New York moments
Monday, 7th May 2007 by JulieI really enjoyed my time in New York… even with taking it easy, trying not to eat supper after 20h30 (leads to nasty acid :sick: ), and finding that I can’t keep up with Tom after a couple of hours walking… 
Friday:
Woke up to the most gorgeous sunrise around 7am… And the sounds of New York traffic and building sites getting started from 19 floors down. (Our hotel is the skinny black one on the left.)
Breakfast was from Tom’s work canteen – oops, no wait, cafeteria.
Wandering back hotel-wards through the Financial District, it’s hard to miss the NY Stock Exchange building.
That really is a very big flag… they must change it frequently to keep it so crisp and clean!
My guidebook (Frommers NYC Free & Dirt Cheap) recommended the Staten Island Ferry – a free service with great views.
View looking back at Manhattan - click to enlarge
And we had a good sighting of Lady Liberty as we cruised past Liberty Island.
Lingering sunset behind the WTC site - click to enlarge.
Weekend:
Saturday morning, we went walking after breakfast — crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and back again. Tom took another cool panorama from the middle looking back at Manhattan.
Time to head on down to the subway for a trip “uptown”…
…And back to “The Village” for a landmark that we’d missed before.If this corner doesn’t look familiar (even after mentally removing the delivery van and clicking to see the larger version) then you clearly aren’t a dedicated Friends fan. 
We made good use of Tom’s company’s corporate membership at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) 
We were keen to go anyway to finally see Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” for real (after searching various galleries for it in Europe back in 2001), but there was quite a strong wince-factor in the $20 adult entry.
So getting free tickets came in very handy!
(We went on to see the Guggenheim Museum for free the next day.)
The ice-rink at the Rockefeller Centre was still going strong for late March.
Monday (my birthday ):
Started our day at the funky little deli-cafe very close to the hotel where we had breakfast (coffee & oat porridge) most days.
At the end of a morning’s shopping, this little bakery-coffee bar in the
Village was perfect for an hour or so of people- watching.
(Click to see an enlargement of the mouth- watering goodies behind the glass.)
And then I wanted to try the famous ‘New York slice’ for which Bleecker Street Pizza clearly could not be beaten. 
(I should really have taken the photo from a different angle to match the sketch on their menu.) For the record, I had a “plain” slice ($2), and it really was pretty tasty. (No illusions about the ‘junk-food’ aspect though – this had it all. )
Had to be careful not to eat any more and spoil my appetite for a fantastic New York steak for my birthday dinner with my favourite guy at Mark Joseph’s steakhouse. :party:
Not too much time before the afternoon plane, but enough to head on over to Brooklyn to see Coney Island.
(Apparently they’re going to completely re-vamp it soon — which would take away a lot of the fairground charm.)
Can’t go to Coney Island without having a hot-dog. And this one was “More Than Just the Best Hot Dog!”.
Verdict: Not that special! (Perhaps this is one of those cases where, as Tom puts it, “more is less”. )
