find our way out of the place than it did to look around! Clearly art is not our thing!)

This afternoon we went on a sightseeing cruise around Manhattan. It was great to see a lot of landmarks from the river and pass under 20 bridges!

Now we are heading out to a Diner, recommended to us by one of William’s colleagues.

We will chat again soon!