Goodbye New York, for now New York, NY

New York, NY

Like it or not (here’s a hint: not) this was our last full day here in New York City. It helped reinforce the fact that if there’s anything we don’t see or do today… it can’t be done tomorrow. So it was time to make the most of it. We started the day grabbing breakfast to go at Best Bagel and Coffee. Without the coffee, this time. Then straight on to the subway to get the E train up to 50th street, to meet up with our TV and Movie Sites tour. It was a bit of fun for three hours, seeing a good deal of places like the apartment block used in Friends, the firehouse used in Ghostbusters, Grace’s office/studio building from Will and Grace, and many many others, from Taxi Driver to Glee, and everything in between. It was also nice just to see some parts of the city we hasn’t previously seen. Well lets face it, ‘parts of the city we haven’t seen’ is, oh, probably about 90 percent of it.

After the tour finished we visited the Museum of Modern Art. For many many years, I have heard the phrase “This object is now a part of MoMA’s permanent collection” applied to all kinds of things – the original Apple Mac, IBM’s revolutionary ‘butterfly keyboard’ laptop, and many other things beside. None of which were actually on show. So to be honest I didn’t get a great deal out of our visit, but that probably says more about me and my relationship with/understanding of modern art, than it says about MoMA itself. After leaving MoMA we fulfilled another tourist obligation. Hotdog from a street vendor: Check!! As a bonus, it was delicious – pickle relish is a strange green gooey thing, but one that elevates the humble hotdog to new heights. For the record, apparently there are around 4,000 food cart vendors dotted all over the city. Just another numerical aspect of New York City that blows my mind. We did a bit of a trawl through a few of the many, many, many tacky tourist discount/souvenir shops (and by tacky of course I mean awesome!), where I picked up, other than tacky souvenirs, two watches for $5 each… They may not still be working by the time we get back to Sydney but what the heck.. I mean, five dollars!!

What other crap can I rattle off about this city before we go? New york brain dump: Every Starbucks is always crowded. And having sampled the coffee in other places, Starbucks would actually rate as “pretty good”. So yeah there’s a reason to feel a bit sorry for people in this town. There are tourists everywhere. The drugs ads on the telly are hilarious. The subway doesn’t have timetables (that I know of). Trains just arrive when they’re ready, with pretty good frequency. Travelling just a few streets or avenues away can feel like a different city. It’s surprising how many cars are Hybrids. Even some of the busses and trucks. Pretty much all hotel rooms (including ours) don’t have a fridge. And, surprisingly, it’s not a problem, thanks to an ice machine on the ground floor. Tipping’s not that big a deal, just remember any service that seems cheap will cost about 20% more, unless you’re lousy. Every second person is an aspiring actor. Broadway shows are awesome. Every night is bin night. There are no buttons to press to cross the road. And no “it’s safe to cross the road now” noises. There are heaps of dogs but I haven’t see a single cat. Or a single rat. But lots of squirrels. And that’s a good thing.

The last day, and so, our last show. “Bunty Berman Presents” – about a struggling Bollywood director. I don’t think it’s ever going to win any awards, but I loved it. What it lacked in songwriting it made for with heart and enthusiasm. After the show we just sat in the middle of Times Square for a while, just enjoying the last chance to soak up the atmosphere and watch the world go by. Dinner was wonderful fast food at Schnippers – for the third night in a row. Good food, good price, it was well worth returning to. Then back to the hotel to, sigh, pack up and get ready to leave tomorrow morning.

I have to be honest, I am a bit glum about having to move on. But to have the opportunity at all to be able to visit this city has been a privilege. It’s a city whose bones are all about getting on with it, getting work done, making a dollar, getting on to the next thing with a minimum of fuss or delay. It’s a well oiled machine, even if some of the parts need work. But it just gets on with it, and it never stops. And I wish it all the best. We will definitely return one day.

Taking the High Line New York, NY

New York, NY

We took things down a notch and had a more relaxed day today. We headed down to the Chelsea district to visit what I think is New York’s newest public park -The High Line. Created from a disused elevated freight train line, it gives a literal overview of Chelsea and surrounds. I read about it ages and ages ago so it was nice to finally be able to pay it a visit.

