Tania's Story: New York, New York, Feb '10

Wednesday 24 February 2010 (continued)....
After the 3 hour train journey through places including Baltimore and Philadelphia, we arrived in New York just after 2pm. We took the subway to our hotel in Long Island, called Holiday Inn Manhattan View. We had a lovely room with wall to wall windows and a balcony overlooking Manhattan Island and a great view of the Empire State building and the Chrysler Building.

We headed into the city to Times Square.

Afterwards we walked down 46^th street to the block between 8^th and 9^th avenue known as Restaurant Row. We were looking for a bar called Deacon Brodies, which is the same name as a pub Andy’s Dad used to frequent in Edinburgh, and low and behold, in true Scottish style there was a chap from Glasgow serving behind the bar and in turns out that this one in New York is affiliated with the one in Edinburgh. We just had to sit down for a drink!

Thursday 25 Feb 2010

This morning we woke up to snow falling, so we decided to go take a walk in Central Park. This was lovely and very quiet in the snow.

Andy’s shoes were not waterproof and his feet got soaked. We went for a quick lunch at Grand Central and headed back to the hotel to search for a shop that sold good hiking boots. We found one close the financial district and headed there. Andy got his shoes and on the way back we stopped to take some photos of the Flatiron building, before going to meet Cheane and Kirstyn at Grand Central. So nice to see the cuzzies (Cheane’s 25^th birthday today) and meet their friend Michael. We went for a drink at TGI Fridays and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We met at the restaurant near Times Square (on 51^st street). It was a South African restaurant called “Braai” and the food was amazing. Some menu items included Sosaties, Boerewors and Pap, Drie-Hoekies (Samoosas), Koeksisters and Melktert. The food was divine and the wine was truly South African. Even the cocktails on the cocktail menu had "truly South African" names.

We took them for a quick beer at Deacon Brodies, then off to bed. I must add that it the meantime the snow got a lot worse and we found ourselves in the middle of what they called a “Snow Hurricane”. Not very pleasant to walk in, but quite and adventure.

Friday 26 Feb 2010

Today we slept in a little. Andy and I then headed off and went to Ground Zero to see the progress of the new Freedom Tower (built on the cleared site where the Twin Towers used to be) After this, we went to South Street Seaport near Wall street, which is a number of retail shops on the old Pier 17. The weather was still quite bad with heavy snow, but started to lift a little. We got some sunny spells which gave us nice views of Brooklyn Bridge and the Financial district.

From here we met Cheane, Kirstyn and Michael at the TGI Friday’s on Times Square, where there is a live Webcam. Click here to see Times Square at the moment. We called all our people at home who watched us wave live from Times Square, and Dad recorded it for the family blog. Click here.

From here we went for another walk in Central Park, after the heavy snow of almost 2 feet. It was gorgeous.

This evening we ate at a Mexican Restaurant in Greenwich Village and went for a quick drink at Beauty Bar.

Saturday 27 Feb 2010

A little lie in again to wait for the sun to come out, then Andy and I headed off to Macy’s as they have a sale this weekend and we get tax free shopping because we have foreign passports. We both got some Levi jeans and Andy got a Timberland top and I got a Hurley jumper for under $100. Bargain! The sun was out and we took the opportunity to go to the top of the Rockefeller Centre – Top of the Rock. We got beautiful views of the city and Central Park from the 69^th floor!

Andy and I went for a beer at the Hardrock Café on Times Square, and spent time walking through and looking at all the memorabilia donated by bands and rock stars, including a set of drums that belonged to Ringo Star and the famous grey suits the Beatles wore when they performed in New York the first time.

Later we met Cheane, Kirstyn and Michael here for some dinner and went for one last drink in Mean Fiddler.

Sunday 28 Feb 2010

We met Cheane, Kirstyn and Michael at Penn Station to say goodbye and took the train back to Washington DC. We stored our luggage at Union station and went to the Museum of Natural History.

A really great museum with anything from Ancient Egyptian history to under water displays and an exhibition of Africa. We saw an IMAX movie in 3D called Deep Ocean.

It was about the Sardine run in Africa from the Atlantic past the Wildcoast and up to Kwazulu Natal. And guess what – Scottburgh, the place where our annual family holiday was as children, was featured. I was amazed! We headed back to the station at 5pm to make our way to Dulles International for our flight at 10pm. Bye Bye Washington