No sleeping here!

With the arrival of Spring, before the weather gets too hot, to check something from our bucket list and before we move west it seemed like an ideal time to head down to New York City for a weekend break. Since there were no direct flights for Ottawa to NYC (everything connects through Toronto and takes 3 times as long) we drove to Montreal for a direct flight from there to La Guardia, NY. It turned out to be beneficial to fly from Montreal not only for us but also for Natalie who had offered to come to the airport with us and take the car to her home to avoid us paying for parking. After dropping us at teh airport in her car, the brakes on her vehicle seized and it became undriveable. At least with our car at her home she could continue her busy schedule of kids sports and parties whilst her car was in for repair. The flight from Montreal was as straightforward as it could be and we had no sooner taken off than we were descending into La Guardia.

From there it was easy enough to find the free shuttle bus to take us to the subway station where we felt the real adventure would begin. We had studied the subway map online beforehand and basically knew what train to catch in which direction and had even found clear instructions on how to purchase fare cards for unlimited rides. Within a few minutes of arriving at the subway station we had our farecards and boarded the train towards Manhatten. Our hotel, Hyatt Grand Central, was situated on the same subway line as the train from the airport so we did not have to worry about making any connections between subway lines. Arriving at Grand Central station we quickly saw why it was called Grand Central, it's a very large, beautiful station and has multiple passageways leading to subway and regular, above ground trains, in all directions and on multiple levels.

From Grand Central Station there is a direct connection passageway to the hotel lobby although it took us a little while to find it.

Even a couple of days later we still had a bit of an issue finding the right passage to take. Our room was on the 26th floor and the express elevator sopn got us up there to our comfortable room. Friday evening we made our way the short distance to Times Square as tourists do and found something to eat.

After some time wanderng and looking we made our way back to the hotel ready for the first full day of exploring NYC. Saturday mornings first task was too find somewhere for breakfast as we didn't consider paying US$45 or more per person for breakfast at the hotel a good deal. We found a place called The Comfort Diner which sufficed although it was a little like a 'greasy spoon cafe'. We (read 'I') had considered buying tourist passes for various attractions but as these tourist places all said you need 3 or 4 hours to visit various places and we only had two full days we skipped buying any of those passes. From the diner we took the subway to Battery Park at the south end of Manhatten and made our way to the Statten Island Ferry terminal. The Statten Island ferry runs between Manhatten and Statten Island every 30 minutes or so on weekends. The attraction for tourists, on a budget and time limited, is that it is free but also passes relatively close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The ferry was quite crowded but we found space on an outside deck alongside a railing good enough for some pictures where we also struck up conversations with various people visiting from the UK as well as people who had worked in the UK.

Arriving at Statten Island we exited the ferry only to join the crowd of likeminded tourists to reboard for the return trip! Back onto the subway for a ride to WTC Cortland where we visited the site of the twin towers memorial site from the terrorist attack on 11th Sept. 2001.

After some time there we walked south west towards the Hudson river and followed the walk northwards alongside the river for a while. From the 9/11 site we had planned to walk west towards a restuarant 'Mezze on the River' for lunch but inadvertantly went too far south but by the time we got to M-o-T-r we did not fell like eating so continued on back to a subway station where we headed for the Rockefeller centre where we wanted to do the 'Top of the Rock' observation deck.

There was no queuing at the Rockefeller and 43 seconds after getting in the elevator we were exiting it 60 or so floors above! After surveying NYC from on high we made our way ack to the hotel for a a break before an early evening adventure. Refreshed from our break we once more headed south on the subway towrds NYC City Hall subway station from where we joined a throng os people walking the Brooklyn Bridge,

. Having eventually reached the far side we turned around and headed back across. On the way back to the hotel we detoured to Central Park just to get an idea of where we were planning to visit on Sunday before returning to the hotel where we spent a couple of hours watching the Stanley Cup playoffs - even if it did involve Toronto Maple Leafs. Deciding not to return to The Comfort Diner for breakfast we found what proved to be a much better option, and at the same basic prices, at the New York Dinerette on 51st Street. After a good breakfast we made the short subway trip to Central Park,

. I had planned to rent a bicycle to explore the park but our previous evening excursion showed that bicycles seemed to be limited in where you could actually ride them so we ended up walking....and walking....and walking..... We headed to Bethesda Terrace,

onto Cherry Hill, Strawberry Fields

near where John Lennon lived, and where there were buskers playing Lennon/Beatle songs) and finally Belvedere Castle,

Then it was time for another subway ride south to explore The High Line,

. The High Line used to be an elevated section of train track but the trains were cancelled the elevated tracks were due to be demolished but residents managed to form conservation groups and turn the elevated tracks into a peaceful walk above the busy city street below,

. Having aching feet after that we started on our way back to the hotel having completed all we had wanted to do. We did not feel like we would be heading out to eat on Sunday evening and we came across Whole Foods Market where we made up our own salads etc to take back to the hotel for dinner but not before having a NY ice cream at 34th Street and Hudson yards where we discovered but did not explore, The Vessel - a 16 storey, open air, honeycomb structure for visitors.

Then it was back to the hotel ready for the Monday morning departure :-)