After a quick stop in the Chelsea Apple Store (yes, of course we has to!), it was time for lunch. Gotta love this place, where your French fries come covered in two types of melted cheese, with additional melted cheese sipping sauce. Mmm. And next thing you know there’s Prince Harry going by in a double-decker bus. No, there weren’t hallucinogens in the cheesy fries. Prince Harry was in New York today and while we were walking up Chelsea, he and his considerable entourage were driving down it. So this city continues to live up to its “you never know what might happen next” reputation. Tonight’s show: Kinky Boots. Cyndi Lauper’s take on a true story from England, where a dying shoe factory finds a new lease on life by producing shiny boots for drag queens. What can I say, it was brilliant. The only time I’ve eve seen an entire theatre give a standing ovation. Allegedly, Cyndi herself was in he crowd – which would have been two close encounters with royalty in the one day! Tomorrow: our last full day in New York. Damn.

Across 110th street New York, NY

New York, NY

Operation “get some washing done” got into full swing early on, at a laundry two blocks away. With wonderful friendly customer service, I was surprised the guy didn’t end up yelling “No washing for you!” and pushing us out the door. Never mind, at least we’ll have clean clothes. Breakfast was at “Best bagel and coffee”. The bagel? Awesome. My cappuccino? Well, it was created by a guy pressing a “cappuccino” button on a machine. And this wasn’t any kind of espresso machine. But hey, put a bit of frothy milk on top of over-sweetened percolated (or who knows, maybe even instant!) coffee, and that’s a cappuccino, right? Like all New York coffee, it’s served at a temperature not that much lower than, say, the surface of the sun. I guess this would be welcome when one is grabbing one’s ‘cawfee’ in the snows of December when walking a block or two to the office. I’m just glad Perry orders iced coffee – I steal his ice cubes to get my coffee down to some kind of less-scalding temperature.

We learnt a bit about the subway today. Or more specifically, how the express A-train can be, well, rather expressive indeed. Let’s look at the numbers. We hopped on at 59th St, aiming for 86th (more on that shortly). Well the train zoomed off from 59th and kept going. Next station was 72nd street. But there’s no stopping the A train. It zoomed through 72nd, and 81st. Then 86th (oh well…), 96th, 103rd went by in a blur. I was singing “Across 110th St” as it too zipped past us almost too fast to read. I was wondering if I should have carried my passport today, as I pretty sure at this rate we were heading straight for Canada. After 116th street, finally we began to slow… Lo and behold the A train does sometimes stop, as we finally parted company with the train and exited at 125th street station, in Harlem. So hey, cool, we’ve been to Harlem! Until the C-train arrived and took us back to 86th street, anyway. So now we know about the A-train… When they say express, they mean it!

We took a stroll across Central Park, from Central Park West over to the East side, through the Shakespeare Garden, and past plenty of squirrels, that I could have just sat and watched for hours.

Having crossed the park it was time for a little culture, at the Guggenheim Museum. I was a bit surprised – it’s way smaller than I thought it would be. I pictured it as some kind of massive behemoth, but it’s quite a modestly sized building, not dominating the 5th Ave neighbourhood like I thought it would. Alas a good section of it was closed for a new installation – so no chance to walk the famous/infamous ‘rotunda’ – the constantly sloping spiral that also forms the most eye-catching part of the exterior. Even so, in the space of two minutes we had already seen a number of works from Picasso, Matisse, Degas, Van Gogh, and on one of the upper floors it was nice to see a Mondrian.

Further wandering around the city ensued, heading back downtown until we happened across a cool collection of food stalls in Madison Square, near the Flatiron building. Hello, freshly made Nutella crepes! Tonight’s show was Newsies. How to describe Newsies… well, it’s a musical about the industrial dispute process and the power of organising a powerful union that can successfully negotiate effective workplace agreements. In 1899. As done by Disney. Yes really, it was a Disney musical. It was entertaining, sure, but … I never really warmed to it. Not because of the subject matter – heck maybe they’ll do one about people’s jobs being outsourced offshore. But the story was quite predictable, some of the big dance numbers seemed to be inserted just because “umm, don’t know how to advance the story, I know, let’s just do a big dance number!” Still, most of the crowd really seemed to love it, so what would I know. Great set design, and the lead actor put in an excellent performance, trying very hard to sell a relatively thin story. And to get the girl. Of course. Had a great dinner after the show, a sloppy joe and a purple cow. At least I know now what a sloppy joe and a purple cow are – a burger basically full of delicious bolognaise sauce (yup, sloppy), and a soft drink float with grape soda and ice cream (yup, purple). Only two full days left in New York… What to do. Might go and see a show….

