The BIG New York Surprise - 17th August 2018 - Hop on Hop off Bus & Central Park

[smithlane]

Day 2

I didn’t wake up until the alarm went off at 7.30 this morning. With all the walking we are doing I think it’s kicked the jet lag! Yay

We all got showered and dressed and were ready to leave by 9am. I ordered an Uber and we were soon on our way to Hoboken station, we then took the PATH train up to 33rd St. From here we walked up 34th St towards our breakfast destination of Tick Tock diner. This area felt very similar to Oxford St in London.

We arrived by 9.45 so didn’t take us long at all. This diner is situated inside the New Yorker, a Wyndham Hotel but they have a separate entrance for non guests.
It looked busy but luckily were seated straight away and given some menus. I only had an obligatory browse as I knew exactly what I was having. In fact I knew what I was going to order from here about a month ago when I started looking at menus online! The Hot Chocolate French Toast. French toast with hot chocolate sauce and melted marshmallows. What dreams are made of

Jim ordered a breakfast burrito, Sam the brioche French toast with bacon and Hope not one to break tradition ordered 2 croissants.
This place has got a great vibe to it, feels like a very typical American diner. We didn’t wait long before our food arrived.
Oh my one of the best things I’ve eaten! We all really enjoyed it. The bill came to a fairly reasonable $67 altogether including 20% tip.

Hope had spotted a discount trainer store on the way up 34th St so we went back that way to have a look. They didn’t have the Nike Hiraches she wanted so left empty handed.

Tried another sports store a few doors along but again no Hiraches. Sam was dithering over an American football jersey but couldn’t find one he really liked.
We now walked over to Macy’s as I was on a mission to find the wooden escalators and the floor piano from the film Big. This store is huge! Had to ask someone for directions but we found it eventually. Obligatory photos taken and after a quick look round the women’s sports section for Hope we were now done. Not before buying a giant gobstopper for Sam though!

We made our way to do the HOHO bus and this is where things go drastically down hill! The stop we were aiming for was Madison Square Garden at Penn Station. We got there and couldn’t find where the stop was so asked someone at the taxi rank who directed us around the corner.

Found one of the Big Bus representatives who said we needed printed tickets not our Explorer Pass, but he would print them for $10 each! I explained that no where does it say that but I then cottoned on that he may be joking. He was being a complete ‘Richard’ and I suspect he was slightly high . He tried to scan our passes but one of them wouldn’t so he started swearing really loudly . I was just about to tell him what I thought when Jim gave me that look to shut the hell up!

We wanted to do the Uptown tour so asked where the stop was for him to say we needed to walk up to 42nd St. We were on 34th! I showed him on the map that there was a stop round here that clearly states an Uptown stop. He kept saying no we need 42nd St . Not happy at all we begrudgingly started walking. After a long hot sweaty walk up there we found what we thought was right bus.
Asked another representative at the stop if we were in the right place but nope, that was the Downtown bus and that we needed to walk across 2 blocks to Broadway to the Uptown one. Grrr!

We eventually got there and there was a HUGE queue, the guy there said we should go up to 46th St to get on at the beginning as we were unlikely to get upstairs on any buses from here. Well this was when I lost my rag big time.

Jim and I had a very ugly row in the middle of Times Square . He was basically blaming my lack of planning skills for getting us in this mess. Ooh I was spitting feathers to put it very mildly!
I had had enough so stormed off. Not my finest hour but I won’t be spoken to like that, EVER
I needed to cool off so just walked around the corner and found a spot of shade to try and calm down. They joined me after about 10 minutes and after a calm chat we decided to walk up to 46th St to the start of the route.

There was another big queue but thankfully it wasn’t too long before we got on board and sat up top.
My god I really needed this seat, I was starting to feel very light headed. Have I mentioned how hot it was? It was bloody boiling!
We soon got going. First down 7th Ave then along 42nd St. The breeze was very welcome indeed!

We went past Bryant Park which looked like a lovely place for a picnic.

The side of the New York Public Library

We went past my favourite skyscraper in New York, the very beautiful Chrysler Building.

I wanted to get off at Grand Central to look inside but equally didn’t want to lose our spot on the bus so we made the decision to stay put until Central Park.

