Showering and watching telly at the same time ?????

We were so tired the next morning, we were still on New Zealand time and we didn’t get to sleep until early morning. We had to hand in our room keys cos we were moving room. The staff said they would move our bags and we’d get new keys on our arrival.

We walked up to the corner of Lex and East 40th and stopped off at Blooms Cafe for some breakfast (this becoming our local too!). We all had awesome breakfasts with Ben having his first NY Bagel with Cream Cheese.

We then walked down some blocks to the Empire State Building ..... it’s massive! We eventually got into the lobby after dodging all the bus ticket touts trying their hardest to get us to buy tickets!! We walked up to the ticket office for the building and were luckily told by a woman the visibility was very poor today and to come back later in the week. Saved us a few dollars there!!
We walked back out onto the street and were just deciding what to do next when we were jumped on by Kojo ...... a City Sights NY Bus Ticket Tout. He was lovely and sold us some good tickets, we got a bargain cos he agreed to give us the 3 day tickets for 5 days. He even got us on the next tour bus that turned up, there was even room on the top. Great views!!

We drove down through the New York streets, its so hustle and bustle. We passed the Flat Iron Building and the memorial fence for the Twin Towers with all the tiles on it. There was an arts festival on and there were statues of people everywhere on the tops of the buildings. Even one on the Flat Iron Building. We carried on and all decided to get off the tour bus at Soho. It’s the place to go for shopping in New York apparently. We called into Macy’s and Bloomingdales before walking round the corner to The World Trade Centre.

There was so much work going on behind big wooden boards. They had pictures up on what they were building there. Two massive towers (not as big as the others) with a memorial park in the middle. A big water feature for people to go and visit. We had a walk right round the outside where the two towers stood and stopped off at a WTC Memorial. We paid our $10 to go in, unfortunately we had just missed out on an audio guided tour but there were still loads to do once inside. It was full of information about September 11th, from the relatives to people who had never been found, to the emergency services that attended that day. It was really emotional but very interesting. They had a wall of faces and missing people posters, so sad. They had video footage about the buildings themselves and how it was like a city inside a city just being in the towers. They had letters and charms from around the world, it really was emotional.

After we had a good look around we continued to walk around the outside of the Trade Centre. There wasn’t much more to be seen so we headed back. Stopping off at Trinity Church for a picture.

We decided to head back down to Times Square for some tea so hopped back on the bus. We drove down by the Hudson River and under the Manhattan Bridge and passing the Brooklyn Bridge. We carried on up through China town and passed the Rockefeller Centre. We eventually arrived at Planet Hollywood.

There was memorabilia all over the place from the different films. They had Slimer from Ghostbusters and had all the outfits from the Die Hard films too..... awesome!!

After tea we called into Jacks for some swift pints before walking back to the hotel. On our way back we had to pass Grand Centre Station, so decided to drop in to have a look around. It’s such a beautiful building outside and inside. We walked in through the big doors and walked to the centre. Ben and Dad went to get some photos of the station whilst me and Mam stood and appeared in all of them ..... not deliberately !! After some great shots we walked back to the motel for a freshen up and to see what new rooms we would get.

Ermmmmmmmm, well the rooms were clean. Even oldier worldier than the last and we had showers in the bedroom .... very strange!! Mam and Dad were lucky cos they had a toilet and sink room, where as mine and Ben’s toilet was on it’s own on one side of the room. Our sink was just in the bedroom next to the shower. You could actually have a shower and watch telly at the same time!

Lisa texted us to say her and Stuart had arrived in NYC, so we arranged to walk to their hotel to see them. They didn’t know Mam and Dad were here for the wedding, we’d kept it as a surprise!! We all walked back down to Times Square to The Crowne Plaza Hotel. We waited in the hotel bar, me and Ben sitting one side of the room and Mam and Dad on the other. Poor Lisa and Stuart were so tired but they managed to come down. We said our hellos and got a drink before going to look for tables, but walking towards Mam and Dad. Ben suggested a table right beside Mam and Dad, and Lisa sat down first. Mam piped up “What is our table not good enough for you’s??!!”, Lisa’s face was a picture .... ha ha so funny. She couldn’t believe that they were both here. Cool !! After the shock we all sat down and caught up on some of the gossip about the wedding, can’t believe we were all just sitting there chatting away like it’s the norm, with Times Square flashing away behind us.

We left them after an hour and arranged to meet them at Central Park at the wedding ..... woo hoo !!We had to walk past Jack’s on the way home, so called in for some pints. You just lose all sense of time in New York, you could stay up all night because nothing closes.