From 35th street to Avenue Q New York, NY

New York, NY

We’ve been here a week already. A week! Already! Another year or two and I’m sure we’d have pretty much all of Manhattan covered 🙂 First important thing of the day was to catch up with Mum on Skype – alas it was all a bit one-sided, the microphone wasn’t working at her end. But we got by with me doing the talking and Mum and Dad doing the nodding. Was great to see them, if not hear them.

The first destination for the day was Grand Central Station, for a proper look around this time. An amazing place for people-watching, and with 117 platforms (update: actually a lot less, but highest platform number was 117), probably a great place to get lost, though we found our way around ok. Especially when it came to finding the Apple Store. Surprising, I know …

Leaving Grand Central, we wandered to Bryant Park for lunch. Walking around this ‘small’ park, it dawned on me that this small park is about the same size of one half of Hyde Park in Sydney. When it comes to New York, I guess size is relative. Had a lovely lunch at a cafe in the park – and so nice to see public spaces being used so well by so many. There were tables set up for chess, table tennis (!), a carousel for the kids, even an outdoor reading library with shelves of books and newspapers set up. And chairs everywhere. So, not a bit like Hyde Park, then. We could do so much more if we had the will and the resources.

Next stop was Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Times Square – hey, we’re tourists, we have an obligation to visit the tourist traps! It was pretty squarely aimed at children, but as far as freak shows go it still had its fair share of interesting moments. The highlight for me was the work of the artist who was able to clearly sculpt all four members of the Obama family, clearly recognisable… Within the eye of a needle. Amazing work.

Today’s show was a matinee – we wandered off to 50th street at 3pm to see Avenue Q. I’ve seen two regional productions of it before, so it was interesting to see how they compared to a ‘proper’ broadway version. The biggest difference was in the set – it was really cleverly done. It’s clear what a broadway-sized budget gets you, and what a regional amateur production doesn’t. The surprising thing though was that the whole show was done with just 7 cast members, many of whom took multiple roles during the show. It didn’t detract from it at all, it was still a great show and really well done – but the performances today showed just how strong the casts of the two regional productions were too. Way to go, Rockdale and Tamworth!

After that it was a leisurely stroll back to the hotel – all the while experiencing that strangely wonderful New York soundtrack: traffic, tooting horns, police sirens, and rumbling subway trains. It’s a funny thing how in many places you can clearly hear the subway trains passing underneath you – something I’ve never noticed in Sydney (except when seated in The Theatre Royal). We walked past a barbershop, still open at 5:30pm on a Sunday – I love this city. And now I love it with a very, very short haircut. Yes it even finished with the steaming hot towel like you see on so many Warner Brothers cartoons – though with much less disastrous results may I add.

Dinner was at the retro-happy-days-styled Tick Tock Diner (or if you’re a local that’d be ‘Tick Tawk Dinah’), where we had the good fortune to tackle meals with embarrassingly large portion sizes, and also to have a brief chat with an older couple seated nearby. And that was about it for the day, except to watch the final episode of Survivor on the telly.

Tomorrow’s exciting mission, should we choose to accept it… Actually there’s no choice, it’s time to tackle the really-quite-large pile of washing that has accumulated over the last seven days. And, of course, we have another show to go to. Bring it on, Broadway, bring it on!

Behind the Emerald Curtain New York, NY

New York, NY

Today started with an exciting achievement – finding an ATM that worked with our travel card. Sweet. Next was two hours of behind-the-scenes goodness with the Wicked “Behind the Emerald Curtain” tour. So it doesn’t literally go behind the scenes, but two cast members of the show spent two hours with us all, talking about just some of the incredible hard work that goes into putting a show of this calibre together. I also now know the difference between a track, a role, and a swing. Yup, totally showbizzed up…

Lunch was next – a pay-by-weight Italian buffet, what’s not to love! The good news is that garlic bread’s pretty light 🙂 A side-visit to m&m world followed, which was pretty amusing – three whole floors of candy-coated chocolate and merchandise dedicated to it. Couldn’t resist the customise-your-own-m&m machine though – sure my nieces will love their very own m&m’s.

