Wednesday 30 January 2013

Day 35 ticking tourist boxes

It has been a very long day in which AllansAbroad did, in fact, tick a few significant tourist boxes.
 
We've had some really nice meals here
 
so we thought we'd try them for brekki. I've worked out how to get acceptable coffee here...specificity, which is also necessary for catching cabs. For cabs you must know the address and how to get there and tell the cabby this with certainty. Not like Sydney where you just say the name of the hotel. We tried that once and the cabby didn't know where to go, MGM had to direct him on our first day here. We haven't done a lot of cabs since.
 
With coffee, know what you want and order it exactly, after first checking for the presence of an espresso machine of course. So when I asked for a double shot espresso I got exactly that and it was much better than anything else I've had here so I ordered another as I was feeling a little sluggish (quell surprise). This caused quite a stir behind the counter "she orderd another, that's 2...in one meal!"
 
Reinforced by good coffee coursing through my system we launched off downtown on the subway (we are experts at this now). Can someone tell me why we don't get whomever is in charge of the NYC transit system to cross the drink and get our trains organised? Here they're fast reliable, frequent and efficient. Possibly we're seeing them at their best, but still tourists with a week in Sydney would have a very different public transport experince.
 
We discovered that our plans for today would be altered for us. Thanks to superstorm Sandy Liberty Island and Ellis Island were closed so we did the next best thing by taking a cruise of the Hudson and East rivers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ellis Island (tick)
 
 
 
 
Well you recognise this lady (tick)

 
 
 
 
 Brooklyn Bridge (tick)
 
We caught the subway to our next destination and ticked off two at once.
 
Grand Central Station (tick)
 
 
 
 
 
recognise this building?
 
  How about now?
 
Yep, Empire State Building (tick)
 
 
 
 an early dinner (isn't that the prettiest pink lemonade?) before a Broadway show (tick)
 
 
 Gershwin and Matthew Broderick - eXcellent combination!
 

 
 
Now wasn't that a day of serious tourism?!
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 comments:

  1. NYC is nice, but I always prefer Europe. Shame you didn't get to Ellis Island. It's very interesting and I think you would have enjoyed it. Still obviously a good day though! I shall miss your travel blog when you get back home.

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  2. Yes, it's a shame you missed Ellis Island - the museum there is very moving, especially when I considered that some of my father's relatives had been through the exact same arrivals hall when they escaped the Famine in Ireland.

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