Ian Smissen's Travel Diary

Sunday 17 April

Arrived @JFK Airport 5 pm after 24 hrs travel and took taxi to Hotel Pennsylvania – relatively cheap but can’t reserve a room so first in first serve after 3:00PM check in time. Not arriving until close to 7PM we were concerned that we’d end up with a smoking room but fortunately the choice was King bed or non-smoking so the reduced bed size was a small price to pay.

Hotel Pennsylvania 7th Ave New York

The hotel is bang in the centre of the action on the cnr of 7^th Ave and 33^rd St across the road from Madison Square Garden and Borders Bookstore (the usual recipient of our contributions to the US economy so an important consideration in any accommodation location), Penn Station (so subway travel was the quick and cheap supplement to walking), 2 blocks from the Empire State Building and 9 blocks south of Times Square (sounds a long way but the N-S blocks are only abt 100m long)

Subway @ Penn Station

Long shower and quick change and then went for a walk up 7^th Ave looking for somewhere suitable to eat. Got as far as Times Square which was packed!

Times Square

Also met some interesting characters

Found a great little bar and grill on 43^rd St just off Times Square with only a 20 min wait but found 2 seats at the bar so ordered straight away.

Only tried 2 of these but both very good and who could resist “Old Brown Dog” from Smutty Nose Brewery.

Eventually retired to bed 33 hrs after getting up on the same day…

Monday 18 April 2011

Day 2 was our first adventure on the NY subway. We bought weekly Metrocards, which made it very easy...once we located the correct subway entrance points. Spent most oif the day at the American Museum of Natural History

Jo was the attraction in the Butterfly exhibit

highlight was the old dioramas

...and then meandered around the south half of Central Park

checked out the local wildlife

and visited Strawberry Fields (John Lennon memorial)

Despite the over-abundance of pedicabs with pushy drivers (if that's what you call them), all wanting to transport us around the park, we opted for the traditional horse and carriage

Tuesday 19 April 2011

First stop:

Entrance to Empire State Building

This is what it looks like when you're the FIRST ones on the observation deck!

We had already purchased our tickets and the extra money for 'Express Passes' was so worth it!! We arrived just before 8am and went straight to the front of the line, and then first though security and up the elevators. For a very short time there was us, 2 other people and security.

It was cold and windy and rather hazy but the view of NY was amazing. We also went up to the viewing deck on the 102nd floor where Ian experienced the highlight of his trip - a Peregrine Falcon dropped out of the sky and hovered in front of his face (one of a pair nesting even higher up the building).

90 minutes later...

We had a few hours to kill before joining the queue for Broadway tickets in Times Square so we went back to Central Park and checked out the zoo ... in the rain.

Sea Lion feeding - always a crowd favourite :-)

and the penguins were a highlight

The rain continued while we queued for theatre tickets in Times Square - mostly well organised except that you couldn't really see the list of shows without leaving the queue (which was hard enough in itself).

By the time we got to the window tickets for all of the well-known musicals were gone so we chose to go to 'The Importance of Being Ernest' ... always a favourite.

Back to the hotel to change (after using the free internet access in Borders to check up on emails etc.). We had to allow time to queue for dinner, eat dinner, and then walk to the theatre. We had a great night out.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Day #4 we spent mostly in the Met(ropolitan Museum of Art) ... via Grand Central Station

where we had the 'best New York breakfast' in a diner just outside - it was good.

The Met was amazing

Entrance hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art

After exhausting ourselves checking out the Egyptian collection

... European Masters and impressionists

Ian, meet Vincent

the Armory

it was back to Broadway for the obligatory musical. In the end we decided not to miss out and paid full price for tickets to 'Memphis'. It was a wonderful show - Ian loved as much as Jo (he even bought the CD).

And then Jo went shopping for jeans in the Levi store in Times Square!!

Thursday 21 April 2011

Day #5 was our last full day in New York so we took the subway down to the south end of Manhattan and went to Liberty Island,

Ellis Island

Manhattan skyline from Ellis Island

Ellis Island Immigration Museum

Liberty Island - Ellis Island ferry

Ground Zero

Wall Street

and then finally across the Brooklyn Bridge to ... Brooklyn. We found our way down to the park at the bottom of the Manhattan Bridge for the classic view of the Brooklyn Bridge (not so good though because of renovations)