The river boat tour was definitely a great opportunity for photos. Noirin is getting hers online now, as we watch all new Family Guy in real-time for a change. In the meantime, I’ve put 31 of mine up.
Sardi’s was great, and what Noirin didn’t mention is that we were 1 (empty) table away from David Hyde Pierce (aka Cecil Twiliger, or Dr. Niles Crane). Though the staff seemed more excited about this than we did.
Update: Noirin’s photos are online now.
Well, Sardi’s was… interesting. Lots of mixed signals - MDF tables, with crisp linen tablecloths… Muted decor and pretty lights, with 1960’s-style ceiling tiles… Ultra-polite staff bringing around a bread basket, and a busboy with a grey plastic basin of dishes… The food was good tho, and the Baked Alaska was suitably spectacular - alcohol poured over it and lit… It was fairly alcoholic by the end tho!
After that, we went on a river tour around the island; 35 miles in 3 hours. It was beautiful, and I have loads of photos! Colm got a pair of Sketchers - in a shop off times Square that’s open 9am-11pm Sundays! (9am-12am other days). We’re going to take it easy for the evening I think, getting photos sorted, and some of them online, and so on… Yay =)
We’ve had an easy morning - got up & out of the hotel by ten. It’s cooler today - although even yesterday was only slightly warmer than it’s been in Dublin the past few days. There’s a nice breeze today too, which makes a big difference!
We walked from the hotel down to Grand Central Station - wow, it’s *huge* - and beautiful. Many, many pictures were taken, and I even got to try out some funky things with slightly longer exposures, because there were handy ledges to lean the camera on… Met Reb there, which was slightly weird, but fun. He’s working in IT in a bank in New York, having spent the last year in Atlanta (Georgia), on a college exchange thing.
After that, it was subway time, down to SoHo. We didn’t explore much, just went to the Apple Store. I got Tiger, and Colm bought a new laptop bag - it’s practically *made* for his Vaio! So he’s delighted with that. Despite much shopping (Gap, Toys’R'Us, Swatch), the only other purchase was of 100 yards of dental floss for mum (I’m not certain it’s the right stuff - dental tape doesn’t seem to exist here - but it’s cheap enough that it really makes no odds if it’s never used!).
Actually - that’s not true. We also bought tickets to The Producers, on Wednesday afternoon - it does look like fun! Now we’re off to enjoy lunch at Sardi’s, and a nice Baked Alaska for dessert!
Turns out Manhattan is a good deal smaller than it looks on Google maps, so we’re staying literally 30 seconds walk away from Times Square. It’s slightly surreal having a 20-metre wide bilboard of the Gilmore Girls that close, but Colin would appreciate it.
In just idly and aimlessly walking around we encountered 5th, 7th, Lexington and Madison Avenues, saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral (a lot smaller than I imagined it) and we went into Saks, FAO Schwartz, The Disney Store, Central Park.
There’s a load of Musical instrument shops around the corner from us aswell, which be browsed for a while. I’ll almost certainly have a more detailed look over the week.
Man, it’s good to be here…
So, we’ve done some more exploring - seen the piano-dancers strut their stuff on the famous FAO Schwartz piano (and omigosh, the fluffy toys in there…! Large-as-life elephants and giraffes - wow!), seen a (very little) corner of Central Park, tried the subway a little more, wandered up & down 5th, Madison & Park Avenues (including such delights as the Disney store, and Saks)… Barnes & Noble hasn’t been explored yet, but we’re looking forward to all these things. St Patrick’s Cathedral was somewhat smaller, and less impressive, than we expected. We didn’t go in though - the signs saying that all bags & packages were subject to search just seemed a little more than we were up to, at that stage!
Dinner was at TGI Friday’s on Times Square (finding somewhere that was open, interesting and not a generic-multinational was beyond our sleepy brains) - Times Square is a bit manic, but the hotel room really does seem quiet enough for comfort. The hotel room is small but comfy, and has all we need.
