New York City - Tour Day 2

Hi All,

So today was our last full day in New York. Yesterday we did the downtown loop on the Hop On Hop Off bus during the day so today we started with the midtown loop, now I'm not sure if it's not as popular but we waited a lot longer for the bus at the Time Square stop. I appreciate that it was near rush hour traffic however more buses would help. Once we got on the tour guide told us how each building has to have at least 75% of their building covered in advertising, it's law. It would explain why it's so bright!!

The heat and humidity since getting to New York has been milder than I was expecting for this time of year, all of the tour guides have mentioned how it's not normal weather for August. Now I'm not complaining as for a city break you don't want it so you feel you can't breath enough when walking round, which you tend to get with high humidity.

The first place we decided to get off was Grand Central Station. Wow this building is beautiful, we had a good walk around. So many films have been shot here that it kind of felt like a movie set. We went downstairs to the food area and had ice cream, it really would of been rude not to. 😉 I had peanut butter cookie and chocolate, yummy!

Due to how long it had taken for the bus to come we decided to walk the 10 blocks between Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building is a beautiful building, it has 32,000 people visit it for either work or as a tourist per day. Now that is a lot! As normal it didn't fail to disappoint with its views of the city! Although on the 80th floor it did feel like the floor was moving, as if you were swaying on a boat...

After all the queuing we went and got some lunch to re-fuel, it felt like the day was going quick but a lot of waiting around. We had another long wait for the Hop On Hop Off bus but were briefly entertained by the tour seller at the stop playing some music, off his phone I think.

Between the initial jet lag and all the queuing etc I think it all caught up with me as once we got on the bus I nodded off!?! A 'Kaz nap!' I'm not sure how long I was asleep for but I woke up to the tour guide going 'well that's obviously enough talking from me'! 😂 Oops.

We then swapped buses from the midtown bus to the uptown bus (obviously not until after more queuing!) This loop included Harlem which is where our tour guide was from. It was very interesting however even that didn't save me from another cheeky nap 😂

Our final stop was at Central Park. I love Central Park, it amazes me that it's in the middle of the city that never sleeps with all its sirens and horn noise yet being sat in Central Park and it's so peaceful and quiet. There were so many people out jogging and cycling around it, I'm guessing that's how they decompress from living where they do. I love New York, I always have however I'm not sure I'd want to live in Manhattan and I certainly could not drive here, it's scary! 🙈

We had a lovely walk through until we found the boat house. This has been in so many films and programmes, including Sex and The City the series 😉 We sat on a bench by the fountain and just watched the world go, people watched! We didn't want to be in the park when it was dark so we carried on walking through, there was a film being shown in part of the park, think it was The Godfather. When we came out of the park we flagged down a taxi and went back to the hotel, the cab driver driver was the most friendly we've had the whole time, he told us some interesting stories!!! We had tea in a bar next door to our hotel.

It has been a long day so I'm off to get some zzz's as it'll be a long day tomorrow! Travelling home...

Love & hugs
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