The guy commentating was very good, he was full of interesting facts and was very funny.
This bar Smith and Wollensky was named by the owners not after their surnames but because they chose 2 random names in the phone book

Waldorf Astoria hotel is now shut and being turned into apartments to own. Only a mere $30 million each

St Patrick’s Cathedral looks very strange being between these huge buildings.

We turned up Madison Ave and the traffic thinned out a lot now. This is the Upper East Side.

Apparently if you want to live on the Upper West Side they have a committee to decide whether they want you to live there or not . Doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got. Madonna wanted to move there but they wouldn’t let her! Too much drama I suppose
Anyone can live in Upper East Side though
We soon arrived at the Met so got off here to go into Central Park.

First we needed food so got a hotdog from Nathan’s kiosk at the entrance to the park. 3 plain hotdogs, 1 chilli cheese dog, 1 chilli cheese fries and 4 soft drinks was $35 altogether. Very nice but they were tiny, I could have easily had 2

After refuelling we were now ready to take on Central Park. First stop was the Turtle Pond. I used my iPhone maps to direct us as it’s quite confusing once you’re inside with lots of different paths winding through each other, we found it fine though. I loved this pond, so many turtles swimming in there.

Unfortunately Belvedere Castle was under construction so we couldn’t get to see it.
Next stop, Strawberry Fields. This was quite a long walk! Have I mentioned the heat yet?

It was really busy around here with people hogging the space taking 20 thousand selfies with different poses in each! I managed a quick photo then we rested on a bench for a bit to have our drinks and listen to the guy playing John Lennon songs on his guitar.

Now we walked around to the Bethesda Fountain. Recognised this from so many films. Such an iconic part of the park.

We decided to get the bus back now so walked out of the park back onto 5th Ave.

Central Park Zoo

We walked all the way down to the bottom of the park as we couldn’t figure out where the stop was. Found one outside the Plaza Hotel (from Home Alone 2 fame) and waited. And waited. And waited.

Jim said we’ll just get an Uber to the station but I said no it’s a waste of money when we had these tickets. After about 30 mins it turns up. We sat downstairs to begin with but there was no air conditioning so at next stop we went upstairs. In this day and age how is there no air con!

The woman commentator on this bus was so unbelievably rude. I put my earphones in but all I could hear was static, so did Sam but she just shrugged her shoulders and said it was just like that! Um no it’s not . She then announces the last stop will be 50th St. Say what?! We need 33rd! Again couldn’t give a damn just says that’s what it’s doing. No apologies, nothing! She just said if we wanted to go any further we had to get off and get on a downtown bus. I tried to say to her that wasn’t the end of the route but she really couldn’t care less!
So we were all chucked off. To calm my nerves Jim said we needed a drink.

We found a Buffalo Wild Wings around the corner and I got a Bahama Mama, Jim a Coronita and kids a soft drink. It was lovely and strong and soon calmed me down for the second time today. Oh dear, it started out so good as well .

We got an Uber to 33rd St PATH station then took the PATH back to Hoboken. We had ploughed through quite a bit of money so far so decided we would have dinner at the pizza slice takeout we saw yesterday not far from Hoboken station. We got 3 slices of sausage pizza and 1 slice of cheese. With 4 soft drinks it was $21.50 altogether. Lovely and cheap. It was good pizza too!

I popped over the road to CVS to get an eye cream but they were eye wateringly expensive . Skin care over here is so ridiculously priced! I did come away with a nail varnish though. I wanted to get dessert from Carlos Bakery but the others wanted Coldstone Creamery again so I said I would meet them in there.

Being the original Carlo’s it was obviously very busy in here. It was very organised though with a lady that took your order in the queue before you got to the front to pay. I went with a cannoli, a chocolate hazelnut lobster tail and 2 vanilla cupcakes, not all for me you understand! I can’t actually find the receipt for this but I recall it being $14 altogether so fairly reasonable for a bakery like this. This is no Greggs

I was beginning to really love Hoboken, we wished we had been staying here

Went over to Coldstone Creamery to meet others where they had ordered the same as yesterday with the addition of Sam having a mint choc chip cup.
We popped to Walgreens over the road to get a bite relief pen as Sam and I had been bitten a few times. We got some fruit pots too as we were in need of some nutrition!

