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Renée Murad and I went to New York for a long week. We had a wonderful time and it went by way too quickly. The weather was mostly hot and sunny, and we didn't really need our wet weather gear. It was great to see Renée's friend Pamela on her own patch as well as my cousin Alison. Our plans went almost flawlessly, and even the less well planned days were filled nicely with fun. Only the last day was a little boring as we were limited in what we could do. But it was a nice gentle day to wind down and prepare to return home.
After a long flight out on day 1 and a tired long airtrain and subway trip to the hotel we visited Grand Central and Times Square to kick off the holiday. On day 2 we met up with Renée's best friend Pamela and walked to the High Line. It was a lovely conversion of an old abandoned raised freight railroad to a pleasant green walkway. This was followed by a wander through Greenwich Village to a nice café and then (after Pamela headed home) to the legendary Ben's Kosher restaurant in the evening for an awesome meal. On day 3 we ascended the Empire State Building before a wander up 5th Avenue to Central Park where we went on a horse and cart ride. In the evening we met my cousin Alison for a meal. On day 4 we went to Bloomingdales, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, traversed the northern end of Central Park and then caught a subway down to Manhattan Mall. On day 5 despite cooler cloudier weather we had a great day visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island with Pamela, followed by a bus ride into Chinatown where we had a lovely mid afternoon meal. On day 6 we visited the Freedom Tower and 9/11 memorial before walking down Wall Street and then went via City Hall Park to Katz's. Then after a subway ride under the East River we went DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. Then after a return to Manhattan Mall we went to Beyond Sushi for an amazing dinner. Day 7 was the day we caught a train out of Grand Central to Bronxville and met up with Pamela who gave us a lovely tour of her home patch of Westchester. A lovely drive through the leafy suburb of Scarsdale took us to the White Plains Galleria Mall, and then after a picnic on the Hudson in Irvington we explored sections of the Westchester Riverside Walk before heading to Pamela's home town of Yonkers where we had a nice pizza. All too soon it was time to return to Manhattan. On the last day we left our luggage at the hotel after checking out and explored more locally in damper misty weather, ending up back at Ben's for lunch. Then we walked back via Times Square to the hotel and on to Grand Central one last time before we grabbed our luggage mid afternoon and caught a bus to the airport for our night flight home.
Please see below for an index to this trip.
Total Photos: 642
It was an early 05:20BST start and a lovely sunrise and a smooth ride to the airport. We got straight through to duty free quickly at the airport where we had a nice cooked breakfast and looked around the shops. Renée bought some nice sunglasses. Soon it was time to go to gate and board the Dreamliner. The flight was smooth if a bit cramped. It was a good entertainment system although the kosher food was rubbish. We landed only 10 minutes late about 11:30EDT and had some nice views as we descended. I used my iPhone for the flight pictures as its airplane mode allowed me to use it from takeoff to landing.
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| Sunrise in Kenton. | Breakfast at Heathrow Airport. | On a Dreamliner for the first time. | Taking off from Heathrow. Passing an old Concorde on the way. | M25/M3 junction from the Northeast. | Climbing above a cloud layer. |
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| Views above Southern England as we continue to climb. | Passing cirrus clouds. | Flying high somewhere over Ireland. | The Aran islands of Inisheer, Inishmaan and Inishmore from the Northwest as we leave the West Coast of Ireland behind. | Heading on out over the Atlantic. | |
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| Clouds over the Atlantic Ocean. | Flying over a cold looking Halifax near Nova Scotia. | Eastern end of Long Island. Gardiner's Island, Hither Woods, Hither Hills and Napeague State Parks appear below. | Cherry Grove on Fire Island, South side of Long Island. | Looking West to Sea Bright and Rumson, New Jersey, as we turn onto circuit to head into JFK from the South. | |
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| Flying over Coney Island from the South. | Descending over Brooklyn. | I think that is Manhattan in the background. |
After a long 1 hour wait at JFK passport control the luggage was waiting for us once we got through. We caught the air train which turned out to be a crowded nightmare but we soon got our 7 day metrocards at Jamaica. The subway was ok albeit affected by weekend engineering works and again crowded. We reached the Gotham Hotel about 3:30PM after having to walk from Lexington Avenue / 51st Street. The Gotham Hotel is a narrow building sandwiched between adjacent buildings. The shape of the building gives it the potential for some nice views in the right rooms.
We rested until 4:45PM but were too excited to sleep. The room was nice but with several issues including bad WIFI, a rubbish balcony and faulty room aircon. Otherwise it was cosy. They did offer to move us to another room tomorrow though. The staff were pleasant and helpful.
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| A classic view of line of yellow taxis greets us once we get off the subway in Manhattan. | A disappointing terrace attached to room 73. | The Gotham Hotel from 46th Street. | The J.P. Morgan Tower opposite across the 46th Street / Madison Avenue junction. |
At 5PM we walked to Grand Central and had a good look around the food concourse. We had hot dogs (kosher meat) first then with eyes bigger than our stomachs we had a Chinese course! We ate most of it though and was a good feed until 6:10PM after a long day.
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| Crossing Madison Avenue en route to Grand Central. | Grand Central outside and in from the Vanderbilt Avenue entrance. | Grand Central panorama. | |
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| Magnolia Bakery in Grand Central's Food Concourse. | Light display. | Eating in the Food Concourse. | |
Then we walked along 42nd st to Times Square. We had a good look around. It was very crowded including lots of puppets and some topless girls with painted bodies!
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| Chrysler Building. | Grand Central decorations above 42nd Street. | The Southeast side of the Madison Avenue / East 42nd Street junction. | New York Public Library from the East. | Bryant Park from West 42nd Street. | The Grace Building. |
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| Looking West along 42nd Street from near Bryant Park. | The Southern end of Times Square at the Broadway / 42nd Street junction. | Times Square. | |||
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| Looking around a crowded Times Square. | Renée at Times Square. | ||||
Eventually we headed down 7th Avenue to recce Ben's which looked great. We also confirmed that Kosher Delight (which I enjoyed a decade ago) no longer exists. Then we walked East to Madison Street and caught a no 3 bus back to 46th Avenue to return to the hotel to retire exhausted and jetlagged at 9PM.
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