I ❤ NY

so yes .. we arrived in new york.
braved the 45 minute bus ride from JFK into the heart of manhattan.

we had 5 days to cram in as much as possible (including a bit of shopping for things that nell might need on a day to day basis).

day one
first order of business was a drink - even before we showered after our flight across the Atlantic! our first night we mucked around our neighbourhood - pretty much Times Square. went to the Havana Club for mohitos and then back later for dinner.

day two
found the olympic cafe for cheap breakfasts.
as it was threatening to rain, we went to the Museum of Natural History. loved it! kept hoping something would come to life like in ben stillers film. i really wanted to see the egyptian exhibits but was content with stuffed animals, the american indian hall and the dinosaurs. and TRex is not in the grand lobby either!
even though it was raining, we had our umbrellas so we took a stroll through central park - found some lunch and ended up near the salon where nell was going to have her hair permanently straightened. we went in to enquire and ended up with both of us having colours done. i hated mine by the way - it was far too dark.
that night we went to a $9 comedy show at Ha!

day three
back to the olympic for breakfast. had pancakes and syrup. and discovered i have a thing for grape jelly.
went into the gray line office and bought 48 hours of tour tickets and entry into some of the sights. jumped on the downtown bus and went past things like madison square gardens, empire state, flatiron building, through greenwich village on the way to battery park where the ferry to Liberty island and the statue of Liberty leaves from. i expected her to be larger!
had hotdogs and pretzels on the island.
on the way back, a lovely man called Alfred from Santa Lucia told us all about Ellis Island and his experiences of 9/11. we completed our loop and went home to the Belvedere.
got a message from the salon - they could fix my hair that night - so i took off for a couple of hours to become me again.
went to Lindys on 53rd for steak and cheesecake. YUM!
a real american food day but i couldnt do it every day.

day four
a lovely day.
the weather channel has become a bit of a fixture for us. did you know that you can have many forms of drought. extreme and then 1% higher is exceptional?!
back to the olympic for breakfast.
went and watched the first hour of nells japanese treatment for her hair. then i jumped on the subway and went to south street station to catch the bus to brooklyn. going over the manhattan bridge on the top of a double decker open topped bus freaked me out!
we tried to go to chinatown for dinner but ended up in little italy.

day five
best looking day in new york so far.
back to the olympic for breakfast.
we went off to the Bronx zoo for the day. getting outside and walking around was lovely. warm and sunny - not unbearable at all. the zoo was awesome - especially the polar beer and the gorillas. you can even choose which animal charity to donate your entry fee to.
after the zoo, we caught the subway back to Times Square to try once more for cheap show tickets - and we got them! Monty Python Spamalot for about $60 each (the hotel quoted us $170 each).
we bought a 6 pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager and went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then hit the show. it was very very good. quote true to the film the Holy Grail as well.

day six
last minute shopping for souvenirs and then back to the hotel for a pre train beer.
okay it was rather early but we had to finish the sam adams and we had a 4 hour train ride ahead so we couldnt get in much trouble.

so we're off to boston.
we have photos and will post them soon in another blog.