New York in sun and snow - February 2011 TOTR & Central Park

[Bartswife]

Sunday 20th February 2011

Woke to sun streaming through the open curtains, beautiful start to the day.





We went downstairs to the lounge for breakfast, good choice of fruit juices, coffee, cereals, pastries, bagels etc. Watched the news on TV, there had been really bad winds over in Brooklyn which had fanned a really bad house fire the night before, no wonder it had been bumpy coming into land yesterday.





We had plenty of time before having to be at the Top of the Rock by 10am so called in at the tourist office to pick up our Gray Line bus tickets. The lady behind the desk printed the tickets out and said 'they will expire 72 hours from now'. We didn't want to start using them until Monday morning when we planned on catching the express bus down to Battery Park, so we had to explain what we wanted to do and were told to come back when we wanted them to start! According to their web site they are not active until you use them for the first time. It was going to be really inconvenient to call back on Monday morning as it was the opposite direction to the tourist office and the place to catch the express - good start! Anyway time for TOTR.

I love the buildings that show reflections in the glass.























Took just loads of photos up there (as you can see! ) it was stilll quite windy so we were not able to get upto the very top deck. Called in the gift shop but it was packed with students from a Yorkshire school. I swear half of England were there the same time as us, the number of English accents we heard was unbelievable. Watched the ice skating for a while and called in the NBC shop before making our way to Central Park. We found ourselves on 5th Avenue and the Hollister shop caught our eye, the shop front was displaying waves on an Australian beach crashing, we noticed live models in swimwear in the doorway so nipped in to have a look. I hardly noticed the very attractive young man in swimwear - honestly! However, John did notice the very attractive young lady in a bikini

Not a brilliant photo but you get the idea.


Glen claimed it was one of his favourite shops (I'd personally never heard of them) so we went in where he chose a couple of tee shirts so the credit card came out again. We walked a little further up and spotted Trump Towers, called in for coffee and restroom break.



Next stop Apple Store.

[Bartswife]

Crossed over the road to Central Park, loads more photos again, it looked beautiful in the snow.







Unfortunately for a lot of people life is not as blessed as ours, it made me feel uncomfortable having an expensive holiday when some people struggle to live.











We made our way back to the hotel for a little rest and a drink before heading out for dinner. I had wanted to go to Ellens Stardust Diner but there were huge queues outside and I didn't want to wait that long, we found Applebees and with no wait were seated and soon fed. Just usual fare, nothing special but pretty expensive. They added the tip on for us and told us to pay $127! Don't know if its customary to do that in NYC or realising we are English thought they'd better let us know we have to tip! They are not to know we know how to tip. Anyway, back to TOTR for our evening visit. We had bought the sunrise/set tickets to get 2 visits in 1 day. Bit of a pain having to keep taking off coats, hats, gloves, belts, shoes etc but we understand why. The ride in the lift up is great, glass roof in the elevator means you can see the floors whizzing by.

Empire State building was lit in red, white and blue for President's Day







Made our way slowly back to the hotel calling in at the M&M's shop



and a hot chocolate in Starbucks. Lights out at a very reasonable 10.30pm.

[Guest]

Sounds like another great day ,. . .and is just making me all the more excited. Am loving your trippie as you've done the things we have planned to do in May (without the snow and ice skating tho

[jocat]

What a fantastic day.

Two of my favourite things to do in New York - Central Park and TOTR. I'm not jealous at all, honestly!

[Cyclospora]

Great day and brilliant photos!

[donnakirby]

Another brilliant trippie - xx

[jeanwales]

Loving it! xxxx

[disney owl]

another great day

[Cabbie]

Great TR and photo's can't wait to go (again!) in 3 weeks time.

Great picture of Jakey BTW

-Steve

[orlandosgr8]

A great day, I love the views from Top of the Rock.