4 hours on the bus and we had finally arrived in the big apple…a placed I’d always dreamed about visiting. It felt surreal seeing the skyline as we inched towards it in the traffic.
Another uber to our hotel…James had nabbed a bargain (by New York standards) with a hotel just off of Times Square and whilst we waited for check in, we scoffed some NY hot dogs down us after forgetting to take snacks on the long bus journey.
Bags dropped in the room and we headed off to Central Park for a wander around. It was like Hyde Park on acid…wonderful. So many different people from rollerskaters, cyclists, horse-drawn carts, a bridal party even. I loved it.
We headed to Top of the Rock for sunset but queues meant we got up about 30 mins too late. Hey ho, was fab to see the skyline lit up with the empire state in red, white and blue for labor day. A stop in Times Square completed our first day in NY so we headed back to the hotel to try and sleep over the noise of the Manhatten night.
Day 2 was the classic tick off the list Empire State building where we beat some of the queues after opting to walk some of the stairs up rather than the lift. I always find these moments quite surreal…that you’ve seen the views on postcards, movies etc so you kind of know what to expect. We took the obligatory photos that we probably won’t look at again but it was nice to have experienced it anyway.
We then took a slow saunter through Chinatown before going to the 9/11 memorial and museum. The museum was incredible. We had the conversations of ‘what were you doing when…’ both of us still at school, but old enough to have remembered the event. The museum is built on the site of the old towers and has a lot of the old wreckage on display for you to be able to understand the impact. There was even an exhibition of all the rescue dogs that helped and their stories post 9/11
Dinner was pasta in little Italy. The Maitre De was comically Italian/American…really laying on his personality to anybody who walked past…he had me at the mention of free wine with dinner.
We rounded off the night at a comedy show in midtown. The bar was gorgoeus and playing lots of indie tunes! We headed downstairs to the show and were one row from the front. I knew we were prime targets to be called out…looking very touristy and James hair is enough to stand out. Of course it happened….three times in fact. Was a great show with around 6 or 7 comedians which were all brilliant.
Our final day was super rainy so we decided to spend a morning in the Natural History Museum. They had a shark exhibition so I was in my element and the planetarium show was pretty decent too! Our city pass allowed us to have a trip on the River Hudson to take in the Statue of Liberty and see the rest of the Riverside whilst staying dry and listening to the hilarious commentator who had been doing these river trips for over 20 years!
It was amazing to spend a few nights in NY before picking up the truck but we had the underlying excitement of getting out and on the road. We has a few days in New Jersey prepping for the roadtrip and that’s where we finally got the news we could pick up the landcruiser. Well rested after sleeping in a king-size bed, we made our way to the port to pick her up and get going.
Let the roadtrip begin
Loopy Loo and James – how are you getting on
Have you watched any sport yet – done anything crazy
Not missing much here really
Miss you both – hugs