I was up fairly early all excited like a kid at Christmas but Rodd was a bit slower getting up and at em, the result being me bouncing around just itching to get out the door and Rodd saying "what's your hurry" .... What, really? I'm in NYC, let me at it! I ended up popping downstairs to drop some washing off at the cleaners around the corner and thankfully Rodd was ready to go when I got back.

We went in to get some breakfast as this is included in the room rate. There's not much of an offering, croissants, pastries, fresh fruit and coffee but at least it was a little something to get us started as we'd only bought dinner stuff last night.

On our way out we popped into reception to deliver the promised Vegemite and koalas. The staff in there were all very eager to try it and ate it right out of the packet.... 2 of them loved it, the others said it might taste better on toast!!

First order of the day is to go to Century 21 on Cortland Street to buy us both some new shoes. Rodds joggers were old and worn and my boots had finally blown out so no way was I walking around getting water inside my boots. It was only about a 5 minute walk but man it's freakin freezing! I'm so glad I'd bought Rodd a balaclava and gloves before we left home so we didn't have a repeat of St Louis. This place is huge and full of label goods at clearance prices, didn't take long to find us both shoes... Joggers for him and boots for me, AU $75 for 2 pairs of shoes! I'm ok with that. Whilst Rodd was waiting for me to go to the bathroom he started looking around at labels so when I returned he told me I should buy some clothes cos the prices were so discounted.... $200 items for $50! Oh, alright! I did buy a couple things but it's so hard shopping when you're carrying coats, gloves, scarves, bag etc. it's always so hot inside everywhere so you have to peel 5 layers off and get dressed again on the way out. 

Right outside the shop is the R subway so we popped in there and bought our 7 day unlimited ticket then on the train up to Times Square where we transferred to the Shuttle to GCT (Grand Central Terminal). As we were walking up to the shuttle a young American couple asked us if this was the train to GCT, we assured them it was and Rodd, being Rodd, started chatting to them, its always interesting talking to people from other places. At GCT first thing was to get some food, we hadn't really eaten anything for breakfast and it was already after 11. I found Hale and Hearty which has an awesome menu and got lentil soup with sourdough and Rodd had Chicken Satay with noodles, it was yummy! Funnily enough as we were looking for a seat we spied one empty table so quickly made a beeline before it got snapped up, as we sat down who should be at the next table but the young couple from the train! They were from Kentucky and had been in NYC just for the weekend. Interesting stat they told us - Kentucky has more barrels of Bourbon than it has people! Rodd of course gave them a koala and some Vegemite. It's always funny when you give it to people, they look at the pack, read it all, turn it over and always ask what it tastes like and how do they eat it. We say it's salty, eat it on toast or crackers with butter and I always add "my sister likes to eat it by the spoonful but I wouldn't recommend that"!

After food we wandered around GCT taking pics, I had read online about a passageway that is behind the big windows at either end but silly me had forgotten the directions. It's not technically open to the public but apparently you can access it. We did look about a bit but couldn't find it.

From here we jumped on the subway up the east side to 77th and after having to take out the iPhone to work out which direction to walk in made our way to Central Park. It's pretty funny really watching everyone come up out of the subway, the locals just hit the top step and take off but the tourists all have to stop and get their bearings. It's really hard to work out sometimes if there's no street signs at the intersection, I refuse to move until I'm sure cos otherwise you're walking a block in the wrong direction before you get your bearings and we do enough walking as it is. Originally we were going up to Yankee Stadium to do a tour but I hadn't booked that from home and when I rang to book, from GCT, I got an answering machine so we didn't want to go all the way to find it closed. 

It was so lovely seeing Central Park with some snow, I was so disappointed last time we were there and no snow! Honestly this place confuses me.... There are so many little pathways winding here and there and no signs to tell you which way to go so of course I got all turned around and even google maps on my phone couldn't tell me where I was! We did eventually make our way through there but not in the direction I had wanted to go. We had to stop at Le Pain Quotidien to thaw out at one stage but I did have a yummy Belgian Hot Chocolate. Out of the park at 72nd and straight on the C train all the way to Fulton St where we changed to the 2 for one stop to Wall st... The subway stop is actually right across the road from the Hotel so we were back inside for a nanny nap by 2ish. Well I didn't really nap, I had about 1/2 hour and then wrote a blog entry and had a few wines but Rodd napped.


