New York 2

Our first full day in New York and we were up early.  Breakfast was included in the price of our hotel so we met up for a good brekkie.  Now, on Trip Advisor there are lots of complaints about the breakfast.  However, the 3 if us were happy with the selection.  Tea, coffee and juices, yogurts and fruit, muffins (I grabbed a Blueberry one- Yummy), pastries, bagels and bread to toast.  I'm happy with that selection.

Indeed the only downside of the hotel were the lifts - breathe in love!  As soon as you got through the doors you had to turn to get past a sticky outy bit!!!  And the doors seemed to stay open for a nanosecond but each time we used it was an adventure!

As we were up so early we decided to hit Macys to try and avoid some of the rush hour traffic before catching our Hop on Hop off bus.  We managed to do 4 floors before realising it was nearly 10am.  The only thing we booked before arriving in New York was the bus.  This was to save a little bit of money.  I am not sure I would bother again.  The information we were given is that the all the buses stop by the Empire State Building - and they do, lots and lots of different bus companies - except ours.......  We walked back and forth, and asked other companies for ours.  Eventually we went into a shop for water and thankfully the server advised us to walk a few blocks south and then we found our bus stop.

It was a sunny morning and the upstairs was full so we sat downstairs (not that D had a choice!), boy were we glad we did- the people hopping off looked frozen when they came downstairs.

Blossom, Woolworth Building, Freedom Tower

We got off at the tip of Manhattan as we'd planned on catching the Staten Island Ferry to get closer to the Statute of Liberty.  I was put off by the amount of people rushing to catch it so we decided not to bother (N.B. Get up and off next time).  We did get to see the SOL from a distance though.  What do you mean, it's not the real one?

Our View

View from Nov 2012

By the water it was really windy and cold but out of the wind it was a glorious day.   I was surprised just how many coffee shops/food shops were so inaccessible to the wheelchair at this end of the island.  We popped into Pret and grabbed a picnic.  I will be looking out for wild sock eyed salmon again - wow.  We had a glorious picnic in a garden in front of the Woolworth Building.  Then we hopped onto the bus again.  View of the Brooklyn Bridge below just as we set off again.

Not sure why the bull above is so popular - this was the best shot we could get (from the bus, 2nd time past).  Something to do with the financial district.

Now we were meant to go to the Highline.  Hubby assured us he was not in the least bit tired and he was eager to see more of New York.  He was 100% sure that he still had energy and he wouldn't regret using it up.  So how come 10 minutes into the journey we witnessed this.................

Can you see the Highline below?

Back to the hotel for Hubby to rest.  N and I went souvenir shopping. For Dinner we walked down to a fabulous Burger place that my Mum and I had found when we visited.  We went to Schnippers

We could have gone to Shakeshack but you have never seen such a long line of people waiting to be served.

We then headed further South to go to Barnes and Noble so I could look at books.  Unfortunately (or fortunately if you ask H) we got there with 10 minutes until it shut.  I quickly picked a book and we wandered back to the hotel.