Day 7:

Well I guess the New York food was just a bit much for us small stomached Brits – it was Jessica’s turn to feel a little ill so we decided to have a quiet day. After a breakfast in the hotel Jessica had a go on her new DS game “Rocket Slime” whilst I found the location of the Sony store.

The Sony store was not unlike those found in London but it had a couple of PS3s for people to play on. I had a go on “Motor Storm” and was impressed by the speed at which the console threw around graphics. The game was fun but I understand from reviews that there is not a great deal of variety to be had in the full version. It should be a launch title in the UK though, so perhaps I’ll try it out then.

With Jessica feeling better we had a walk around to see some more of the sights and hunted out a Dunkin’ Donuts. Jessica had been looking forward to visiting Dunkin’ so we grabbed a bag of 6 for her to try. The following day was due to be really cold and the temperature was beginning to drop. So, it was with some relief that we made it back to the hotel room with a pizza and the donuts to watch some TV.

Day 8 (our last in NY):

The morning news had warnings regarding the temperature and frostbite so we were a little concerned as we packed our suitcases. We checked out and left the cases at the hotel whilst we went to a diner (another of Jessica’s must-dos) for breakfast. With the icy cold temperatures we weren’t sure how to spend the last few hours before we went to the airport.

In the end we came up with a system of going 4 blocks and then diving into a warm shop to recover before setting out again. After a bit of shopping we retrieved our cases and took the subway out to JFK. We found it much easier to get the correct trains than we had on our first journey from the airport.

Our plane lifted wheels at 8pm and arrived in the UK at 8am – 7 hours later!

Day 6:

Jessica was very excited about the possibility of seeing the Statue of Liberty so we took a trip on the Staten Island ferry to take a look. At first it looked like we weren’t going to get too close to the statue but I can confirm that the Ferry gets close enough. The statue had looked tiny when we had seen it from the top of the Empire State building but it suddenly looked all of its 151ft high when we got close. I’m sorry Staten Island, but we did not stay long before we took the ferry back. I guess the Island is quite different in the Summer but there didn’t appear to be much to do in the Winter.

Back in Manhattan we went to see the Brooklyn bridge. This was partly because I wanted to see it and partly because Will Smith was filming a scene for his upcoming film “I am legend” there. Unfortunately we did not see the star but did find plenty of caravans and stage lights near the Manhattan side of the bridge.

Jumping on the subway we found our way to the United Nations HQ on the East side of Manhattan. We paid for a guided tour (about £7 each) which took us round all the conference halls and finally into the general assembly room. We learnt quite a bit about the history of the UN and their current work and excitingly, for the duration of our visit we were on international soil. In the United Nations gift shop (sounds daft doesn’t it) they have a variety of products on sale from the different member nations. We approved of the concept of the UK being represented by a tea set, but they had picked the most garish design possible 🙁

It was now dark so we took a trip to the “Top of the Rock” – the Rockefeller tower in midtown Manhattan. The city looked fantastic at night and visibility was fantastic so you could see for miles. No matter how hard we tried we couldn’t make “Top of the Rock” sound right. The chap who opened the lifts on the (nearly) top floor did it much better with his prepared speech:

(To be said in a strong American accent)
“Welcome to the Top of the Rock! Just two more floors to go…”

Unfortunately I have forgotten the last bit of it! It was very entertaining though. Finally we got some pasta for dinner and retired to the hotel.

Day 5:

I was still feeling weak when we woke up so we had a rest in the hotel room and then a quick trip to the supermarket. The supermarket had such a wide range of products in a fairly small place – I would love to try living in America for a month so that I could try everything out (instead of eating out every night as we did). After eating a bit of food we waited for it to get dark so that we could go out to Central Park.

On the way to the park we had a look at the Apple store, which is very impressive but I had no desire to buy any Apple products. Crossing the road we tried to decide which horse and carriage was the best so that we could request a ride in it. We chose one with a roof which made the ride much more comfortable as we were partially sheltered from any cold wind.