Colm’s found half a dozen guitar shops, just a block away from us (the blocks are amazingly *small*, north-south. The east-west ones are bigger than usual, I guess)… He’s not entirely content with them, he wants to find a more folk-musicy one, but there’s plenty time yet =) We were considering a harbour cruise tonight, but decided not to in the end - neither of us is really conscious, although we’re trying very hard not to go to sleep! =) So we’d have ended up not remembering most of it, I suspect…
New York is amazing… The variety of people is just overwhelming - people from every walk of life, on every continent… On the subway in from the airport, there was more Spanish than English (and all the “J line is replaced with E & shuttle bus service this weekend” signs were posted bilingually… Downtown, I’m pretty sure most of the people we passed were speaking English - but I understood even less of that, than I had of the Spanish!
I’m just overwhelmed =) I love this place =)
At long last too =) The flight was about 45 mins shorter than anticipated, but still too long for my liking… The subway was air-conditioned, oh joy! We got here just fine, saw the Empire State Building from the airport train (tho Colm’s camera died before we managed to get a photo… It’s since been revived with the aid of some new batteries!). The hotel is small, but clean and neat - we’ve a view of a brick wall, but it’s hopefully made-up for by the fact that we’re at the back of the hotel, and thus a few metres further away from the madness that is Times Square! This place is *manic*…
Anyway, we’re off now to explore a little, find sustenance, and all that jazz =) Yay!
Well - I can’t believe it’s so *soon* to New York! Just watching the Phantom of the Opera (I’m a not-very-secret Lloyd-Webber junkie) to test the iBook’s battery, in anticipation of movie-watching on the plane… Everything’s scattered around my room, getting ready to get ready to pack =) Colm’s gone home to do his own packing, and I just know I’m forgetting half a dozen things at least!
In any case, I have almost all the important things, and beyond that, I’m sure there’ll be shops in New York (!) I’ve read the guide book, the websites, the blogs… We have so much to do, so much to see, so much to just *experience* =) Mmm, yay, and other good things!
Well, we’ve found lots of interesting things to do & see in New York… A wander over the Brooklyn Bridge, a tour of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - including a trip to the vaults! We’ve even found somewhere to have Baked Alaska - something Colm’s wanted to try for a while now =)
Eason’s had the Rough Guide to New York City on sale, and I’ve been poring through it… I’m really looking forward to a trip to Bowne & Co. Stationers, and doing my damndest to persuade Colm that rollercoasters on Coney Island are a good idea =) We’ll just have to see how it goes!
It’s hard to believe we’re not even three weeks away now - roll on New York!
Looks like June in New York is going to be pretty nice - at least by Irish standards!
The mean temperature is about 22°C in June, rising to almost 25°C in July (we’ll be there at the end of June, so it may be nearer the July figures…).
Humidity is hopefully going to be bearable, at 74% in the mornings, and dropping to about 56% in the afternoon. June gets 3 days of ‘extreme’ temperature (>32°C), while July gets 7 - hopefully we won’t see too many of those!
Finally, clear or partly cloudy days outnumber cloudy days two to one, which suits me just fine =)
In non-weather news, sunrise will be approx 5:25am for the week we’re there, and sunset will be 8:30pm. Good news, as we’re hoping to go up the Empire State Building in time to see New York by day, and stay up there long enough to see the lights start to come on too =)
At least, I’m hoping to do so! I’m not sure whether Colm thinks I’m mad, bad or dangerous to know, but a girl, and I have official permission to act like one too =)
Manhattan Island is approx 13.4 miles long (c. 21.5km) and 2.3 miles wide (c. 3.7km) at its widest. Approx 20 north/south blocks equals a mile - which makes walking several blocks much less scary - I was under the impression that ‘blocks’ were much bigger in the US =)
The NYC Street Finder seems horrifically complicated, but I’m hoping it will make more sense to the Navigator in Chief! =) The system seems logical enough at a distance, but looking into the nitty-gritty shows up a whole bunch of complications… Still, I’m sure we’ll find things easily enough.
So the blog is finally (I hope!) in a state that both of us can cope with =) It’s been an interesting weekend, with lots of “but you said you liked it!”, and “I didn’t want it that way, I thought you wanted it that way” - “No, I thought you wanted it that way!”, but I think it’s usable now…
The plan for New York is much less finalised - there’s a rough outline on the day pages, but there’s also a walking tour we want to try for, that will take most of a day, but take in almost five half-day plans! So expect the usual chaos to continue for the foreseeable!