New York New York - Happy Thanksgiving!

Oct 31, 2015
3 min read

New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made, the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple, In 2015 - NYC received over 60 million tourists - having been once when I was 15, I was excited to show T man a new city.A fleeting 4 day visit with a lot to see - started with the infamous yellow taxi from La Guardia to Brooklyn where we got an awesome tour of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope Park, Prospect Park and an American thanksgiving dinner to die for! From there a little bleary eyed and well nourished we headed over the bridge to our hotel in Midtown. The Ace Hotel https://www.acehotel.com/newyork - A sea of people working on Apple Mac Computers greeted us in the Reception Lobby along with a Live DJ and a lot of hipster beards. We were definitely not cool enough to stay here but I loved it - a great location - we could walk to pretty much everything and should we wish to take the subway it was an option too!

Day 2: Waking the next day we hit up Stumptown Coffee in our Lobby before heading to Bryant Park - a cool little place with lots of cafe's and market stalls to enjoy. From here we went to Grand Central Station which was amazing a stunning working station with breathtaking architecture, free to go in and have a nosey and to take a few snaps, it also has a massive Apple store #America...Onwards we went Up or Down (not sure how that works) Madison Avenue to Central Park - where we enjoyed a coffee and a bagel (insert New York accent) and took in the sights...

We then headed up/down 5th Avenue and went to the Rockefeller Centre and we headed up The Top of The Rock - not cheap at $32 each but oh my AMAZING - I would definitely recommend going during the day - I have been at night at the view is not as spectacular. I think it was the colours and the scale of Central Park that blew me away! It is for the record 843 acres

Smug with our achievements (with a mild hangover) we headed for a well earned bite to eat at a tasty but nothing special middle eastern restaurant near our hotel and an early night.

Day Three: Different direction this time, we headed down I'm going to say, to the Ferry terminal in Battery Park and took a boat over to see the Statue of Liberty - horribly touristy but definitely a tick off the list I would say... It was $18 dollars and gave us the opportunity to rest our feet for a while!

After the boat we paid our respects at the 9/11 Memorial area (didn't go into the Museum - although have since and would defo recommend its better to pre book though as is very busy). Then wandered up to the Meatpacking District and Chelsea Market and headed on to the High Line - The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side, its free and would recommend it! You get a great view of areas of NYC I don't think you would notice otherwise.

After a quick refresh we headed to the ABC Kitchen http://www.abchome.com/eat/abc-kitchen/ which was really tasty - quite casual but full of gorgeous people and delicious food! We followed this with some very sophisticated jazz beside the Flatiron building...

Day four: Final day and still a lot to see and do - We headed down through Chinatown, Little Italy and on over the Brooklyn Bridge - AMAZING views - although there is a cycle lane and a pedestrian lane - took a few near misses for me to realise that! It is quite congested but would put it on the required 'do's.'

We stopped for brunch/lunch in Brooklyn Heights which I loved - really nice houses, a step away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Walking back over the bridge we started our last night in style with some prosecco and the Christmas shop in Little Italy and then on to the Roof Top Bar 230 on 5th which was a great spot for some city sky views - we then had more wine and a delicious meal at Barn Joos - a Korean restaurant with lots of small plates of tasty goodies. http://www.barnjoo.com/

From here we decided to fit in one last bit of adventure in before our red eye flight back to Texas...