“Is it time to relax yet?” - New York February 2022 Day 4

[Clarica]

Wednesday 23rd February 2022 - Day 4

I woke up at 7.30. Dan got up half an hour after me.
This morning was Dan’s turn to do a bit of research on where to go for breakfast. Dan is quite thrifty with his money so couldn’t justify going for any table service restaurants for breakfast because the extra 20% tips add up. He decided on Toasties opposite St Patrick’s Cathedral on 51st St.
I had pancakes, syrup & butter with strawberries and banana and a chai latte.

Dan had a ‘Saturday Morning wrap’ which was egg, cheese, home fries, salsa and bacon with a chai latte. He really enjoyed this.

Headed over to M&Ms world to do the downtown big bus tour, again included in our New York passes. The first bus of the day was at 9.30am, the line was already quite long when we arrived around 9 but thankfully a few buses were lined up ready to take everyone in line. The tour was around 2 hours long. Nice way to see some of the sights but I personally wouldn’t pay for the tour out of pocket and would only do it again on the New York pass if I had ran out of things to do.
Sorry, hardly any pictures of this as it was difficult taking photos when the bus was moving! Here’s the route map.

New York Public Library

After we went up Top of the Rock Observation Deck, part of the New York Pass.

The weather today was warm, humid and annoyingly cloudy. Completely different to our first morning when it was in minus figures. 😂

We found Top of the Rock wasn’t too busy when we were on the 70th floor.
Initially we wanted to go early morning but didn’t open until 11am. A lot of places have reduced their hours due to covid and the tourist levels not quite back to how they were pre-pandemic.

Dan said he was tired and today was the most ‘relaxing day’ we were going to have so he went back to the hotel while I explored. I went into Sephora at Times Square to check out the beauty value sets but nothing took my fancy so just bought a set of Fresh lip balms. These were $35 + tax.

Then walked over to MoMA, used the New York Pass. Art isn’t Dan’s cup of tea so he didn’t mind missing this.
They were very strict on the vaccine proof, mine didn’t have my name on so had to use my NHS app, but I got in so that’s fine. I didn’t stay too long, I wandered around the galleries not recognising many pieces. I saw Mondrian, Starry Night - Van Gogh, Persistence of Memory - Dali and an Andy Warhol.

Headed back to the hotel for half an hour and Dan and I decided to try do the uptown bus tour. By the time we walked over for the final bus of the day, it unfortunately turned out to be full. They upgraded our ticket to be valid for the next day too so we could do it (spoilers: we never made it).
Debated what to do tonight, we decided to do the theatre and got out tickets from TKTS at Times Square and went with our Big Apple Greeter’s recommendation of Come From Away.

We arrived at the show half an hour early at 6.30. The show has no interval so we went to the toilet and grabbed drinks at the bar. Dan got a bottle Heineken ($15) and I got a Pepsi ($10).

No prices were advertised so should have chose something stronger for not much more. 😭

The mask policy was very strict before the show. Staff would go around asking people to pull their mask up above their nose and if they took a sip from a drink and didn’t immediately pull it up, they were barked at by staff. The man behind didn’t have his mask around his ears. He placed it under his glasses to pretend he was wearing it, thankfully staff spotted him.

Once the performance started, staff didn’t check up on the mask wearing. The man in front pulled his down after 10 minutes and took it completely off not much later. Half way through the performance, Dan tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to put it on. Man behind snored all the way through the show, occasionally waking up to laugh at a joke when the rest of the audience was laughing.
The story is beautiful, was based on the day of 9/11 where the US had closed their airspace and 48 flights diverted to Gander, Canada which was a former stop for refuelling transatlantic flights. It followed citizens of the small town and those who were diverted on the plane. Initially they didn’t tell the passengers on the crew on the plane why they were forced to divert but also were made to stay on the plane for 28 hours before being allowed off.
I won’t give too much away but I really enjoyed it and so did Dan.

The show finished at 8.40ish, an hour and 40 minute show with no interval.

Dan got 3 tacos from Los Tacos 1 after, just off Times Square. I got some chips and salsa but they were too spicy and a cinnamon, rice and milk drink which was good.
I went to Joe’s Pizza, Dan helped with my fresh mozzarella and cheese pizza. I didn’t find this one was as good as Financial District Joe’s.

Subway back to the hotel and in bed for 11.30pm.

Step count: 20,008
9.1 miles

Day 5

[P&S]

What a shame you didn't get on the uptown bus tour I loved that tour I thought it was brilliant Something for next time though