The weather was starting to turn so we headed indoors to that very unbroadwaylike entertainment medium, the movies. We saw Pain and Gain. It was… a movie. The complex we saw it on was probably more noteworthy – 25 cinemas spread over 6 very tall floors, it literally (as in literally) took us 10 minutes to get from the ticket hall to the cinema, which of course had to be number 25, right at the top.

Tonight’s show was “My big gay Italian wedding” – a play held in a small converted church… Well, looked like the basement, I think. But it was good space, and an excellent show. It was hilarious, the audience were having fun, and you could tell the cast were having a hell of a lot of fun with it (and us) as well. A great night. It was a bit surprising to hear people I the audience talking during the performance though, that was a bit odd. After that we walked back to the hotel, through the crowds and past the taxis with their blaring horns. You know why every New York movie or tv show always featured the sound of car horns? Because it happens. Everywhere. All the time. Mainly it’s cab drivers tooting at pedestrians to get out of the way, or at other cars to get out if the at, or sometimes I think it’s just for the pure joy of it. Regardless, there is a LOT of it going on. All the time. But I can’t complain, it just seems to be just another one of those things that makes New York, New York. Tomorrow: Another show. Who could’ve guessed that!

Pizza and Mormons New York, NY

New York, NY

Today was the “slice of Brooklyn pizza tour” – where we did what I think many Manhattan locals fear to even contemplate – we got out of Manhattan and into, unsurprisingly, Brooklyn. We jumped on the subway to get down to E 14 St where the tour began, and while waiting for the tour bus to arrive, we notched another tourist moment. Bagel with cream cheese: Check! The bus arrives, and over to Brooklyn we go.

Alas the famous Brooklyn Bridge is closed to big vehicles, but we took the also-very-pretty Manhattan Bridge over to Grimaldi’s, apparently world famous for its incredible pizza. I guess something I’ve learnt today is that my worldwide pizza knowledge isn’t all it could be, as I wasn’t familiar with it beforehand. But still, what landed on our plate was some beautiful, simple, Margherita pizza. Cooked in 3 minutes flat, in their 900 degree coal-fired oven, it was light, tasty, not at all greasy or oily, a wonderful slice of pie. Yes just like the Dean Martin song, they do all refer to a whole pizza as a ‘pizza pie’. Just down from Grimaldi’s was Brooklyn Bridge Park, where we had a brief chance to stop and get a few photos before we piled back on the bus to see more of Brooklyn.

To stop us getting restless while the driver was working his way through the Brooklyn traffic, our guide played clips from the many movies that have scenes in Brooklyn. Goodfellas, The French Connection, Saturday Night Fever, Moscow on the Hudson … It was a little odd to be in the bus, on the street, watching a movie clip of a car chase happening on that very street. It also means I can watch a whole bunch of movies and annoyingly shout “been there!” every few minutes 🙂 The second pizza place we visited was the appetisingly-named L&B Spumoni Gardens. Spumoni, apparently, is another Italian ice-cream that isn’t gelato. With a name like that, can’t imagine why it hasn’t caught on. The pizza was Sicilian in style – deep, and square. And yummy. I think the best thing about this place was that it isn’t a hot tourist spot, a must-visit destination, it is simply a good pizza restaurant where all the locals go. And talk in a very very Brooklyn accent. (Or maybe the tour company hired a few “genuine local Brooklyn characters” ™ to add to the local feel. )

A very brief visit to Coney Island was next, which might be worth a revisit, though not to the still-working 86 year old wooden roller coaster, can’t say that inspired confidence. Nor the Wonder Wheel – a Ferris wheel where the gondolas aren’t fixed to the outside, but fall from the centre of wheel to the outside and back again, on a track.

After that it was goodbye Brooklyn and back ‘home’ to Manhattan to get ready for our next Broadway Show. The Book of Mormon. The funniest show I’ve ever seen, I think it’s safe to say. So clever, so hilarious, and so well put together and wonderfully performed, it was awesome. It was enough to (almost) make you forget that when the Eugene O’Neill theatre was built in 1925, people must’ve been a lot smaller, coz things were a bit squishy!

After that it was the now-usual fight through the crowds of Times Square back to the hotel, where it was time to write up the day, wrestle with an uncooperative travel-blogging app, and go to sleep. Tomorrow, the behind-the-scenes Wicked tour, and, surprise surprise, yet another show!

