... continued
I would recommend a trip over to Roosevelt Island if you're in New York City as the tram ride is great, and the views of Manhattan are impressive but as we didn't make it to most of the landmarks (such as the lighthouse, the remains of a smallpox hospital, the parks, and the Octagon Tower), I can't really comment on whether the sights are worth the time
The station was busy as it was now rush hour, and as we were heading down the last set of stairs onto the platform, we could see an F train was about to go. Mat, walking in front with Seren, hurried down the steps quicker to get on (like he always does as a London commuter. When he's with us, he forgets and carries on at weekday speed.) Freya's little legs can't get down stairs at that speed, and despite me calling my husband to tell him to wait, he had my MetroCard, so I dragged Freya down the last ten or so steps so fast she was practically flying, hurting my already weak shoulder in the process. We all got on the train but Mat wasn't in my good books for a while :angry:
We got off the train at Bryant Park and went into the hotel. The girls had a chat with Sarah and then we got changed for dinner. We walked the couple of blocks to Tony's di Napoli Midtown, our favourite restaurant in the city. We didn't have to wait for our table which was a bonus as last year we'd had to wait about fifteen minutes. Mat and I had told ourselves we would have something different today as we'd had the same dish on our last three visits (two here last year, one earlier in the week at the uptown branch.) In the end we just couldn't bring ourselves to deviate from the delicious linguine primavera, so we had it for the fourth time. The girls had their usual marinara sauce, this time with penne
None of us had desserts having not been able to make much of a dent in them at the other Tony's earlier in the week. We were all done and dusted pretty quickly, and Seren was complaining of a stomach ache so I headed back to the hotel with her while Mat settled the bill with Freya (he didn't pay her, she was just there with him)
Tonight was to be a 'Manhattanhenge' night which is where the sun sets in a particularly beautiful way between the buildings on the east of the island. We had seen it in a magazine in the hotel, and it apparently happens only four days per year so we were keen to view it tonight. Unfortunately Seren's tummy ache (which disappeared once we got back to the suite and she got into bed) put paid to that for us, but Mat and Freya were going to pop to Madison Marche for beverages and see if they could catch the sunset
There were a lot of people in the park as we walked back to the hotel and they were all facing the direction of the sunset so we assumed they were there to watch too. I'm not sure Bryant Park is the best spot to watch it from, the magazine listed a couple of other East cross streets where the sun can be seen between the buildings almost at street level. East 41st doesn't really benefit from that, but as Bryant Park is so lovely, Mat and Freya watched it from there along with everyone else. They loved it, and I was a bit disappointed that I had to make do with a (not great) photo of it
They stopped to say goodbye to Sarah on the way back into the hotel, I packed while the girls went to sleep and we weren't too late to bed. We wanted to be up bright and early for our last day in New York
