Wednesday 18 August 2010:

We travelled to New York today.Eventually got through all the queues at LAX to board the flight to Denver and then to New York LaGuardia airport.Total travelling time was about 8 hours but that's excluding the taxi ride to the apartment.The apartment is on West 54th street and is tiny but comfortable.It has everything we need.A double bed and a pull out couch, a small kitchen and our own loo and shower.Gary, who owns the apartment, met us when we arrived to explain the workings of everything.He was very helpful in pointing out where everything is.The apartment is very centrally located with a few supermarkets close by and about a 15 minute walk to Central Park and Times Square.Broadway where all the shows are located is also close by at Times Square.

Thursday 19 August 2010:

Yay!Trish comes to join us today with her friend Brittany!We allow ourselves a small sleep-in while waiting for Trish and make some bacon and eggs for breakfast.It's nice to take things a bit slower after the go go go from Contiki.We walked up to Central Park and enjoyed the sun in the sheep meadow for a while and then took a horse drawn carriage through the park.Just like a fairytale, except there was no prince.

We also bought tickets for the "Hop on/off" sightseeing tour for around Manhattan and Brooklyn.We did the 'uptown tour' in the afternoon through the streets of Harlem and past the old gothic style buildings and churches.We also passed Columbus University which apparently owns much of uptown.We hopped off the bus at Times Square and explored M&Ms world!Wow!So many colours to choose from.Once we had our fill we hopped back on the bus and did the Night tour through downtown and parts of Brooklyn.We had amazing views of the sunset over Manhattan from the Brooklyn coast. We also passed the Brooklyn Bridge.As we were driving back through downtown the Empire state building's lights went on and emphasized the magnitude of this magnificent building.

Once we got back to the apartment we met Brittany and had a New York pizza for dinner from the shop right around the corner.The pizza was huge and the Italian dude looked at me funny when I asked for pineapple!Haha!

Friday 20 August 2010:

We switched back to Contiki time and got up super early to catch the first hop on/off bus to the ferry for Statue of Liberty.We all heard horror stories about the queues that can develop later on in the day so decided to get there as early as possible.Our cunning plan worked and we could go straight though to the first ferry.When we got back the queue was pretty much around the block!The security for the ferry is pretty involved as well.It's airport style.They x-ray your belongings and you have to walk through the metal detector without shoes and belt.When you get to the island and you want to visit the museum and head up to the viewing platform you have to go through another security check.We didn't go into the museum tho there was enough to see around the outside.

Did you know:

·That the Statue is made of copper and was originally a coppery colour but with time the copper oxidised to the green colour of today!

·That the Statue was designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.

·That Alexandre Gustav Eiffel a well known French engineer and bridge builder designed the complicated metal framework that supports the statue and he later on designed the Eiffel tower.

By the time we got back to the park where we meet the bus it was quite hot and humid already.There were some neighbourhood kids that made the best of the fountain in the park and watching them just made you want to be a kid again.

We caught the downtown bus back to Times Square and toured through Little Italy and Chinatown.Back at times square we queue for an hour for half price Mary Poppins tickets but it was so worth it!The show was amazing.There are booths in Times Square that open at exactly 3pm and sell same day tickets for Broadway shows half price.I would highly recommend queuing.The queue moves pretty fast and more often than not you'll get tickets to the shows you want.We got pretty awesome seats to the left of the stage.The music was very well done and the stage sets truly captured your imagination.The show was different to the movie but you have to go into it expecting something a little different.They do some new songs but the old songs get everybody moving!Standing ovation all round!!