Another bite of the Big Apple

After a busy, busy morning in work, we skipped out of the office about 12:15 and jumped in a cab to the airport. We got checked in and headed down to security...and hit the line! Then proceeded to make it longer when they scanned our case - over and over and over. I don't know what was in there that they didn't like, but there was certainly something!!

We were loaded onto the plane in good time for the take-off slot. We taxied out. We switched off the engines.... There was rain at La Guardia and we had been delayed. For about 50 minutes. We eventually got away and landed in La Guardia only a few minutes after we were supposed to. They allow 1 1/2 hours on the schedule, for a 40 minute flight - probably so that the airlines can claim that it arrived on time!

We were staying at the Sheraton Manhattan, which claims to be just up from Times Square. I seem to remember when we've been to NYC previously that this hotel was about 2 miles from Times Square...but hey, it really was only just a couple of blocks! I guess that we've usually already walked about 40 miles by the time we pass it!!

The view from our room - overlooking Broadway and the Late Show with David Letterman.

After dumping our luggage, and stopping off to buy umbrellas (which we were really grateful for about 10 minutes later when the heavens opened!) we headed down to Times Square to the Marriott Marquis hotel for drinks in their 8th floor bar. It has a great view over Times Square - and given that small lakes were forming the the roadways, and cats and dogs were falling from the sky - inside was definitely the best place to be to see Times Square!! They have glass elevators which go at tremendous speed. Boy! Do these babies make you feel sick!!! We dropped like a stone for 8 floors! Who needs to go to Busch Gardens to experience terror rides!!

View from the bar


Stephen in the bar

After a quick dinner, we went to see Spamalot. It was HILARIOUS! I would recommend seeing it! Clay Aitken was starring in the show. He was apparently the second placed contestant on the second series of American Idol (he lost to Reuben), but no-one seemed to hold that against him!! After the show we again braved the totally torrential rain to hoof it back to the hotel...or rather to the bar next to the hotel! We only stayed for a couple as once we were sitting down out of the rain, we realised that we were both totally soaked from the thighs down, and I could have wrung out my trousers from about mid-calf downwards. After about 20 minutes I was just cold and wanting a bath to thaw out...

I had picked up a voicemail from Colin, so I called him back, and found out that he had quit his job. Honestly - I can't leave the office for a minute!! We had a good chat and I was relieved to hear that he seemed quite buoyant. After that we headed off for some breakfast and got the worst table (the tourist tables at the back), and the worlds stroppiest waitress... We actually had to ask for coffee refills! Normally they are so quick and plentiful with the pot to cup action that you end up with caffeine poisoning!! Thirsty and grumpy we headed off to the Museum of Modern Art, and joined the queue of people waiting on it opening. It was worth the waiting in line. There is a vast array of art treasures in there - rooms full of Picasso's, Kandinsky's, Warhol's - too many great artists to name. It was quite overwhelming really!

Stephen was getting quite indignant at one point. He was really getting the art, having discussions about how he appreciated that art had to change from the figurative art of previous centuries....then we got to the canvasses which were...well...white. We had an "I don't believe it. I've just paid $40 bucks and they couldn't be bothered to paint the canvas" moment!!!

Inside MOMA

One of several works by Jackson Pollock

Stephen's favourite installation!!

At least this one had colour!! Stephen approved!

We jumped into a cab round to the Metropolitan Museum as it was still raining, just not as heavily as the night before! The Met is fantastically well endowed with art treasures from all over the globe. It has a wealth of treasures. I have to admit that by mid-afternoon when we were tired and in need of refreshments and, ambling round I wandered into a gallery of Monet's, looked around and thought "Oh look. Another room full of Monet's"!! We were both absolutely all cultured out by this point!

The entrance hallway of the Metropolitan Museum

A tasteful setting for an ancient Egyptian temple

We jumped in another cab down to the shopping on 5th Avenue and wandered around for a bit. There was a really pretty electric waterfall at the Rockefeller Centre just above the ice rink. It was getting a bit blowy and we were getting a bit tired, so we headed off in the general direction of the hotel in search of Starbucks. Why is it, when you normally can't walk 100 yards without passing 3 Starbucks we couldn't find one? We ended up having a nondescript coffee in a deli which was definitely not hitting the spot like a Starbucks skinny latte would!!

At the Rock

Look at the rosy cheeks! Someone was feeling the cold!

Look at the horrible murky weather...

We went to Ruth's Chris for dinner. Its a US chain of steak restaurants (very posh!) and was just across from the hotel - which was good considering the rain and my straightened (quick to go curly) hair. We were debating whether this was the restaurant that I once got a waiter fired for squirting me with a soda syphon...but we thought probably not. We decided that it was probably the restaurant along the street...

Anyway dinner was lovely. Stephen was slightly miffed that they got our steaks the wrong way round so he ended up with the petite fillet. I would have swapped but the plates were about 500 degrees (honestly I got a suntan!) so I wasn't going to risk my other fingertips. One burny finger is enough!! We were headed over to the champagne bar a couple of blocks up when we got to the intersection of 52nd and 7th Avenue...and the howling ice cold wind hit us!! We could not get inside fast enough!! We made it to the bar next to the hotel for a drink or 6. They had live music and we stayed MUCH longer than we had planned, or was good for us!!!! Stephen had a weeny teeny hangover the next morning!!

The cold weather swept in with a vengeance. It was absolutely teeth chatteringly freezing on Sunday. We did venture out for a huge deli breakfast (to combat any residual hangover!) and to take a couple of photos, but it was so cold that we didn't stay out for long!! We just didn't have enough clothes on to cope with the cold. Neither of us had picked up hats or gloves, and we were just walking along chittering!!

Us propping up the bar!

An arty shot...

We had fun getting to the airport - lovely taxi driver, just a lunatic behind the wheel!! I was flinching at one point when we overtook the car next to us at high speed (only in NY can you do 60mph on a city street!) and missed him by inches. Then we got to La Guardia, into the terminal, and slap bang into the back of an enormous queue! They had lost power the night before and were relying on generators to run a few key pieces of equipment - ie the security scanners, so they were manually checking in the flights. The airlines were doing all that they could in order to get people onto the flights in good time, and it was actually going quite smoothly. We made the flight, the plane took off on time. Who could ask for more?