Another hearty breakfast (this time of bacon and eggs for both of us) and then we headed out on a stroll down to an area of the city known as Hell's Kitchen. Sounds charming, doesn't it? In actual fact, the reason we wanted to go there was because on every Saturday and Sunday, they hold a flea market on West 39th Street. They close off the whole street between 9th and 10th Avenues and lots of individual traders set up there stalls, full of all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff ...
Having perused the wares, we headed back up to 8th Avenue, where we hopped on a tour bus that would take us on the Uptown loop and through Harlem. Downtown and Midtown Manhattan are pretty flat, which is one reason why walking round the city is so easy, and it's not until you head north of Central Park that you realise that it's actually quite hilly! This shot reminds me of car chases you see in the movies ...
The beautiful architecture of Riverside Church ...
After an hour or so on the bus, we got off at the north east corner of Central Park and decided to spend time exploring the glorious scenery of the park. We entered at the more formal part called the Conservatory Gardens, with it's beautiful manicured lawns and neatly cropped box hedges ...
Then onto the more
natural woodland areas where all the trees were in their glorious autumn colours ...
I guess we'd been walking for an hour or so when we found The Reservoir, a magnificent artificial lake right in the heart of NYC ...
Someone had told us to make sure we visited Central Park at the weekend, so we could get a real sense of how New Yorkers use it and having seen football matches, baseball games and lots of frisbee throwing activities, I guess we saw it at it's best!
We went back to our hotel for a quick break, then we headed out to pick up the Downtown loop tour bus to Midtown. As we walked over to the bus stop, we came across a HUGE street market taking place right next door on 7th Avenue. We couldn't believe we'd almost missed it! There were lots of food stalls selling tempting morsels; empanadas, gyros, kebabs, hotdogs, burgers, spring rolls and chicken satay with peanut sauce to name just a few. We treated ourselves to a few tasty snacks as we browsed the stalls selling anything and everything!
As the afternoon wore on, the cloud began to roll in and we started to think we may have to postpone the next part of our day's activities. We quickly hopped back onto the Downtown loop bus and disembarked at the stop for the Empire State Building.
Now, a word of advice for anyone planning on going up the Empire State Building ... do not, I repeat, do not get sucked in to believing all the rubbish spouted by the City Sightseeing Cruises guys (wearing bright blue jackets) that trawl around the entrance to the building. They'll tell you all kinds of crap about needing a ticket before you go in or fast tracking you past the queues etc
if you buy your ticket from them ... you could end up paying $14 more than you need to!!!
Hazel and I learnt this lesson the hard way. By the time we got there it was already after 4pm and one of the guys in blue stopped us as we walked towards the building entrance. He said that the queues inside were long and there'd be 3 different queues before we could go up, but that for just $39 we'd only have to queue once (for the lift / elevator) and that we'd also get a bonus 90 minute cruise to see the city skyline from the water thrown into the package. Sounded good in principle, so we bought our tickets from him.
We did have to queue to go through security (you have to go through a metal detector scanner, like at the airport) but this was pretty quick. We then had to queue again briefly for the 1st and 2nd lifts. Yes, there are 2 different lifts to get you up to the 86th floor, but once up there the views are simple breathtaking!
To the west, looking over the Hudson River ...
To the south, looking towards One World Trade Centre ...
To the south east, looking towards the BMW (Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg) bridges ...
To the north east, looking over the east river and with the Chrysler Building in the left foreground ...
To the north, with Central Park and The Reservoir peeking between the high-rise buildings ...
Hazel and me on the 86th floor ...
It was only when we came down and were exiting the building, that we saw the price we could've paid to go up ... just $25!!! We were both a little miffed about being mis-lead but what can you do? Lesson learnt people, lesson learnt. I guess the extra $14 could be justified on the cruise, but in reality, the time and location of the departure point made it a pain to get to, so we didn't take the cruise.Instead we hopped on the last Downtown loop bus that would take us back to Time Square via the whole Downtown areas again!
We decided not to go out for dinner. Instead, we opted for a lazy night in our hotel room. We bought crisps, biscuits and cake and crashed out watching a movie on TV. It was a relaxing way to spend our last evening in NYC.
Things ticked off my "must see / do/ eat" list today were:
- delishious crispy bacon for breakfast
- seeing the fabulous autumn colours in Central Park
- taking in the breathtaking views from the Empire State Building
