well hello there from the big apple! we arrived on monday after a brilliant 10 days with cookies and his housemates and all his payed friends in DC, we had a brill day on the sunday going out for brunch which is the done thing like we go out for sunday lunch in the UK, we meet some people that cookie worked with and an old housemate all very nice people hello if your reading this! we then spent a brill day with cookie and delphine bought some nice food from the market and cooked another nice meal in the evening!

Monday 10th March

So monday came and we headed straight for new york! after a brief 40 min flight on the worlds smallest airplane (it was tiny good job were not small) we landed at JFK airport and boarded a YELLOW NEWYORK taxi was well cool and we headed off to our hotel. Arriving we checked in and had a quick nosy around, its more like a very posh hostel than a hotel i think they class it as a boutique hotel. So we headed out for times square and we weren't disappointed the lights, billboards, millions of yellow taxis was all amazing. We went in some of the big shops M&M's world and got a pick'n'mix, the herseys shop, toys'r'us and the hard rock cafe. we explored further a field and went to the NBA and NHL shops, dragging corinne away from the disney shop as where going to disney in california! After getting some pizza and beer for tea we well wolfie had a play on some of the games in the ESPN sports bar, the are huge interactive hockey, basketball and american football games!

Tuesday 11th March

So came our first full day in the big apple and we wanted to save all the big stuff for thursday, so after trying to pick up the Mary Poppins tickets in the morning (we couldn't till thursday) we headed of to grand central station, for 2 reasons because its meant to be rather posh and the other reason cause its on madagascar!!!!!!! It was just like off the film with the clock that mellman puts his head through, the staircase where alex and gloria come up and even the ticket booth where the monkeys get busted the only thing that was missing was the bench where the penguins get busted! After dragging corinne out with her having a paddy cause wolfie wouldn't take any more than the 20 pictures they already had we took a walk towards the river towards the UN building. The view of brooklyn was amazing and the UN building wasn't bad either, the flags were pretty cool otherwise the actual building looks like something off thunderbirds! Afterwards being sop close and on the advice off some friends who have recently been to NYC we headed for the Rockefeller building and the 'top of the rock'. Now although you can also go up the empire state building you can't see the empire state building. The friends (erica and laura) were right! the views were great, after taking the elevator up the millions of floors you get a full view of central park, the empire and chysler buildings and even in the distance the statue of liberty.We spent a while admiring the views looking down on people and cars and the HUGE buildings all around us.

Back on ground level much to corinne's delight it was shopping time and we headed for soho (not of the seedy london type). After reboarding the red No.1 line we alighted at houston street and headed for the shops. After giving all off about 15 minutes looking for the UGG shop we asked someone, heading across a couple of blocks and up one more we were there. The quest for the UGGs nearly over, we each tried some on eventually picking a pair each we paid and left the shop a little lighter in the money sense. After a couple of more shops being so close to little Italy we headed off for some food finding a nice little family run restaurant we had a great meal helped down with a bottle of red. afterwards holding and guarding our new UGG boots we headed back to the hotel and bed!

Wednesday 12th March

This morning despite still being a little museum'ed out we headed for the natural history one on the edge of central park to see if it was anything like night at the museum. From the outside it was just like we remember it and although it wasn't inside no big T-rex waiting for us, there were some pretty impressive other dino's though we had alook around. After a couple of hours and a dino movie we headed across the road and into central park. That was just the way you'd imagine it just without the pimps and hooker. Its like a crazy oasis for new yorkers in a concrete jungle.

After about 10 minutes of walking and soaking up the atmosphere we came across a film crew shooting some kind off stunt (although they wouldn't tell anyone what it was). They had a bloke attached to a parachute and then to a crane lifting him in the air and then letting him down so it looked like he was landing and crashing into a parking attendant. Afterwards he would stand up and get a hotdog! A little further into the park we passed through the carosel and down to the woolman ice rink. Although a little apprehensive we both put some skates on and went for it. After about 20 minutes of holding the edge and being occasional brave edging out a little it was ice cleaning time. After a coffee and ice cleaning the put some barriers across a third of a rink for a lesson. This Meaning when we were back on the ice we had to let go and go for it. After about 5 minutes wolfie was going for it nearly falling over most of the time, corinne was a little more reluctant but still having a go. It was great and we had loads of fun, we both agreed it was the best thing that we had done so far!

After a boring couple of hours at the train station sorting out the trains for our trans america trip (with a change were going to alberquerque now instead of denver). We headed for a beer and then a look around Ripleys believe it or not at time square. They had loads of weird stuff including some shrunken heads, weird masks, torture stuff and corinne's favorite a statue of NYC heaviest man a 1500lb fella who when he died they had to lift him out the house with afolk lift truck!

Thursday 13th March

Our final day in New York and still lots of important sightseeing stuff to do, we started off as every day should be with a killer breakfast in our favorite eatery the europan bakery and we got talking to swedish fella (another traveller) which was cool we had a good chat before swapping emails and parting ways. Afterwards we were finally able to pick up our tickets for Mary Poppins before heading to the last stop on the red no.1 line south ferry and battery park. This was the stop for the statue and liberty and ellis island ferries and after getting the tickets and going through tougher security than when we entered the country we boarded our ferry.

The statue was getting closer and it was one of those pinch yourselves moments that you don't actually believe that your there. The ferry rounded the front of the old lady before pulling into port and we jump off to go have a look. Now despite going to liberty island to see the statue, there were also excellent views of the highrise of manhatten. A few pics later and some fried shrimp and we were back on the ferry off to ellis island, and after a while there we were back on dry land.

A short walk from battery park is the 9/11 site, the No.10 firehouse stands right next to it and on the wall is a huge bronze plague commorating the firefighters that lost there lives on that fateful day, though the most somber piece was a poster displaying the faces and names of the 370 firefighters that died. Lastly on the sightseeing for the day was brooklyn bridge again only a short walk and we probably walked half way across cause it was getting close to show time. The views were amazing and there was some information about the construction and the history of the bridge.

Finally though it was time for the broadway show, after some pizza and salad we headed for the new amsterdam theatre took our seats on the 2nd row from the front in the middle and enjoyed the performance. It was brilliant and had all the main lines out of the films and the characters were good, the Mary Poppins was practically perfect pulling all the faces and experresions! Afterwards we headed back to pack for BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!!