Funny how the drive in took such little time compared to the bus. Within 35 minutes we were driving the streets of midtown going around, and around, and around the same block. Up until then I had remained quiet, but I enquired with the driver where we were in fact going?
“I keep missing the hotel, must be small huh?” says my too cool for school driver
“Sorry driver, but you are mistaken. You need to cut over 7th and head down towards 29th street otherwise you will have to go around again as they are one way down that street. Once you have cut over you should be fine…” know it all I am!!!
He did apologies and felt quite embarrassed he got it wrong so the bonus was he went and got me a trolley to help me with my beast of a bag! (Another story which I will spare you the details….but I have since discovered rolling clothes, although saves room, in some suitcases…mine…it makes it twice as heavy!!)
Fortunately, my room was ready early and so I didn’t need to store any bags and was able to head up to the room. The room is clean but small. I was very spoilt in Jersey. But given its NYC, and all I need to do is sleep it thus far proving to be perfect.
As mentioned in the earlier blog, to celebrate my arrival to Manhattan, I had booked in for dinner at Brasserie Les Halles, owned by Anthony Bourdain. Fortunately one of his restaurants is a 15 minute walk. Given I had booked for 7pm, I kept Monday pretty low key. I familiarized myself with the surrounds, did a spot of window shopping at TJ Marxx which happens to be in my ‘borough followed by a scope down to Times Square to look into Broadway tickets.
Al Pacino is currently performing in the Shakespeare in the Park free concerts held in Central Park. People have been lining up as early as 6am to secure tickets, and have remained in the line for most of the day. Given my timeline this was not feasible, so I spent Monday registering for a virtual ticket whereby you log on between midnight and 1PM on the day of the performance you want to see to submit a request for two tickets through Virtual Ticketing. An email will be sent to you by 5pm that day if you have received tickets, or you can re-log on to see if you have any. I figure this will be the best chance, as even lining up will not secure a place. As with many of the ticketing options here, although they are free some shows and performances are harder to get into than others. In hindsight I should have booked in advance for some of the TV taping's, as even submitting requests and ringing when I first arrived over a month ago hasn’t proved too successful.
By 6.30pm I was not only pumped for dinner but ravenous! This would be my first big dinner treat in over a month and I was so excited. I walked in no time, and was excited to see that the restaurant had both inside and outside dining. As I had booked online I wasn’t sure if I had a preference, but my rock star Maitre’D had me on an outside table in a jiffy! She had on the shortest skirt I have ever seen, Ruby Rose style hair and big chunky hunka boots! Not what I imagined and even more surprising, when a svelte black woman escorted another couple to a table in what can only be described as a ball gown minus bling but with bling on her ears, neck, and fingers!! Dress code clearly not required with Anthony!! It was a great people watching spot, and I enjoyed watching the myriad of people and people with dogs walking down the street!
Monday nights are half price bottle wine nights, but sadly this didn’t reflect on the wines by the glass. As most were French, and the others American I had no idea about, I asked my waitress for a nice Rose. She offered me a French Bourgogne Rouge Rose which wasn’t too bad at all. Not too sweet and quite nice for the humid evening.
I watched my waitress prepare and serve at the table a Steak Tartar…something I would like to try one day I think.
I enjoyed the tenderest and succulent Escargot I’ve had to date. Served in a cute little plate with garlic butter with a hint of basil I think, I was able to mop up every last bit of buttery, garlic goodness with my nice crusty bread. My main was a Filet de Boeuf with Bearnaise sauce, Pomme Frites and Mesculin Salad. I could honestly cut my meat in the same fashion you would cut butter! I hoovered this dish like I was in a race! It was scrumptious! For dessert I had (my favourite dessert of all time) Creme Brule which had the most perfect baked custard with a perfectly burnt toffee on top. With hints of caramelisation, and then hints of sugar, it was to die for. Before falling into a food coma I had this photo taken…
The dinner would be rated as one of the best dinners I have had. I was not disappointed, and the dinner was everything I could hope for and more. I was also pleasantly surprised that it didn’t break the bank considering what I ate, and considering the StripHouse restaurant back at the Westminster would have cost me twice the amount for just the meat!!
I needed the long walk back, and enjoyed spotting the Flat Iron Building and the Empire State building as my neighbours at night. (Photos have been posted) I was so excited when I went to bed, that I couldn’t help but let out a little yip!!
Carrying on the tradition of food, allow me to work backwards from yesterday with last night’s dinner experience! A dear friend had recommended her and her boyfriend’s most favourite diner in NYC called USA Brooklyn Diner (The Finer Diner) which is a traditional New York diner with a slightly more costly fare but big portions and big variety. Given I was in a diner, it would be sacrilege not to indulge in a traditional burger or a Rueben. After consulting with the waiter, he suggested the burger so I ordered the Brooklyn Diner Cheeseburger Deluxe. Oh my it was beautiful. Prime ground beef cooked to my liking, with cheddar cheese, hickory smoked bacon, frizzled onion rings & French fried potatoes. They weren’t a chip; they were a shoe string potato! And a side of mayonnaise and tomato sauce. The 4kg I lost in the last month has been put back on in just two days!!
(Yes, all food picks have been added!)
