January 2017
PHOTO GALLERY
DAY 1 – (Wed 24th Jan 2018)
Arriving at JFK with big smiles on our faces, we headed for the Air Train and made our way into Manhattan. We found our hotel, the Wellington (55th / 7th Ave) but couldn’t check in until 4pm and so we left our bags and went out to explore. Ahhh New York, my happy place.
We walked down 7th Avenue, through Time Square taking everything in, but a little tired and hungry from the flight, we grabbed a slice of pizza each and found an Irish bar (the Triple Crown) to have a beer, rest our feet and warm up! With plenty of sights to see, from there we walked to the Flatiron Building, then up 5th Avenue towards the Empire State Building and onto Grand Central Station (not forgetting a quick pit-stop at Wendy’s where we witnessed an accidental queue-jump which turned into a hilarious Jerry Springer moment!).
I’m not sure how many people are familiar with the Whispering Arches at Grand Central Station but I had to take Lee there. Despite him looking very confused when I instructed him to face into the wall, I then walked across to the opposite side and spoke to him quietly, with Lee magically being able to hear every word. This hidden gem is a must if you visit New York.
From there we continued up 5th Avenue, through the Rockefeller and back to our hotel to check in and have a power-nap! Absolutely shattered, later that night we dragged ourselves out for dinner and headed to Nippori, a lovely Japanese restaurant in the Theatre District. [Steps walked: 14,445]
DAY 2 – (Thurs 25th Jan 2018)
Good old jet-lag means we’re both wide awake at 6am so we take advantage of this and leave the hotel by 7:40am to have breakfast at the Le Pain Quotidien near Central Park. We then walked around Central Park, shocked to see that so many of the ponds and lakes were completely frozen over and from there walked over to the Dakota Building where John Lennon lived and was sadly assassinated. Keeping with the somber mood we then caught the subway downtown and headed to Ground Zero to pay our respects.
All this and it’s still quite early! We caught the 11:30am (free) ferry over to Staten Island to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, which much to Lee’s disappointment was a lot smaller than he thought. Jumping on the return ferry straight away, we then briefly walked to Wall St and then headed in the direction of Katz Deli via Chinatown.
Katz Deli...OH. MY. GOD! Luckily we’d been given the heads up that you only need the one sandwich between you, so we shared a Katz Brisket Hot Sandwich, $20.45, (roasted in Granma’s gravy) which was absolutely amazing. You MUST go there!
Having already felt like we’d walked miles, we jumped on the subway to Chambers Street, where we started our walk across Brooklyn Bridge. We thought from there we’d head up into Williamsburg but didn’t realise how far down we were, so instead we walked up to Brooklyn Heights and caught the subway back into Manhattan to find a pub near our hotel, so that again we could rest our feet, get a beer and warm up!
With such an early start and so much ground covered, we opted to get a takeaway pizza for dinner (which we learnt they call a pie) and ate it in our hotel room, but not before also grabbing the biggest slice of Oreo cheesecake to have for dessert. [Steps walked: 22,400]
DAY 3 – (Fri 26th Jan 2018)
Up early again we left the hotel by 8:10am and headed down 7th Ave / Broadway, grabbing a croissant for breakfast from one of the street vendors. Another beautiful sunny but cold day, we walked through Chelsea, and walked the length of the High Line before arriving at the Meatpacking District.
From there we walked down Bleecker Street, where we learnt the cute shops and boutiques don’t open until 11am (probably a blessing in disguise) and headed towards Little Italy where we grabbed a coffee – which was much needed as we’d already hit 10,000 steps by 10:30am!
From Little Italy we caught the subway and headed over to Williamsburg, although with our timing off, neither of us were ready for lunch and I felt I couldn’t show Lee, Williamsburg at it’s best.
Keen to stop walking for a bit, we headed back over to Manhattan and went out of our way to go to Cheese Grille, an amazing cheese toasty place we’d stumbled across the day before on the way to Katz Deli. Afterwards we felt that a wee beverage was in order and so we went to 230 Fifth Rooftop bar on 5th Ave, Manhattan’s largest rooftop garden. However, the novelty of a rooftop bar soon wore off, so we found another bar (Legends/Football Factory) where I let Lee watch a bit of football (I know what you’re thinking – best girlfriend ever!).
We walked back to our hotel, quickly got ready and headed to the Lower East Side for the evening. Starting in The Magician we made the most of their happy hour, before having dinner at The Stanton Social which I first visited three years ago. I’d booked quite a few weeks in advance and it was still so, so good – I highly recommend this place. Uber home – and sleep! [Steps walked: 26,100]
DAY 4 – (Sat 27th Jan 2018)
A late start to the day, we grab a ‘cream cheese and lox’ bagel from across the road; at a whooping $15 (£10.50) it was a bl**dy expensive bagel but that said, one of the best we’ve had (and just up from Time Square, so we were in a very touristy area).
Feeling like we’d pretty much ticked everything off our to-do list, we decided to go back to Central Park to explore more, this time walking up as far so the reservoir.
Later that afternoon we went up the Empire State Building, an obvious must. We pre-booked our tickets online to avoid the queues but surprisingly there wasn’t really one. From walking through the door and going through security we were at the top within about 20 minutes. For me, the best time to go is 4/4:30pm so you get to see the view from daytime to dusk.
From there we walked through Macy’s (apparently the largest shop in the world), headed up through Time Square and had dinner at The Stagecoach Tavern, an Irish bar near our hotel. We then decided to call it an early night but not before grabbing a slice or Oreo Cookie Cake! [Steps walked: 22,300]
DAY 5 – (Sun 28th Jan 2018)
Up early, we checked out and headed to JFK for our 11:20am flight home. At £255 return each, we really couldn’t fault Norwegian Airline and would highly recommend them.
Steps walked: not very many
The End!
The Departure Gate 