Hey there Delilah… What’s it like in New York City… It’s amazing!

So to please my Mother mainly, I shall write a wee bit about our trip to New York. Not quite as a detailed blog as my Mum would do however.

We got up very early on Thursday (well 5am) and Stuart drove us to the airport as our flight was at 09:00, however on approach to the screens, we found out it was delayed until 09:45 and we weren’t sure what time we had to be checked in and stuff by so we were there really early and check-in took only a few minutes. So we commenced our unhealthy-ness with a large full Scottish breakfast before sitting around playing my Dad’s Nintendo DS for ages before we were finally called to board.

I had my window seat and as we were told it was a full flight, we were expecting a random to be sitting in the seat next to Jamie, however nobody showed up and it was the only empty seat on the flight! So it meant we could spread out across three seats which was quite good. The flight wasn’t bad, I played the DS most of the time and Jamie watched some films and the first episode of season 5 of House! Unfortunately we were sitting on the ‘wrong’ side of the plane as those on the left got a lovely view of New York City as we came in to land. We didn’t get into Newark too much later, despite our delay at Glasgow and we got through customs and got our luggage pretty quick and headed out to get a yellow taxi. I was of course amazed driving toward the city as it looks exactly like it does in postcards!

We checked into our hotel, the Sheraton Hotel and Towers and to my disappointment, of a 50-odd storey hotel, we were on floor 5. We didn’t have a fantastic view but we could see the street and watch the eternal tide of yellow taxis. So after we got checked in we went for a walk to see what was close by and we found we were literally 3 minutes walk from the middle of Times Square! So we had a leisurely walk to the Rockefeller Centre and saw the people ice skating. It was absolutely freezing so we passed on going ice skating and instead went to Dean & Deluca’s which does the best hot chocolate! (Better than Starbucks!) And we listened in to all the rich stockbrokers in the coffee shop talking about “$50million here and $50million there” which made Jamie decide this will be him in a few years.

On our walk we were touted by a ticket salesman and we bought these $80.00 tickets which gave us; unlimited bus tour for 3 days, nighttime bus tour, entry to the Empire State Building, entry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, entry to a museum of our choice, a 2-hour cruise on the Hudson and a $10.00 voucher for Planet Hollywood so it turned out to be a really good deal. We also went to see Grand Central Station which was lovely.

In the evening, just before sunset we went up to the top of the Empire State Building which has one of the fastest elevators and gets you all the way up to the 86th floor in seconds! And your ears pop as if you’re taking off in a plane! At the top it was even more freezing and SO windy! But we braved the cold to get some good photos and then we hid inside until the sun set and we were able to get some night-time views. I think we were up there for at least 2 hours, it does have the most amazing views!

After the Empire State we decided we would go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner as we were quite tired. It turned out the restaurant was really busy and we had to wait AGES to get a table. However the meal was excellent, we both had pulled pork burgers which were lovely. And after all that we were glad to cosy up in the big comfy bed and enjoy some American TV before going to sleep.

Friday we were up really early due to the time difference and we headed straight out for breakfast. We found a little diner where I had a stack of pancakes. We then headed for the bus again to take it down to the financial district and had a little more of the tour where we saw the flatiron building and various other sights. We got off at Ground Zero which had a good museum/memorial bit with a timeline of events but the actual “ground” is just a building site at the moment so not much to see. We then took a walk in the financial district we went to see the New York Stock Exchange with its HUGE American flag outside and listened to more stockbroker conversations.

We then decided to brave the cold and get the Liberty Island ferry to see the statue of Liberty. We stayed indoors on the ferry as it was just SO cold! The statue of Liberty is HUGE and from the island you get fantastic views of the city. We also took the ferry across to Ellis Island which is where all the immigrants landed to be checked and granted entry into America so lots of history which pleased Jamie. After braving the cold we of course had to go for another hot chocolate at Dean & Deluca’s before getting back on the tour bus to complete our tour around China Town, Little Italy and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Back in the city we decided to visit the museum of Modern Art which I thought was excellent! Lots of random things and obscure forms of art. After spending some time in there we went and got on the night tour bus which was lovely and offered great views through Times Square and Fifth Avenue and then took us over the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn where we had time to get off the bus and get some pictures of Manhattan. It was of course freezing! After our full tour at night we were knackered and decided to go back to the hotel and go straight to bed for an early night.

We awoke pretty early on Saturday too due to our early night the previous night and went to a different diner for breakfast which turned out to be really expensive but nice nonetheless. We had bagels and lots of coffee! We then walked to Central Park as it was a really lovely day. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around there and playing on the swings! We then walked the 40-odd blocks through the "motor district" to get the Cruise which we were told leaves at 12:30 however it turned out that it wasn’t leaving until 4pm! So we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves so we went a walk back to the city to do some shopping. We first went into Macy’s and Jamie was looking for pyjamas; however he didn’t find the ones he was looking for so got a bit fed up and that was the end of shopping! So we went a walk again, including some coffee and cake, to the Upper West Side and killed some time until 4pm when the cruise was leaving.

The cruise itself was lovely and had awesome views of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, everything really! And it was nice and warm inside and we opted not to venture out onto the deck! After our trip we walked back to the City and went for dinner at Planet Hollywood where although we had a wait, it wasn’t too long. Jamie had sizzling fajitas which much cheered him up as he was in a mood about Macy’s; and I had lasagne. After Planet Hollywood we took a walk through Times Square, which was SO busy, and went back to the hotel.

Sunday we found another little diner for breakfast and I again had pancakes and lots of coffee. It wasn’t as nice a day at Saturday so we decided today would be museum day. We took another walk through Central Park to get to the Metropolitan Museum first of all. It was quite interesting although just far too much stuff to take in and read! They just have SO many ancient things, I especially liked the reconstructions of the dark age bedrooms and such. I particularly wanted to visit the museum of Natural History so that was our next stop and we both found that really interesting. They have a tree that is about 30 feet in diameter and they house the third largest meteor to have hit the Earth as well as displays of every organism to have lived, including a huge section on dinosaurs. After that we decided we were quite tired of museums so we went a walk back to Times Square to the Ticket Booth to see what Broadway shows were available and we were lucky enough to get tickets for Chicago!

Before the show we went for an early dinner at TGI Fridays where we both had burgers and smoothies. We had a little while to spend before the show so we went into the big Virgin store on Times Square which was closing down so had lots of deals on. We then went to the Theatre to see Chicago. We both enjoyed it very much, unlike the whole row of Chinese students students sitting in front of us who slept through the whole thing! We then went back to the hotel to watch the Oscars while eating big cookies and drinking Mountain Dew.

On Monday it was a lovely day again so we went back to Central Park and got a horse and carriage through the park which was very romantic :) We then went to the Rockefeller Centre and went to the Top of the Rock which isn’t quite as high as the Empire State but I preferred it as it was enclosed with glass so wasn’t windy or freezing and offered amazing views of both the Empire State itself and of Central Park and beyond. We stayed there for a while and then took the Subway to Ground Zero which was an awesome adventure! We went to Century 21 and bought Jamie his pyjamas which were really cheap and then headed back to the City on the Subway again as it was time to collect our luggage, say Goodbye to New York City and hail a taxi back to the airport.

The flight check-in was very quick and we again had ages to wait before boarding, however take-off we were on the right side of the plane and got fantastic views of Manhattan, especially as to get on the correct flight course the pilot pretty much did a round trip of Manhattan so we saw loads! I went to sleep on the flight and we were back in Glasgow on time and unfortunately neither of us got to go to bed as we both had uni that day however we slept all afternoon!

Before you ask… Yes there is photos, lots of them! Click Here