NEW YORK – THE BIG APPLE

Well, we made it to our final destination in America (Not including a couple of stops on our upcoming cruise). We made an early start for the hour drive to drop the car off and get to the airport. Our flight was good and we arrived at JFK airport New York on time at 7.00 pm.

When we arrived at our hotel, the Waldorf, they had stuffed up our booking. We had booked a king room and they only had a queen! 

We were asked if we would accept going into the queen room for one night and then be moved to a King Suite for the remaining 5 nights!

Of course we weren’t happy preferring to be moved to a back-packers’ hostel instead but we graciously accepted their offer. 

As such we are now residing in a 2 bathroom King Suite on the 24^th floor of the Waldorf Astoria, Park Avenue, New York. Sheesh! It’s a hard life!

Our first day we booked a 72 hour ‘Hop on Hop Off’ tour and it has turned out to be the best deal of our trip. Using this it is so easy to get around the place and to see the primary tourist sights of the city. And there are far more points of interest here than we can hope to see in just 5 days!

On our first day we used the subway to get to Wall Street. This trip started from Grand Union Station, just a 5 minute walk from the hotel.

The skyscrapers here are beyond what we expected; it’s a wonder that most visitors to NY don’t end up with serious neck injuries just looking around.

The famous ‘Wall St Bull’ is no longer outside the stock-exchange but is re-located down the road. When we couldn’t find it Julie asked someone with the words “We came all the way from Australia to see the damned Bull and now we can’t find it. Where is the damned Bull”?

Luckily all the Yanks seem to love the Aussies and joined in the fun.

The Stock Exchange proper is no longer open to the public; closed since 9/11. And they try to tell us that the terrorists aren’t winning! Hmm! We were hoping to go in and actually buy a couple of shares as a souvenir but that plan failed.

The weather was quite pleasant so we spent the rest of the day ‘just being tourists and wandering around. We ended up in Times Square and O.M.G. – What a place! I’m just glad I don’t have to pay the energy bills.

Every bonehead and lunatic is in this area. We saw the ‘Naked Cowboy’ and this other character.

We were particularly enamoured with his honesty so I offered him a few bucks for a photo! He accepted and then took control. Ha! Ha! – Sucked in, Michael and Julie!

After a very pleasurable couple of hours we then decided on dinner. What better place than the Hard Rock Café, Times Square, New York!

After returning to the hotel we saw our new room for the first time.

I like it here!!!! Will try to post again soon.