Anyway, it was in the carriage that I proposed to Jessica (and she said yes). I had been considering whether it would be possible to get down on one knee within the carriage for a few days. I’m glad to say that there was plenty of space and I didn’t feel like I was going to fall out of the side. I was pretty sure Jessica would say yes and had been planning the event in my head since August time… I was amazed at how nervous I was in the end.

I am really glad that I recovered from my illness in time to go out for the carriage ride. I had terrible visions of a two days sickness that would stop me proposing on our two year anniversary.

Day 4:

After breakfast in the hotel we set off to downtown Manhattan to visit ground zero – where the world trade centre towers used to stand. I felt really sad seeing the long list showing the heroes of September 11th. At the moment there is a huge construction site in which they are building the freedom tower amongst other things.

We noticed a large huddle of people and realised that they were all film crews from the news networks. In the middle of the huddle was Hilary Clinton who was stood with a man making a speech at a podium. The guy making the speech was the son of a NY firefighter and was working all hours to ensure his family could get by. Whilst we were in New York, Hilary Clinton announced her intention to run for president.

We left ground zero and had a walk around Battery park. The Statue of Liberty is visible from the park but is still some way away. From the park we went up to Wall Street. I am not sure what I was expecting from Wall Street but it was similar to any financial district in a large city – plenty of grand buildings and lots of places for the busy stock trader to grab lunch. The largest American flag we saw on our trip was strapped across the front of the New York Stock Exchange – I don’t know if it is a permanent feature or not.

A long subway trip from the tip of Manhattan brought us to the Natural History museum which is on the edge of Central Park. We had a look round the museum and watched a film in the Planetarium, but I am inclined to agree with my friend and say the museum in London is better.

At the cinema that evening we watched “Night at the museum” which was set in the Natural History museum NY. The film wasn’t the best but I enjoyed watching it as it was set in New York and we saw a lot of the places we had visited on the big screen. I was expecting to see huge buckets of popcorn and massive drinks but it seems the portion sizes are similar to those in UK cinemas. However, there is a much wider range of food and snacks available and I definitely approve of them having Cherry Coke on tap 🙂

Unfortunately I felt a bit ill after the cinema – we eventually placed the blame on some chicken I ate in the museum cafe. We took an early night as I had plans for the following day – our 2 year anniversary.

Day 3:

Having packed a lot into day 2 we fancied a quieter day involving more sitting down. We had planned to go to the cinema but a casual enquiry at Madison Square Garden revealed that there were still some tickets left for the college basketball game that afternoon. The game was between St. Johns (the home side) and Syracuse (a university from mid NY state).

The arena is an impressive size and there were plenty of fans from both sides who filled out a large number of the seats. There was no obvious segregation with fans of both teams mixing quite happily. Before the game started a young lady came out onto the court and sung the national anthem for which we all had to stand. Its the first time I have actually paid attention to the words… the crowd got very excited about land of the free bit.

I mistakenly thought that basketball was played over four quarters so with 20 minutes on the clock for the first period I felt we were in for a long game. Later in the game I realised that there are just two twenty minute periods which can stretch out to almost 40 minutes thanks to the numerous time-outs called by the teams. During the time outs the cheerleaders would take centre stage to dance or lift each other up. The cheerleading looked almost as exhausting as the game itself as time and again some of the girls were required to balance on the hands of a supporting squad mate.

I really enjoyed the experience and it was worth going to see the arena as well as the spectacle of a live game.

The game took most of the afternoon, after which we wandered round a few shops including the disappointing Nintendo store. The store was small and there was little within to excite – perhaps I am just not enough of a fan.

Our meal that night was at TGI Fridays and I finally managed to finish what was on my plate! The restaurant is very similar to the experience you get in London so perhaps we should have picked somewhere else. They did have a really nice desert though – so nice that Jessica could only eat a small part of it and I had to step up to help finish it 🙂