Wow! What a weekend that was! Friday started off pretty manic. Having been out of the office for 3 days there was a lot to do. I'd kept on top of my e-mail thanks to the Blackberry, but there was a pile of stuff to do for people travelling this week, and in preparation for the high level visitors we have in the office this week. To top it all, I was trying to do everything I needed to do on Monday on Friday, as we found out on Friday morning that we needed to stay an extra night as Stephen now had a meeting in upstate New York on Monday morning...it was pretty stressful, but between Colin, Tim and I we got it all sorted. I don't think I actually relaxed until I was on board the flight!
The flight was packed, but incredibly short, so we were on the ground in New York before we knew it, and in a taxi on our way to Manhattan a few minutes after that. (Stephen had decided that we should only take carry on baggage, so I packed light - but more of that later!). The hotel was great! It was a little boutique hotel on 46th Street just half a block from Times Square. We arrived in time for their evening drinks reception - very civilised!! After a quick change we headed out to take in the sights, and hit a bar...maybe two! We went to a nice pizza restaurant for dinner, and started off with drinks. Stephen had a pint of margarita and was just about conscious for the resent of the evening!! We had a laugh...the table next to ours left a tip which drew the interest of all the waiting staff...there was a dollar bill and a pile of coins - mostly cents - and a note written on a napkin. Staff were coming over to take pictures on their camera phones and take a look...we managed to sneak a peek at what was written..."This is your tip. We are Germans. Sorry" were scribbled on the napkin. On a table of 4 in NYC a note and $1.50 doesn't really cut it as a tip!! When we came to pay (and leave our generous 20%) we scribbled down "We're Scottish. But even the notorious tightwads of Europe tip better than the Germans". As I said, there were pints of margarita involved in this evening, so we thought we were hilarious!!
We were up bright and early on Saturday and went for breakfast at Maxine's deli. I had forgotten just exactly how huge portions are in a NY deli! I ordered corned beef hash - which was a huge portion and came with breakfast potatoes and 3 fried eggs, as well as a portion of toast. It would have fed a family of 5 for a week!! The waiter was very charming though. He gave us some good tips about what to see, where to get show tickets, discount coupons etc.
We decided to get the underground down to South Ferry, wander about down there, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, wander back towards Midtown...the best laid plans and all that...we got into the subway to discover that the line that goes to South Ferry was undergoing refurbishment so we had to get off half way and get a bus which was a complete scrum, it was packed, I was staring into a BO laden armpit, there was a squawking kid near us...10 minutes of torture! We jumped off as soon as we could which was at Battery Park. It turned out to be quite an emotional time. There was an eternal flame and a sculpture, which had previously been located in the Plaza by the World Trade Centre, and had been damaged in the attacks. I was really welling up reading the inscription...
We walked from there up to Trinity Church and Wall Street, which was when our plans went really haywire! It started to rain... then it started to pour...then we took cover in a nearby Starbucks and waited for it to stop. And we waited, and we waited....we finally decided that if we were to walk the Brooklyn Bridge we wouldn't see anything anyway, so we ran for the subway and headed back to Macy's for a bit of retail therapy. After all, what else is there to do in NY when it's raining? (Okay, so we could have gone down the culture route, but shopping seemed more fun!) When it finally stopped raining we escaped Macy's and headed up 5th Avenue, taking loads of photos as we went.
We asked the Concierge at the hotel for a recommendation for dinner and she sent us to the most fantastic steak restaurant on Park Ave. The food was amazing! And again, would feed a family for a week! We were reminiscing about the last time we were in NY with Philip and went to a really nice steak restaurant and managed to get our waiter fired! The waiter had said he was new and had only been there a couple of nights. Most of the meal was uneventful, then we got to dessert. Stephen and I split a cheesecake and Philip ordered something typically New York. I can't remember what exactly, but I know it involved a soda syphon...coz the waiter managed to spray me with the syphon instead of spraying it into the glass!! I was laughing it off, trying to mop up my top, my plate, the table...but about 5 minutes later (and halfway through a shift) the waiter came over to say he was leaving... I guess hosing down the customers with a soda syphon didn't go down well with the boss! Anyway, this meal was uneventful...aside from the fact it was freezing in the restaurant, and there were a couple of girls making out outside the picture window!
After dinner we walked down to the Empire State building and went up to the observation desk for a nighttime view of the city. It was amazing. Truly magical! It was nearly midnight when we came down, so we just walked along to Times Square to take in the atmosphere and then went to bed. No going to swanky bars for us! It was late, we were tired, our feet hurt...we are officially old!!
Sunday was a beautifully sunny day, so we whizzed on down to Brooklyn Bridge and walked halfway over to admire the view of the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty. Then we got the subway to Grand Central station and worked our way up 5th Avenue to the Rockefeller Centre, had a rather nice lunch in the rink cafe and went to the "Top of the Rock" to the observation deck for a daytime view of the city. The elevator ride to the top was cool...it was glass-topped and they had lights up the lift shaft so you really got a feeling of speed as we whisked up the 70 floors.
I also had to tackle phoning the airline to change the flights. Just trust my luck to get the dumba$$ on duty!! It took 40 minutes to change both our flights most of which was spent in silence with an occasional question and then the background noise of a keyboard tapping v.....e....r.....y .....s....l....o....w.....l....y. Then there was the difficulty with "South". As practically every US street address contains North, South, East or West I can't understand why its so difficult to understand what I'm saying!!! I need to get an American to teach me how to pronounce it "properly"....there must be some way that I can mangle the vowels to make it understandable!!!
The UN was going into session on Monday and George Dubya was flying into town. Traffic was gridlocked around midtown and there was a cop on every intersection directing traffic. It was total chaos and there was so much honking of horns you were nearly deafened after a block!! I dropped past "The Rock" and stopped off to get a coffee, and found that the lovely outside cafe was dismantled and they were in full swing building the ice rink!
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