Wicked Shopping New York, NY

New York, NY

Well it’s more like Shopping, and Wicked. Started the day with our first excursion on the Subway. It’s not too confusing, or maybe we just fluked it. It’s kinda weird how none of the platforms are numbered, you just find your letter and the direction (uptown or downtown). For us, it was the E train, downtown. Fifteen or so minutes later we’d travelled from 34th street right down to Chambers, near the World Trade Centre. And also, nearer still to Century 21 Department Store. They must have known I was coming because right at the entrance we went in, lay many hundreds of watches at ridiculous prices, all looking for a good home. I was very well behaved and only picked up one. So far. 🙂 Actually, one of the delightful things about New Yorkers is that so many are quite unafraid to have their own style, and wear it well. As opposed to just slavishly following whatever the trend is this week. The prices at century 21 were sometimes jaw-dropping. $25 Levi jeans, $11 van heusen business shirts, it was all pretty amazing. I picked up a Calvin Klein business shirt for under $25. I wasn’t surprised to see some people lugging two baskets around crammed to the gills – and there was one enterprising young gentleman who bought a heap of stuff, along with a truly massive suitcase in which to stuff it! We were a little more restrained – but gave the travel money card a little bit of a bashing. We may well be back for another go later.

The exciting part of the day was still to come, though. Time to finally hit Broadway to see our first show – Perry’s somewhat belated birthday present, Wicked. Sure enough, it was a fantastic show, really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we venture outside Manhattan for the first time, for something that sounds very appetising – the Brooklyn Pizza Tour!

Time for a rest New York, NY

New York, NY

A very quiet day, this one. I was still feeling a bit blah, we didn’t end up venturing outdoors until dinner at about 6:30. Found a nice Japanese place not far from the hotel, and has a nice feed. Yep, that was about it for the whole day, really. Tomorrow’s plan is to finally get on the subway, and find a way to what is meant to be a bit of a discount shoppers paradise – Century 21.

The all-day tour New York, NY

New York, NY

Big day today – a nine hour tour around Manhattan. Thought we’d take tour early in the visit to get a taste of places to go back and visit in more detail. First stop – a church.. Saint Who Gives A Toss, I think it was. So … Next! Next was a quick stop at the Rockefeller Centre (sorry, Center) – with the price of New York real estate, owning two or three city blocks makes the mind boggle at just how much money is involved. Of course, the Rockefellers own stacks of apartments and other buildings around the place. Guess it’s nice work if you can get it 🙂 One positive note was that, apparently, no one is just handed a fat inheritance on a plate, you have to work for it just like all the Rockefellers before you.

Grand Central Station was up next – definitely spending more time there in a future visit. After all, we didn’t get close enough to the Apple Store there 🙂 Next up was one those real “I can’t believe I’m actually here” moments – the Empire State Building. One great thing about this tour was the way it was able to cut the queue and get us to the viewing area quickly. The building itself is pretty amazing, such an accomplishment for 1931. Note so classically beautiful on the outside as the Chrysler Building, but inside ere was plenty of Art Deco goodness to enjoy. Oh and apparently there’s a view. 🙂 Which is, of course, just amazing. And not near as cold or windy outside as I was expecting. Just the fact that “holy crap, here we are, standing on the real actual genuine Empire State Building” was amazing. That building that had in one way or another kind-of been a part of all our lives, we’ve all heard about it ever since ever, whether through TV, Movies, books, whatever… and here we were, snapping photos like the millions of tourists before us – but heck, these were our photos, our little reminder of this real ‘wow’ moment. Can you tell I enjoyed it just a bit?

Suitably wowed, it was time to move on. Chinatown, Little Italy, Nolita (North of Little Italy), and a stop for lunch at Chelsea Market. We need one of these in Sydney! Very cool, a little bit Newtown, a little bit Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, all positioned in an old Nabisco factory, its old brick walls and leftover fittings just dripping with post-industrial cool. Also nearby was The High Line – a leftover elevated freight rail line that has been converted into a public park, albeit a rather long and skinny one. Definitely worth a revisit to that, I think.

Driving alongside the Hudson, we get to Wall St… of which there is actually very little. Surprised at how small and relatively insignificant the street was, although as we all know, what goes on there is anything but insignificant. Ellis Island (home to the Statue of Liberty) is still closed to fix damage caused by hurricane Sandy last year, so they got us as close as they could, by taking us all over to Staten Island on the Staten Island ferry. I wasn’t having the best time at this point as I think lunch must have had something that didn’t quite agree with me. So I was more “righto, there’s the staue of liberty, er ok I’m going back to sit down and feel sorry for myself now.”

