New York City – Weds 29th – Thurs 30th July 2009

On Weds morning we did a tour of the down town area of Manhattan – Grenwich Village, SoHo, the Financial District and lower East side. We got off in the Financial district and had a walk through Battery Park and could see the Statue of Liberty. We walked up to Ground Zero – all it is at the moment is construction. Apparently a lot of the locals are very upset that the construction of new buildings is happening before a permanent memorial is created. We found out where Danielle's brother Anthony lived (lower east side – very close to Grenwich) after we had been on the tour and didn't get a chance to go back and see his actual apartment building. Danielle's favourite part of Manhattan is Grenwich (the setting for Friends).
In the afternoon we did a tour of the uptown area – Upper East and West (all around Central Park) and up into Harlem. There are some amazing mansions in these areas (excluding Harlem!) and we saw where John Lennon lived and was killed :-( Julian's favourite spot in Manhattan is the area's surrounding Central Park. We only saw the very tip of Harlem and that was enough to show what a huge difference in the classes there is over here. Really sad to see.

For the last 15 or so mins of this tour it started to pour. We had those plastic poncho's on sitting on top of an open bus – the poncho's were not much help, lol. We brought an umbrella before heading out again that night!

On Wednesday evening we had dinner in the restaurant next to our hotel. You could feel the trains running underneath you through the subway. The rain started up again and we had a good laugh at everyone outside running for cover and umbrella's turning inside out. After dinner went to see Mama Mia on Broadway. It was great – we even got up at the end and had a little dance (Julian thinks Danielle was getting a little too excited, lol).

There were so many other things we wanted to do and see but just didn't have the time. Julian has been a bit sick during our stay in NY (some sort of virus/flu) so it was really tough doing what we did do (he probably should have been in bed for a couple of days!). We didn't get to go on the ferry past the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn tour or the night tour (not enough time). You really need to spend two full days doing the tours and then another week or more going back to what you really want to see and do.

On Thursday we packed up and moved out to a beautiful little hotel near the airport (cough, cough). The 12km cab ride only took us over 1 hour!!! We stayed here on our last night as we had an EARLY flight on Friday morning – lucky we decided to this or we may never have made our flight. On Thursday we went to see the New York Mets (baseball) play the Colorado Rockies. The Mets won easily. We had beer (you had to show ID to purchase this – I guess Julian could pass as being under 21?!) and a hot dog and enjoyed the entertainment and the few runs that were made. No where near as exciting as an AFL football game but still a good experience. We tried a soft pretzel. We have seen sooooo many people eating these in every place we have been so we (Danielle) figured it would be a good idea to try one. Danielle managed to swallow one bite and Julian couldn't even swallow it – the worst thing ever. You would be better drinking a glass of sea water!!! It was a shock as almost everything else you get is coated in sugar and is so sweet. We have no idea how people eat these – and they think vegemite is bad!

Thursday evening we had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar and then went for a walk to to see what was around. After discovering there wasn't anything we went back to the hotel bar to have a meal – sat down in the same seats and there is Danielle's handbag with our passports etc still sitting there where she left it – oops. Could have been a major disaster. She is still trying to work how she can blame Julian for this, lol.

Back into our hotel room (with the water stained ceiling and iron mark in the carpet). All of our hotel's so far have been wonderful (Craig's being the best!) so we couldn't really complain. It was a cheap one night only stay.

After a few hours sleep we were up and ready at 4:15am for our courtesy bus ride (that means FREE) to the airport. Well, the bus driver overslept (or something) and didn't turn up. There were piles of people waiting to get on the bus (even though we were the 2nd group out there). They finally had the bell hop drive the bus – they got almost everyone on. Of course we were amongst the those left remaining!!! Everyone was so polite that they rushed the bus like they were on fire. So we caught a cab (NOT free) and ended being about 20 mins behind schedule. What a pain – we only just made it on to the plane!!!! No food, coffee (for Julian), bathroom stop or even water (because you can't take a bottle of water through the security check). Checking in baggage was an absolute nightmare. So we finally make it on the plane and they say that our onboard luggage has to be checked because all the storage is full. We are sitting on the plane now and hoping that all of bags successfully make it from this plane onto our connecting flight . We have had a dream run up until this point as far as flights etc go. Just to cap it all off it seems that the lady behind Julian is using the sick bag, hehehe (that laugh is from Danielle – NOT Julian).

Danielle really enjoyed NYC (but could never live there). Julian enjoyed parts of it but is OVER it. He hated the smell (they have to dump rubbish on the street corners throughout the day as there are no back alley ways) and people trying to sell you stuff everywhere you turned (shoving it in your face). People seemed so rude after everywhere else. It didn't help that he wasn't feeling well!

So now we are on our way to Eagle River via Minneapolis and Rhinelander (where Trista will pick us up). We can't wait to kick back and relax in the North Woods of Wisconsin after the rat race of New York. It's been great but enough big cities for us small town folk!

We are now in Eagle River and are going out to dinner soon so sorry, no photos this time! People were concerned about us staying with people we have never met. We have been here for a little over a day and we have made a huge mistake. Not sure how we can deal with it.

Kidding!!!! However If we have too many more nights like last night none of us will survive - we are all too old to stay up talking into the early hours of the morning!

Danielle and Julian xxx