Day 42 Rockefeller, Times Square, Central Park

As John Lennon once said – “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans” – this seems to be the theme of our time in New York.  Every day we make our plans and finish up doing something quite different.  Our plan for today was to get the ‘hop on hop off’ bus and go on the uptown loop.  We had to catch the bus from the corner of 48^th and 7^th Avenue.  Our apartment is at 232 East 12^th Street, so off we went – up to 3^rd over 4^th then along 5^th Avenue until we reached Broadway then it was a matter of walking the next 36 blocks!!!  It took an hour but that was good and we saw lots on the way only trouble was when we got to our destination we were told that the bus wouldn’t be running – grrr.  We were assured the night tour would go ahead and that would leave from the same place at 6pm.

We decided to go to the Rockefeller Tower Observation Deck.  It takes a fair bit of queuing and patience as only 499 people can be up there at any one time.  So finally we were loaded onto an elevator – the tour guy said ‘tooddles’ and with that we were whisked up to the 67^th floor.  On the way they dimmed the lights and shone lights from the lift shaft into the lift through a glass ceiling.  The American’s cannot do anything without a bit of hoopla – their words not mine.  The view from the top was great although a foggy haze had drifted in while we were queuing.  There are 3 different height viewing areas as well as some undercover areas.  We had all really enjoyed it.  Tonight at 5pm the Christmas Lights at the Rockefeller centre are turned on the huge Christmas tree.  This is said to be the unofficial start to the festive season.  People were everywhere – so were police getting thing organised for the large crowds that were expected.

Lunchtime – a nice New York deli – they are really well done.  Fresh healthy food but just huge servings.  Delicious!!!!

From here we walked along 5^th Avenue and looked at the windows with their Christmas decorations.  They were really special.  A wonderful time to be in New York.

We walked as far as the entrance to Central Park – 60^th St.  Julee and Lindsay headed off another 20 blocks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art while Den and I wandered around Central Park and also to the Central Park Zoo.  The park was very nicely laid out.  The Trump Ice Skating rink had just been set up and opened for the season.  There were lots more squirrels running around and lots of New Yorkers walking their dogs.  At about 3.30 it was starting to get dark and the temperature started to drop.   So it was good to keep walking and enjoying the scenery.

We met up again at 5pm and headed to the bus stop.  We still had some time to spare so we got a quick snack at another deli.  We went back to the bus stop but we were a bit suspicious that the bus trip might not happen – sure enough – Julee rang the company and the trip had been cancelled – grrr.  So if you are ever in New York make sure you do not book tickets with the “Big Taxi Tours”.

By this time the lights in Times Square were showing really well so we decided to just wander about and enjoy the lights and sights of the city and wander slowly back in the direction of our apartment.  On the way we had a warm drink and a piece of New York Cheese Cake – Yummmm.

It was so nice to get back to our apartment.  We worked out we had walked well over 13k.  No wonder we were a little tired.  We had enjoyed a very memorable but very different to our planned day.