Lizzybear
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2006
- Messages
- 2,955
1st October
Up at 4am (actually woken up by my alarm which has to be a holiday first!) Showered, dressed, house checked, car packed and we set off at 5am for my dads house. We got there in great time (well you just never know with the traffic at that time of the day...!) and set off for Manchester airport. Bit confusing but dad was going to return the car to our drive on his way to work and cycle home as he works nearby. We soon arrived at the airport, said our goodbyes and waited the 15 minutes for check-in to open (well bag drop really as I had already checked in online) Once checked in we stopped off at Boots to pick up an extra TSA lock and a deodorant for Steve then WH Smith for snacks and Starbucks for a caramel macchiato (me) and caramel hot chocolate (Steve) We noticed the new Frankie and Bennys served breakfast so we decided to give it a go which ended up being a bad idea, the service was unbelievably slow despite the restaurant being half full but with plenty of staff about. We got scrambled eggs on toast (me) and an omelette (Steve) which were OK, no better than the food court serve but more expensive! When we finally got out we just chilled in the waiting area until our gate was called and boarding began. We got a row of three seats between the two of us which was nice and meant we managed to get a little sleep (Dramamine is drowsiness inducing which also helped!) In between times I played on the DS and made use of the inflight entertainment: Continental do this really well with loads of choice, over forty films alone! I watched an episode of CSI Miami and bits of Mulan and The Princess Diaries (I can never watch a full film on a flight, not sure why!) and listened to some music. The meals were exactly the same as last years and similarly mediocre, thank goodness for our snacks. I just ate the mash and gravy from my potroast as the meat looked a bit suspect!
Traditional plane picture, this year with extra crazy!
Flight time was a speedy seven hours and we were soon at Newark, immigrated and baggaged up. After a little confusion we booked a shuttle to Manhattan with Supershuttle, $40 for both of us including tip, and we got our first taste of crazy New York drivers: No lane discipline and lots of horn honking! We soon arrived at our hotel, Hampton Inn Madison Square Garden, and checked in. The room was ready early which was a relief as we were an hour early but desperate for a shower! The room was small but clean and with a comfortable bed, for the price which includes wifi/coffee/buffet breakfast we were very happy with what we paid. We unpacked, freshened up and Steve popped out to buy a Nikon D90 camera body (OK so this wasnt an impulsive decision: Theres a famous camera shop/warehouse near the hotel which he planned to visit and upgrade from his D40 first thing if the price was right) and when he returned we set off for the Empire State Building which was right near our hotel. I know some people say its overrated, Rockefeller Centre is better etc but we really enjoyed it, theres an Old New York vibe that Rockefeller just doesnt have in my opinion and of course the views are amazing: Steve got some great shots with his new camera. We bought the Tony the cabbie audio tour which we thought was worth the extra as it really enhanced the experience to be able to identify all the buildings, including many we didnt know about before, and hear the stories about what the different neighbourhood used to be like. Only thing is neither of us thought to wear hoodies and it was freezing up there!
Panorama Steve made of the view
Statue of Liberty in the distance
Going up...
The lobby
Cultural input for the day courtesy of 'Tony the Cabbie'
When we came back down we returned to the hotel for them before we did anything else, apart from a quick takeaway Starbucks and a street vendor pretzel on the way. By now we were hungry for dinner and to get there we had our first New York subway experience: A fair bit more confusing than the tube in London but we managed to get to the right station and we walked the short distance to Red Bamboo. It was to be a quick dinner tonight as Steve wanted to get to the nearby Barnes & Noble for a Kevin Smith Q&A session and book signing. The restaurants theme was vegetarian soul food which was intriguing but, as it turned out, awesome! I had the creole fake chicken and Steve had the fake chicken parmesan. Both arrived in record time (I think theyre used to people being in a rush!) and were so yummy. We left a generous tip and the bill was still only $31 total, bargain! After dinner we walked to Barnes & Noble, first ending up in the academic branch by mistake but eventually getting to the right one 10 minutes late. The seating area was of course packed out so we stood at the back and after the Q&A was finished they called people up in groups to queue for the book signing. This took absolutely forever and even though we got seats pretty quickly it was all I could do to stay awake (it was early hours of the morning UK time at this point) We eventually got to the front of the queue at around 9:30 and Steve got his book signed and a photo with the man himself. In hindsight I wish Id got a photo too but I was so out of it I dont think it even crossed my mind, all I could think was bed!!
Q&Aing...
Is it our turn yet?!
Result!
We got a cab back to the hotel, $8 including tip, and flopped into bed at 11pm.