The last stop was the September 11 memorial site. Kinda relieved, if that’s the word, to see that was sombre, quiet, thoughtfully and respectfully designed. A fittingly peaceful monument to all the horribleness of the time. The tour ended where it began, back at Times Square, giving us plenty of food for thought on what to go and revisit for the subsequent days in New York. Dinner at the very retro Tick Tock Diner finished a surprisingly tiring day, considering how much time we spent just sitting in a bus. No dumb-tourist stories to report today, we must be getting used to the place! Rain is forecast for tomorrow so lets see how that goes… Might be a shopping/galleries/museums day. Probably without the galleries and museums though 🙂

First full day in New York New York, NY

New York, NY

Jet lag? What jet lag? Up and at ’em at 8AM after a very good night’s sleep, the room is really quiet, no traffic noise which is nice. We didn’t have any set plans today (in case we did get hit by jet lag), so just went for a wander, starting with a healthy(?) breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts then generally heading north. One thing I love about this city insists simple street numbering system – for pretty much the first time in any city, I can actually tell which way I’m heading – if the street number go up, you’re heading north. If the avenue numbers go up, you’re heading west. Ok, ish… It’s more north-east for streets and north-west for avenues but whatever… It’s a refreshing change for someone like me that otherwise has absolutely zero sense of direction. Just like countless movies and shows on the telly, yes steam really does rise from the streets at times. Not sure if it’s a byproduct of the subway, the sewers, or some other under-road facility. Perhaps it was done at the request of countless movie makers who wanted their gritty urban crime dramas to have a little more atmosphere 🙂

Wandered along Broadway seeing some of the theatres we’ll be visiting in the coming nights. Also saw the Ed Sullivan theatre, home to Letterman’s Late Show. Was nice to see 42nd street – when I saw the musical in Sydney 20-odd years ago I never thought I’d be walking down the actual street one day.

Eventually we reached 58th street – the start of Central Park. It was really quite different to what I was expecting, perhaps I was just expecting a big flat park with trees, grass and walking paths, but there’s so much more than that. Arches, bridges, rocky outcrops, lakes, buildings, a merry-go-round, Central Park Zoo … And we probably only covered 10% of the park today if we were lucky. Tourist item: find a squirrel. Check! So many park benches, almost each one with a plaque of dedication, some famous, some funny, and many dedicated to those who can visit the park no more. Central Park Zoo was cool – not very big, but we turned up in time to see the Sea Lions being fed, which was good fun.

After that, time for an ice-cream (imaginatively called “The original ice-cream on a stick”, yes, really) and more wandering, where we drifted out of Central Park and on to 5th Avenue. And of course, the very cool 5th avenue “glass cube” Apple store. Really big, really busy, but only a two minute wait for the Genius Bar if you had an issue that needed solving. There were at lest 25 staff walking around, probably more.

After that was FAO Schwarz the famous toy shop with its even more famous giant piano…which was kinda underwhelming to be honest. Walked past all the other fancy-schmancy 5th Ave shops – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Armani, Tiffany’s (no breakfast), and Saks fifth avenue. Saw the New York Public Library as seen in Ghostbusters. 🙂 A quick and delicious lunch at a sandwich (i.e subway-esque) place called Potbelly (hey, it seemed appropriate 🙂 was in order, and a welcome chance to rest the feet for a while.

Then on to Macy’s which was nice – it’s pretty clear the Myers executives must spend a fair bit of time there, as it has a fairly similar look and feel to it. Except at Macy’s you can actually find salespeople when you need them. You can also find three different Starbucks, a few cafes, ice cream shops and goodness knows what else…it’s a big shop.

Finally returned to the hotel late afternoon to give our poor feet a rest, before heading out for dinner. We walked west over to 12th Avenue to have a look at the Hudson, which wasn’t what you’d call pretty, rather, pretty industrial. Dinner was at Applebee’s Times Square, and it was kinda disappointing. Despite a Mojito the size of a bucket, and very tasty food, the service was slow and the appetiser arrived well after we’d finished the main meals… felt like they had a team that just don’t work well together. Dessert at Cold Stone (I.e cold rock) helped make things better though 🙂 Then off to bed for some well-earned rest. Ready for the all-day city tour tomorrow. Sweet!