New York - Day 5

In case you missed the previous New York blogs, please click the links below!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

New York - Day 5

Recovered from my steak coma (See Day 4) we got up extra early, Mike humouring me agreed that we could go get an extremely early breakfast to eat... where else? but at Tiffanys of course!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Donning a tea dress and Primark pearls, with a giant coffee and Pumpkin muffin in hand, no other tourists around and only few cars whizzing by I sat proudly outside the store having Breakfast at Tiffany’s, just like the movie, just like the beautiful and iconic Audrey Hepburn - I was very chuffed! I had to laugh when Mike came back across the road to show me the photo’s a film crew appeared with an actress dressed in a black dress, beehive and pearls for a Breakfast at Tiffanys commercial - what a sight - just for me!

As part of Day 4’s boat tour, we had heard that Sunday Mornings are the quietest time to visit the Empire State building and since we were out... earlier than most of New York, we wandered to see the grand tower.

City View

Statue of Liberty

1050ft Above the city streets and open 365 days a year The Empire State Building is a New York must see and is also included in the New York City Pass. For the past 82 years they’ve opened their doors 8am - 2am with observatories on the 82^nd and 102^nd floors where you’re able to appreciate the entire city from an amazing point of view. We also went round the 80^th floor historical exhibit where the Empire shop is also situated; were we bought ourselves a tour book and a cheesy, tacky Christmas decoration!

New York

The Chrysler Building 

Day 5, Unofficially became “The Girl day” when we headed towards the New York Public Library. I was incredibly excited. As a writer/blogger and avid book reader the NY library was top of my list of sights to see.

The building its self; white exterior, a beautiful marble foyer, a book store and exhibition centre (currently showing the History of Children literature) but I was looking for one room - The Rose reading room. I had a glance but Mike told me to look down and wait until we got to the end of the hall and then I looked back - I was in awe! This was the second time New York had left me speechless.

Looking rather chuffed!

The Rose reading room is almost the size of a football field and beautifully lined with thousands of books, with Oak desks with green glass lamps, you only need to watch Sex and the City Movie, Ghostbusters or The Day After Tomorrow to see the library on film but it’s not the same!

Unfortunately, my ego almost got me in trouble! I personally am entered into the young persons’ Who’s Who and when I found a UK Who’s Who? Annual, I grabbed the book only for the whole shelve above it to start falling! Queue some urgent whispering at Mike to help me put it back in place - cringe!

So that I didn’t cause any more trouble we left the Library and chilled in Bryant Park, where many picnics were laid out on colourful rugs and an outdoor library was being made full use of. If only we could do the same in the UK, sadly there would oly be a lot of soggy books left!

The afternoon bought us yet another landmark - Grand Central Station. One thing that struck me was, the station was a lot bigger than I imagined it would be. It’s a stunning place; the main hall is bright, sleek and absolutely packed with people 24/7. Like the New York Library photos of Grand Central Station do not do it justice. Opened in 1831 a jewel in New York’s crown was almost demolished in the 1970’s and what a waste that would have been. Mike and I followed the audio tour around the station which has 68 shops and 35 eateries. After playing in the whispering corners we found that the stations Oyster bar is closed on Sundays L so we had lunch in a little diner called Juniors.

Outside Grand Central Station

The main hall

To continue feeding our Geeky minds we found one of the Midtown comic stores (Jen & Al - you jealous?!) where Mike indulged in several vintage comics for his collection and even I got excited over the Star Trek section... yes... I’m a Treky and proud!

After the historical tour of New York we decide on Italian for dinner in Hell’s Kitchen - a place called Amarone. With a small but very well executed menu Amarone is a lovely restaurant, very popular too so make sure to plan ahead and get a reservation. I had a seafood dish which was delicious, with fresh prawns, scallops and handmade pasta - simple but amazing!

We made our way back to the hotel so that Mike could rest his poor feet, at this point he was suffering with blisters and had even worn out his socks - poor thing! I on the other hand was just getting fatter - hey ho, we were having fun!

L x