Day 13 Back to Reality

We intended a nice lie in as it was going to be a tiring day - that didn’t happen

Instead we got up and went to breakfast downstairs 

We then sorted out our luggage and left it with the hotel to look after - they weren’t able to extend our departure time

For the last time we walked down 8th Avenue and just before Central Park what did we find?

A hardship indeed

We stayed there for a while before walking to Central Park and turning back on to 7th Avenue, and back to our favourite bar

Joss needed all the Dutch courage she could get after all

We then meandered (literally) back to the hotel via the last tat shop

We retrieved our bags and set off in the taxi from hell

Toronto taxis weave, New York taxis dominate the road - beeping and swerving all over the road

A journey that should take 45 mins took 75 and my knuckles are still white writing this

At the airport we got through security and decided on a pizza

Before somehow finding the bar

Afterwards I was caught a little “short” so went to the loo and had to use the handicapped cubicle

The problem with this was the loo roll was very low so I had to practically sit down to get some

Then every time I stood up to use said paper, the toilet flushed

It made it sound like I had a 6 flusher to get rid of - I’ve never scuttled out of a toilet so fast

The plane left on time and apart from being so, so hot, and a little bumpy in places, all went without a hitch

Our 2 bags must have been in the first 5 off the plane (winning again) and then we had the excitement of the return pod trip

The car was where we left it and the journey was almost incident free - apart from getting cut up with the house practically in sight

That would have been right 3900 miles without any problems then crash with 4 miles to go ;-)

It was a GREAT holiday - one that will live long in the memory - just need to catch up on some sleep ...zzzzz

Day 12 - Empire State Building and Mets v Yankees

Good as my word - I was up nice and early - there’s a first time for everything 

Once up, we headed to the Empire State Building 

We had heard horror stories about queuing to get in, queuing for lifts and queuing for views 

None of that

5 out of 5 as far as city attractions go

When we wanted it, the lift was there, or the view just opened up - easy

After this, it was a bit late for breakfast - so we had brunch

Yes we did order it and yes it was delicious - but I did feel more than a little sick afterwards 

We then did some shopping which was EXHAUSTING - so we had a couple of beers and got to speaking with a retired couple from Newfoundland 

They were nice people

On the way home, we were both “caught short” so needed to find a ‘restroom’

And where can you find them? In another bar of course!!

We talked there with a Chicago couple - they were nice too and were very patient with my baseball questions

Talking of which, after dumping the shopping, we nervously walked to the subway and luckily we saw some Mets fans, which made platform choice easier

At the stadium, we saw the future of police travel - and found a new recruit

We then found the gate for our entry

The place was huge - it was like a prem league away game 

The disappointing bit of the night is that I missed the national anthem as I was arguing with the girl who was saying that my ID wasn’t good enough for me to have a beer

I AM 50 !!!

She would, however, let me buy the souvenir glass for the same price as a beer and souvenir glass  - no thanks

I went to another guy selling cans - he didn’t even ask for ID

Anyway - on to the game

I have to say, despite a slight drizzle - I surprised myself by really enjoying it

I love floodlit games and it was as close to cricket as I’ve found any game - which I could sit and watch all day

Needless to say, we were the Mets’ lucky omens, as they broke their 8 game losing streak to beat the Yankees

I will say, American fans suck

There were more chants of “Let’s go Yankees” than anything else and the Mets were at home

When 2 nil up, we did hear a few murmurs of “Let’s go Mets” bits let’s face it, even without it being a copy of the Yankee’s song, it’s really really poor

Anyway, we made it back nice and safely and have checked in online for tomorrow - yes that’s right, we’re coming home 

Day 11 - 9/11 Museum

Today we planned to get up really early so we wouldn’t be walking in the heat of the day - we both woke up at 10 D’oh!!

As we were late we ate in the hotel restaurant - Tick Tock

Today was a turning point - many days of huge food had finally come to this point - I just couldn’t finish it

We then walked to the 9/11 museum

On the way though, we did find a restaurant for Hattie

Once in the museum, after again just a short queue, you could feel the respect that this site deserved

I share these pictures (and I do have others) but there was an area where they had signs for no pictures to be taken

Thank F&£k for that

Pictures of missing people, footage and audio of when this tragedy happened and artefacts from the remains put both Joss and I close to tears on many occasions 

All I can say is, wow

I’ve never experienced anything like this, to the point that I just wanted to get out to breathe again 

It was a truly mesmeric occasion - I don’t think I will feel the likes of it again - the heroism, the sacrifice, the waste

Outside was the monument to the whole horrific time 

From there we started to walk back, via the first bar we could find to steady ourselves - yeah, like we need a reason

We walked on, to another bar

Before walking through Washington Park where there was a Hari Krishna festival

We then got a bit hungry, but where could we go?

Ah yes, another bar

We then walked to Korea Town and were mobbed by he locals

That was exhausting - so we stopped off in an Irish bar where I could explain to the excitable barman why “soccer” is ace and you can’t call anything a World Series if only one country competes ....

Joss kept pinching me to stop ....

We went for Chinese tonight - we knew we’d made an over ordering error when the starter arrived -8 dumplings EACH!!

I won this round

Then the ultimate humiliation - they had to add another table to our table, to cope with the main course

(Not sure what went wrong with the last picture)




All I can say is yum yum yum - it was delicious 

Day 10 - Metropolitan Museum, Chicago and Hard Rock Cafe

This morning we decided to eat at the hotel - yes, I still had an omelette

I haven’t got proof, but it was very nice

We then walked to the Metropolitan Museum- no mean feat in the heat of the day

Once in, I could see that this was much more up my street

For example, we can see here that feminism wasn’t appreciated in Egypt 

I wasn’t pleased to be put in this police line up

We saw a seat for me and one for Hattie

We thought of these as us in a few years time

And this guy was clearly exaggerating 

Who doesn’t like the artistic use of a shovel?

I took this one as clearly she was a relative - as far as the nose goes

And as we are in Americi (yes deliberate spelling) TOUCHDOWN!!!!

We then went to Bloomingdales - my word that was posh

Afterwards we headed home and stopped off at the Irish bar we had before for a beer or 2 - I very much enjoyed that

We did find the Disney store - Kieren would have loved it

On the way home we went in a shoe store and we both picked out what we wanted - but there would be a wait

Now I’d had a lot of beer by now

She promised 5 minutes - that was a lie

She said it would take just 3 minutes more - again, a lie

That was it - get your bags, we are going back to the hotel - let’s just say, I only just made it ....

The evening was all about the show, Chicago 

We were shown to our seats - they were good 

Than they realised they had put us in the wrong place and in fact we had GREAT seats

The show itself was fantastic- the only 2 things that let it down were the cost of the drinks (ouch) and the queue for the loos

After that, we needed food so headed to:

I ordered a great steak and as I predicted, Joss did the same, with added shrimp

We then had pudding

And now I feel sick

What a bloody great day :-)