Friday, December 09, 2016

We're back... New York December 2016

After saving up again for another 2 years, to be able to travel back to the U.S, our early morning start to the airport was not without it’s problems! 
Firstly a flat car battery, so had to make a mercy call to a good friend at 3am for a lift to the airport, followed by our 13 hours flight time of the poor kid behind us throwing up the entire way across the Pacific to Los Angeles. The 2nd flight across to New York the guy next to us decides to pass out cold! 

Anyhow moving on…….checked into our accommodation at our first stop New York City about 11pm local time, thankful we arrived safely and slept well!

Staying on Broadway, just 2 blocks from Central Park, on the Upper West Side, we spent the day wondering around. Totally enjoying not having to be anywhere in particular for work, appointments, school pick ups, sport drop offs….just us and no pressure to run to schedule!



The weather here was not dissimilar to a Ballarat day of about 8 degrees. Coats and scarves on and walked for about 7 hours around the park. Beautiful lakes, ponds that freeze over, park lands, bridges, sports grounds, playgrounds, Zoo and of course a skating rink. Not to mention the gorgeous ‘Bouthouse’ restaurant! Took loads of photo’s and have popped them on for you all to enjoy.



Day 2 – getting a bit colder now. Today saw us take on the Empire State Building. Went up to the observation deck to take some great photo’s over New York City. Then off to Madison Square Gardens for a tour. Home of the New York Knicks (Basketball) and the New York Rangers (Ice Hockey). Seats approx. 20,000 people. To create the ice hockey rink they only have enough time to freeze and melt the surface area once a year. When they have a concert or basketball game straight after a hockey game they just place the court straight over the top of the ice, taking only 3 hours to do so. Very interesting! At night we had tickets to the New York Islanders Vs St Louis Blues ice hockey game over in Brooklyn at the Barclay Centre.



Day 3 – Caffeine required! Grabbed our standard Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to start the day and off to catch our ‘Hop on hop off’ bus tour. 241 Starbucks coffee shops in New York but prefer the Dunkin’s coffee. However to our Tour Guide’s credit he took us to a Pastry Shop that he said had the ‘best’ coffee in New York City. Yes – he was right. It was comparable to a ‘good’ Melbourne coffee back home. So am happy now we have somewhere to go on the Upper West Side to have great coffee.

Covered the Harlem area this morning then back down to the Rockerfella Centre to see the infamous Christmas tree! Yes very beautiful but I was disappointed at how small the skate rink was, so chose not to skate here like I’d wanted to. Took the Ferry out on the Hudson River to see the Statue of Liberty and the amazing Manhattan Skyline. 
Very, very cold today. -1 degrees celcuis and I’d hate to think what the wind chill is. We have nearly all our clothes on today, thermals, t.shirts, jumpers/sweaters, coats, hats, scarves (and now gloves have been added to our collection)!! 
It gets dark about 4.30 – 5pm here, so headed to the Central Park Skate Rink to skate under lights on the Trump Rink. Amazing time, just beautiful. Then walked from 57th Street back to 101st Street to home.



Tomorrow see’s a day of shopping for the girls and a baseball field tour of the New York Yankee’s Stadium for the boys. 

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