We ordered an Uber and were back at the apartment by 8.30pm. The rest of the evening was spent watching some Netflix and writing up my notes whilst eating my cannoli. Bedtime came at 10pm
16575 steps today, 12 km!

[Smilesonfaces]

The cannoli looks good !
Shame about the rude woman on the bus. Hope it didn’t spoil your day too much.
I think everyone has a row with at least one member of the family during the holiday-I know we do !
I think I need to get in training looking at those daily steps !

[hutton5]

I love this report thank you so much. I'm going to new York at the end of October and everything you write is making me so excited.
Oh and don't beat yourself up over getting worked up,sounds just like our typical holiday lol

[disney owl]

Ups & downs!

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

The cannoli looks good !
Shame about the rude woman on the bus. Hope it didn’t spoil your day too much.
I think everyone has a row with at least one member of the family during the holiday-I know we do !
I think I need to get in training looking at those daily steps !

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Rude woman and argument aside it was still a very enjoyable day, my favourite being in Central Park and just wandering around.
Don’t panic about the training, I do literally zero exercise at home and I managed just fine 😂
Thank you for reading

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by hutton5

I love this report thank you so much. I'm going to new York at the end of October and everything you write is making me so excited.
Oh and don't beat yourself up over getting worked up,sounds just like our typical holiday lol

See more...

I’m very glad you’re finding it helpful. If you’re planning on doing the HOHO bus just remember to go to the first bus stop on the map to potentially avert any arguments 😂
We have at least one huge fallout every holiday. It’s the only time of the year that we see each other all day every day for 3 weeks straight so it’s bound to happen, although I think it’s a record for even us to only get to the 3rd day before it happens 🙈. I think there are 2 more major fallouts before the holiday ends 😉
Thank you for reading 😃

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by disney owl

Ups & downs!

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Lots of ups and downs today!
Thank you for reading 😃

[Goldia]

Oh no Alicia, a real roller coaster of a day. The fabulous breakfast looked so yummy, I'm glad Hope didn't let you down and ordered her usual. Then the row to end all rows! It's horrible when it feels like plans are falling apart. I hope you enjoyed the bus tour when you eventually managed to get on it. The Chrysler building is beautiful.

It does look hot in the photos, which doesn't help as everyone just gets a bit testy. Central Park is nice for a wander, but it's so huge. I've got a similar photo of my two by the turtle pool, there were loads swimming around.

I can't believe you had bus drama again, what a horrid lady. I feel sad for you that your NYC wasn't quite as awesome as it should have been what with the apartment not being as nice as you hoped and the drama with the hoho bus.

I really hope I'm going to find the next day is fun, fun, fun!

[WileyCoyote]

Uh oh on the HoHo. Bit of a mixed day. Some fab sights but oh my what a load of faff in between. Not surprised it was a bit fractious especially with heat and crowds in the mix. Sounds horribly badly organised . I did feel for you ... These husbands do expect you to know absolutely everything .. planners curse I think ! Glad you salvaged the day with the Park.. it’s just huge isn’t it, loved your pics around there.
Breakfast sounded super yummy indulgent and a day finished off with a cannoli can’t be all bad.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh no Alicia, a real roller coaster of a day. The fabulous breakfast looked so yummy, I'm glad Hope didn't let you down and ordered her usual. Then the row to end all rows! It's horrible when it feels like plans are falling apart. I hope you enjoyed the bus tour when you eventually managed to get on it. The Chrysler building is beautiful.

It does look hot in the photos, which doesn't help as everyone just gets a bit testy. Central Park is nice for a wander, but it's so huge. I've got a similar photo of my two by the turtle pool, there were loads swimming around.

I can't believe you had bus drama again, what a horrid lady. I feel sad for you that your NYC wasn't quite as awesome as it should have been what with the apartment not being as nice as you hoped and the drama with the hoho bus.

I really hope I'm going to find the next day is fun, fun, fun!

See more...

Today really did have its ups and downs!
Haha yes the famous croissants, she nearly turned into one by the end of the holiday . But that French toast was so amazing!
Oh the argument . We laugh about it now but I wanted to strangle him in the middle of Times Square at the time
Central Park was one of my 2 favourite places in New York. It felt so serene in the middle of a crazy city!
Urgh stupid bus lady was so rude, it was like we were all a complete inconvenience to her . But don't worry tomorrow it gets better