After all the running around I did yesterday, finishing off on the burger was an excellent way to end the evening. From my investigations on Monday, I noticed the Broadway show’s I was interested in seeing where not on the board (Jersey Boys and American Idiot) so after jumping on the internet Monday before dinner, it suggested an alternate ticket booth at The South Street Seaport Booth (near Financial District) sells tickets to evening performances on the day of the performance, and matinee tickets the day before so I thought I would try my luck there after doing some sightseeing at Battery Park and surrounds.
I found the Charging Bull at the Bowling Green Park, only to see the bull being manhandled and molested by a group of Japanese tourists. I kid you not, every and I mean EVERY member of the group had his or her photo taken, and every other person took the photo…so all in all I watched them for a good 20 minutes before pushing in and taking a snap! Maybe they had been told it provides medicinal support! Hehe
After walking the 10-15 blocks to the Ticket booth, I was devastated to see that Jersey Boys only have a 10% discount, and American Idiot was only playing twice at 50% off! So back to Times Square and on the way have a think about what I want to do.
So I walked in and around the Financial District, Fulton Street and the Pier 17 and caught the MTA back to Chelsea for an appointment at Halo Spa. I registered with a website called Groupon. This website emails daily deals for goings on in New York. It has ranged from cheap foods, to memberships, to spa treatments and alas to an opportunity for 2 x 1 hour visits at Halo for $25 (instead of $69 per session!). Halo Air calls themselves a revolutionary solution for Spa and Wellness. Designed to cleanse and restore, Halo Air uses proprietary technology to generate the world’s purest microclimate, the salt cave. Relaxed in a pristine atmosphere, visitors seek wellness by being exposed to and breathing the dry salt aerosol. It has been researched that the effect of salt particles is a profound cleansing of bacteria and pollution. Known in Europe as Halotherapy, continuous sessions in a natural salt cave have shown to be beneficial with numerous respiratory and skin discomforts. City life has many virtues, but living in a sea of pollutants is not one of them. Fortunately, the solution is at hand.
The walls, ceilings and floors are covered with salt, (apparently dug from a European Salt Cave 300 meters below ground) while you sit for an hour either watching TV, listening to music or reading a little hole in the wall shoots (atomizes) salt and fills the room with salt particles.
Excuse the pose, but I needed to make sure no ‘bits’ came out my paper kimono!
It was a pleasant yet weird experience. You can either wear clothes or go without and pop the paper kimono on for the ‘complete experience.’ The room was cold, but not unpleasantly cold, and you could feel the salt on your lips. The hour went pretty quickly, and I have another appointment on Friday. Not sure I noticed it did anything, but I did seem to smell more dog wee on the footpaths!! Hehe could have just been a dog ignored the vast array of PLEASE CURB YOUR DOG signs in and around the city but particularly Chelsea!
After jumping back on the MTA to Times Square, I happened to walk down a side street to avoid the taping of a Coca-Cola advertisement and stumbled on the Minskoff Theatre, home of the Lion King. There was my sign, rather than pay for two half price shows; I would pay for one excellent full priced show. Given that the Lion King sells out nightly (first available I could get was this Sunday 8 rows from the front) and the cheaper Mezzanine Tickets are sold out until later August, I think the decision has been a perfect one!
As you all know, I have always been a ‘planner.’ To some extent I have gone askew with this adventure as far as not having too many plans, however when it comes to the hustle and bustle that is New York, it has been imperative that I keep a plan of the things I want to do, as well as the list in my pocket that I carry daily. This list has become quite iconic and I only wish I had kept them rather than throwing them away at the end of each day, they would have made a great scrapbook! This list takes a lot of work to prepare and as a result keeps me moving and continues to make it look like I am a local who knows where I am going, which trains to catch, and be able to provide directions! (Yes the Map is still tucked in my bag for occasions when I get overwhelmed or overheat!! Lol)
So in planning this week I have had to factor in the weather. I wanted to see Top of the Rock at both day and evening which you can buy the pass for. Sadly after consulting with the newspaper, weather channels and the front desk, the weather isn’t going to be in my favour this week to do that. It is going to be hazy most of the week with brief patches of sun, and rain and thunderstorms for the later part of the week. It will still be super hot and humid, hence the storms. Given that, my plan was slightly changed to do top of the Rock day pass combined with a ticket to MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) both tickets at a discounted price and bring forward the cruise. So today I did the 3 hour Circle Line cruise and visited the Top of the Rock. As you can see from the pictures, it was extremely hazy and very little sunshine. Fortunately I met a lovely man Bill at the Top of the Rock who actually is a weather enthusiast so was there today taking photos and doing some measurements. He emailed me pictures from last week when he visited. (He goes once a week to Top of the Rock and once a week to the Empire State. He thinks Top of the Rock is far more superior to Empire State views) so glad I opted for that. Despite the weather, both the cruise and view were still spectacular today and I enjoyed every minute of it!
Tomorrow at this stage is MoMa as the weather looks poorly. If it looks better, I may swap it for Central Park Zoo but will see. The days are flying past and I still have so much to see and do!
Keep your eyes out on the photos. I will change the update status if they are updated but new pictures will generally be put into new folders where possible.
Until the next one,
Lots of love Bee xxx
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