Up at 4am (actually woken up by my alarm which has to be a holiday first!) Showered, dressed, house checked, car packed and we set off at 5am for my dads house. We got there in great time (well you just never know with the traffic at that time of the day...!) and set off for Manchester airport. Bit confusing but dad was going to return the car to our drive on his way to work and cycle home as he works nearby. We soon arrived at the airport, said our goodbyes and waited the 15 minutes for check-in to open (well bag drop really as I had already checked in online) Once checked in we stopped off at Boots to pick up an extra TSA lock and a deodorant for Steve then WH Smith for snacks and Starbucks for a caramel macchiato (me) and caramel hot chocolate (Steve) We noticed the new Frankie and Bennys served breakfast so we decided to give it a go which ended up being a bad idea, the service was unbelievably slow despite the restaurant being half full but with plenty of staff about. We got scrambled eggs on toast (me) and an omelette (Steve) which were OK, no better than the food court serve but more expensive! When we finally got out we just chilled in the waiting area until our gate was called and boarding began. We got a row of three seats between the two of us which was nice and meant we managed to get a little sleep (Dramamine is drowsiness inducing which also helped!) In between times I played on the DS and made use of the inflight entertainment: Continental do this really well with loads of choice, over forty films alone! I watched an episode of CSI Miami and bits of Mulan and The Princess Diaries (I can never watch a full film on a flight, not sure why!) and listened to some music. The meals were exactly the same as last years and similarly mediocre, thank goodness for our snacks. I just ate the mash and gravy from my potroast as the meat looked a bit suspect!
Traditional plane picture, this year with extra crazy!
Flight time was a speedy seven hours and we were soon at Newark, immigrated and baggaged up. After a little confusion we booked a shuttle to Manhattan with Supershuttle, $40 for both of us including tip, and we got our first taste of crazy New York drivers: No lane discipline and lots of horn honking! We soon arrived at our hotel, Hampton Inn Madison Square Garden, and checked in. The room was ready early which was a relief as we were an hour early but desperate for a shower! The room was small but clean and with a comfortable bed, for the price which includes wifi/coffee/buffet breakfast we were very happy with what we paid. We unpacked, freshened up and Steve popped out to buy a Nikon D90 camera body (OK so this wasnt an impulsive decision: Theres a famous camera shop/warehouse near the hotel which he planned to visit and upgrade from his D40 first thing if the price was right) and when he returned we set off for the Empire State Building which was right near our hotel. I know some people say its overrated, Rockefeller Centre is better etc but we really enjoyed it, theres an Old New York vibe that Rockefeller just doesnt have in my opinion and of course the views are amazing: Steve got some great shots with his new camera. We bought the Tony the cabbie audio tour which we thought was worth the extra as it really enhanced the experience to be able to identify all the buildings, including many we didnt know about before, and hear the stories about what the different neighbourhood used to be like. Only thing is neither of us thought to wear hoodies and it was freezing up there!
Panorama Steve made of the view
Statue of Liberty in the distance
Going up...
The lobby
Cultural input for the day courtesy of 'Tony the Cabbie'
When we came back down we returned to the hotel for them before we did anything else, apart from a quick takeaway Starbucks and a street vendor pretzel on the way. By now we were hungry for dinner and to get there we had our first New York subway experience: A fair bit more confusing than the tube in London but we managed to get to the right station and we walked the short distance to Red Bamboo. It was to be a quick dinner tonight as Steve wanted to get to the nearby Barnes & Noble for a Kevin Smith Q&A session and book signing. The restaurants theme was vegetarian soul food which was intriguing but, as it turned out, awesome! I had the creole fake chicken and Steve had the fake chicken parmesan. Both arrived in record time (I think theyre used to people being in a rush!) and were so yummy. We left a generous tip and the bill was still only $31 total, bargain! After dinner we walked to Barnes & Noble, first ending up in the academic branch by mistake but eventually getting to the right one 10 minutes late. The seating area was of course packed out so we stood at the back and after the Q&A was finished they called people up in groups to queue for the book signing. This took absolutely forever and even though we got seats pretty quickly it was all I could do to stay awake (it was early hours of the morning UK time at this point) We eventually got to the front of the queue at around 9:30 and Steve got his book signed and a photo with the man himself. In hindsight I wish Id got a photo too but I was so out of it I dont think it even crossed my mind, all I could think was bed!!
Q&Aing...
Is it our turn yet?!
Result!
We got a cab back to the hotel, $8 including tip, and flopped into bed at 11pm.
love the piccies , esp the pidgeon
