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| see Central Park? |
5 days of sights and sounds of the Big Apple. I think this
is our 5th visit. Nothing is all that different, except for the
traffic. It seems to me that the city, that was always congested, is even more
clogged with cars, vans, and busses.
Day 1
The journey by taxi to the Edison Hotel, in Midtown/Hells Kitchen, took well over an hour on a Sunday evening. We knew it would be a fixed rate, but there were a few add-ons one of which Chris ‘disputed’. In the end all was fine, but WOW!
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| melted cheese! |
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| watching game 6 |
The Edison Hotel is in a great spot for Broadway shows, we had tickets for 3, ended up seeing 4. I don’t love this location as it so close to the craziness of Times Square, but that can kinda be avoided.
Tonight was game 6 of the World Series, so we figured we’d
find a pub, watch the game and have a bite. We found a pub that was LOUD.
Day 2
The hotel has a unique approach to included breakfast. Each
day, we have 2 coupons for a grab and go bagged breakfast in the hotel or pizza
later in the day at a place down the street. We went with the grab and go – a
fruit or croissant, egg/bacon/cheese sandwich, and a drink. All of this was
bagged to go. We ate back in the room. I like this approach.
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| Chess |
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| NYSE |
Japanese BBQ, a cookie shop, a meatball joint, a Balkan place, and finished at a Georgian (the country) place where we tried Saparavi wine, and melted cheese in a bread boat – delish!
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| so good! |
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| 911 Memorial |
Back at the hotel for a break before tonight’s Broadway musical – Chess.Chess is a revival of a musical from the 80’s. Written by Tim Rice and Benny and Björn from ABBA. The story is of chess players during the Cold War and is where One Night in Bangkok is from. Michelle Lee from Glee was one of the 3 stars. True to the Cold War theme, the dancing while obviously very good as it’s Broadway after all, but was very rigid and stiff – good but wasn’t exactly my taste.
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| Chris getting a hot dog |
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| Chris, Leo and me & the bridge |
Day 3
Today was my actual birthday.
We took the subway to the bottom of Manhattan, saw the
Statue of Liberty, the NY Stock Exchange, the 911 Memorial, and walked across
the Brooklyn Bridge. We found a cool outdoor place with a view of the bridge
for a glass of wine – it was about 20 degrees.
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| Brooklyn Bridge |
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| we were close! |
Chris picked all of the other musicals we saw, but this was
my pick. It was BY FAR the best of the 4 we ended up seeing. We had front row
tickets, and it was everything I’d hoped for and more. The musicians are a big
part of the show, and they were right on stage.
Front row was very interesting. We could see the facial
expressions so clearly, and I’m pretty sure
caught a whiff of BO when the performers
fist bumped us at the end of the show. Front row meant we were CLOSE. The one
downside for me being that close was that we couldn’t quite see the dancers’
feet for the angle of the stage. I like looking at dancers’ feet.
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| outside the theatre |
We started with a walk by of Madison Square Garden. We have
hockey tickets for tomorrow night, so want to know where we are going. Once we
found MSG, we wandered a bit and saw a sign pointing to Happy Hour – it was
noon, why not? We found Jayne’s Bar. A small narrow place with the bar in the
front and a sunken restaurant in the back. It was decorated with faux red
autumn leaves…very charming.
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| MSG |
We had tickets to & Juliet. & Juliet is a jukebox musical – Britney Spears, Katy Perry, NSYNC, etc. We were front row again – good choice.
When we were done, we thought we’d check out the discounted
tickets booth and see what there was for tonight. We found front row for Six,
the musical of the story of the 6 wives of Henry the 8th’. Again…good, but
no Buena Vista Social Club.
Jayne's Bar
Day 5
Grand Central
Our hotel offered free walking tours each day of a different
part of Manhattan, today we did the Midtown tour. We wandered behind our guide
as he pointed out interesting bits of architecture. The tour started at the Iroquois
New York, next to the New York Yacht Club and other old private clubs which are
still operating. Then we visited Grand Central Station, the NY Public Library,
Bryant Park and the Chrysler Building.
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| library |
We were so close to Jayne’s Bar that we just couldn’t no stop in. A $7 glass of wine in NYC is a BARGAIN.
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| library |
We couldn’t visit NYC without checking out at least one
museum. We decided on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, probably our favourite in
NYC.
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| & Juliet |
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| Six |
Tonight, we had tickets to The NY Rangers with Leo. The 3 of
us met at a pub close to MSG. We didn’t get the most expensive tickets in the
arena, but they were great for a bird’s eye view of the action. What was the
most expensive was the beer. I think I paid 20USD for a beer. It was a big beer
but still!
After we hit a bar on restaurant row in Hell’s Kitchen close to our hotel. It wasn’t easy finding a place
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| hockey game |
open after the game.
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| Brooklyn Bridge |
Day 6
We are going home today. We figured it would be just as fast
and infinitely cheaper to take the subway back to JFK. As we figured, it was.
Having only small rolling cases and backpacks make it easy.
