New York, New York

New York has been in my sights for years. We finally made it happen. We decided it would be our first stop before we drove to Chicago to commence our drive across America on Route 66.

What else do you do when you arrive there in the evening but to put your luggage in your hotel and straight to Times Square. You forget you have been on the “road” for over 24 hours. A short walk and wow, everything I thought it would be.

Next morning it was on to the subway, and gee what an easy place to find your way around. We started by paying our respects at the 9/11 Memorial then made our way to the Financial District.

We then slowly wandered to the shoreline and decided to take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

Another must one day was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and of course to enjoy the famous Grimaldi’s pizza .

Talking about food, we spent a day with “Famous Fat Dave”. He drives you all day in his “"Black and White” and shows you New York as the locals see it, stopping all the time at wonderful eateries to let you taste the local food. We really saw New York, Harlem, Queens,The Bronx , Brooklyn we saw it all and tasted the most yummiest of food. And we now know why Americans love Key Lime Pie. The original.

Coney Island where we tasted the world famous “Nathans” Hot Dogs

Could have just walked and walked the streets of New York for ages looking at the beautiful “Brownstones”. I think for ever now as soon as I think New York the first thing that I will picture are these beautiful buildings.

Everyone who comes to New York (unless they are scared of heights) goes to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and the Empire State Building. We went to the Rockefeller Centre in the morning and then returned one night to see the lights of New York. The Empire State we went late in the afternoon and stayed on till dusk.

The Rockefeller Centre, amazing

Looking down on Central Park

Just loving my new camera with the easy use panorama

Central Park. This was what I wanted to see . I had hoped to see it under snow, hence our end of January visit but that was not to be. This year has been their mildest winter in years. We had the most lovely afternoon wandering through. So much to see and so relaxing. Probably an overload of photos but just so lovely.

A relaxing drink at the “Boatshed”

In Central Park we remembered John Lennon, right across from the hotel where he died.

Central Station is a beautiful old building

Then you couldn’t come to New York without enjoying a sundae at Serendipity

Then of course the other “must try”, Katz’s Delicatessen where that famous scene from “When Harry Met Sally”. Could we forget that one. Poo enjoying his sandwich.

And the table where they sat

So in the round-up we had the most wonderful six nights and five days. We are known as ones who are not fond of large cities, but New York is just so different. We enjoyed ourselves so much, the time we spent was just perfect, we saw everything we wanted to see, we didn’t stop, but we had a ball. It is such a safe city, I went out alone one night to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, it held no interest for Poo and walking back to the hotel I felt completely safe . Wouldn’t do that in Brisbane. And I think we chose a wonderful Hotel. The Hilton Garden Inn, Times Square , just a couple of blocks from Broadway and across the road from a subway.

So that’s another off our bucket list. Now we drive to Niagara Falls and Toronto on our way to Chicago.