About 4 we started planning what we'd do for the night and thought we'd try the Comedy Cellar. This is a place I heard about on Trip Advisor before our last trip but we'd gone to the Upright Citizens Brigade instead, I jumped online but they were sold out for the 7.30 show. I tried booking the next night, same thing.... We ended up booking it for 7.30 Wednesday so we've that to look forward to. Now... Back to tonight.... We decided to go to the Empire State Building so across the road into the subway, 3 to 14th and transfer to F to 34th. Sounds easy but 14th-Union Square spans about 4 blocks underground with tunnels everywhere connecting platforms... Took me a while to get us headed in the right direction to get the F uptown but eventually we were in the right place! We did the confused tourist routine again once on the street but only for a minute or two.

 Walked into the ESB and it was empty, we were all the way up, through security and ticketing and what seemed like miles of roped passages and at the lifts before we ran into other people. I've heard stories of people waiting hours in line so definitely have to pick your time. We had passes to both the 86th and 102nd floor observatories ($52 each!) so got to see the view from inside and out. The 86th floor is the one you see in the movies - think Sleepless in Seattle - it does have an inside viewing area but of course it's not the best place to see from so we went straight out.....into the Jaws of Hell, OMG the wind was unbelievably vicious, strong and brutally cold. I took my gloves off to take some pics on my phone and apart from the fact that my phone was nearly ripped from my fingers with the force of it the cold hurt my hands so badly they were numb in a minute. I felt for the poor bloke working out there but he said they only have a 15min shift out there before they can swap! From the 102nd floor you get a great view from behind glass but it's pretty small up there so can be hard to get window space.... In good weather I'd probably give this a miss but the real advantage I guess is you don't have the wire grate like on the 86th outside. 


Just a short block uptown and around the corner we went into the first pub we saw to warm up, this was called Dillon's but we didn't stay here long as the barman wasn't overly friendly... He wasn't unfriendly but he was chatting up a girl at the end of the bar and was paying no attention to others wanting drinks. We could have walked out of there without paying I reckon! Right next door is a pub called Slattery's Midtown and this was where I had originally been headed as I had found it in my research at home and had checked out their dinner menu. With lots of veg options I was quite impressed so had made sure I had the address for when we were in the area. What a difference a barman makes!! The guy in here was awesome, he was keeping an eye on everyone's needs, chatting with all his customers and just a really nice bloke. He is an American born Irish but lived in Ireland most of his life and has only been in the States for 4 years, he was hilariously funny, every second word was "fookin" but it didn't sound like a swear word the way he spoke. We stayed there awhile and had some food which was fantastic, as people left the barman, Craig, had more time to talk to us so we had a fun couple hours chatting with him even though we couldn't understand half of what he said! We decided to move on to The Australian, a pub we'd been to last time we were in NYC. Being Monday night it wasn't too busy so we had a couple drinks ( and maybe a couple more) and chatted to the barman, Miles. He's from Cronulla and has been working in NYC for 6 months although he did go to college in Alabama on a scholarship 10 years ago. It was fascinating talking to him and he gave us a few tips and believe it or not we gave him a few, he was quite impressed with some of the things we'd done last trip and had planned as we do tend to do some things that the average tourist misses like Sleep no More and the Comedy Cellar.

 Back out into the cold and a quick walk up to 42nd St to reverse our subway trip, we jumped on the first train no problem and made it to 14th - Union ok but remember that rabbit warren? Ugh it was awful, I looked everywhere for the transfer to 2/3 downtown but ended up exiting to street level, crossing the road and back down before we found the right platform.... Rodd was getting a bit grumpy being dragged around, sometimes he just expects me to know exactly where I'm going and gets quite surprised and cranky with me when I make a wrong turn! I think the fact that he was tired, cold and his foot was throbbing might have had something to do with his disposition... He's my GOM ( grumpy old man ).

"Home" and in bed by 3am.... Alarm set for 6.30, we've got the Statue of Liberty crown access tomorrow!