The Conrad is beautiful but the Waldorf is Grand
An agonisingly slow drive out of JFK is followed by a great drive into Manhattan right past one of my favourite icons – the World Fair Towers as used in Men In Black. I realise at this point that this the first time in ages that I have arrived into the US via JFK as I am often coming from Asia and fly something like xxx-dfw/ord-lga.
We arrive into the hotel at around 23:30 and mrssimongr is stunned again – total disbelief at where we are staying. We are actually dropped at the Waldorf Towers and check in their and walk through the lobby to find our room (I actually miss the Diamond reception that I should have used).
The room is much bigger than I was expecting (phew) and more importantly mrssimongr loves it – she is almost in tears and is still shaking her head in disbelief.
As I am wide awake (and as usual after landing in NY I am super hyper) I suggest a little walk up to see Tiffany’s (which is the best time to see it – when it’s closed
) and then we get back to the hotel, grab a quick drink and get to bed around 2AM – we are really on holidays!
A slightly restless night has us awake fairly early and we get to begin the massive week:
Wed – Meet my boss to collect some tickets for the baseball, meet my boss’s boss (who tells mrssimongr to shop till drops and the company will arrange shipping back to Oz for us – not appropriate use of company resources the Internal Auditor in me thinks). Then it’s off to Tiffany’s for the official first visit (and first purchases). A quick trip back to the hotel and it’s off to the Bronx for a Yankees Game. Great fun for both of us (apart from having to dump a backpack (empty) that it seems is not approved of). We get back to the hotel around 5:30PM with a plan of having room service after dinner but wake up around 7AM the next day!
Thu – A quick trip to the Empire State Building, the Comic Shop (some critical gaps filled), Tiffany’s (again) is followed by lunch with some work colleagues (one of them is leaving) and an evening of Spamalot – one of the funniest most brilliant musicals I have seen. Dinner is some M+Ms at the show – seems like NY is not going to be a gastronomic feast!
Fri – Another early start sees us on our way to Liberty Island, Ground Zero and Bloomingdales. Another quick stop at another comic shop and then finally a decent dinner at Montparnasse – one of my favourite restaurants in NY.
Sat – Finally a late start. We head off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which is nothing like I expect – it is a true museum rather than an art gallery. Sadly the camera battery dies fairly so we only have some pics of the Egyptian exhibition. We had a wonderful lunch in the Piazza bar – much better than I was expecting.
After strolling on from there we headed off to the “Superheroes and Fashion” exhibition – obviously my slight inclination towards comic books something of a driver for this. Now I am not a religious person but what happened next was close to a divine moment. For context I have a near complete collection of the core Superman titles since the Crisis on Infinite Earth redefined DC Comics in 1986 – so you could say I am something of a Superman fan. As we walked into the exhibition we realised that we were entering the end of the exhibition. As I walked in, much to mrssimongr’s surprise I stopped dead in my tracks as I could not believe what was in front of me – a copy of the first ever Superman comic – Action Comics #1. If you are not a comic book fan it is hard to explain what exactly this means to me. For mrssimongr it would be akin to seeing a Monet and for others looking at the Grand Canyon. I had never expected to see one of these in my life (for context again the current resale value of one of these is estimated to be US$1million) and it was about 12 inches in front of me. I quite literally could have just stood and stared at it for hours – and I all I could see was the cover. I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about it!
Photography was banned but I only found out after I got a pic
From the Met it was back to the hotel and dinner in Central Park. We got a cab up to the park and then a horse and carriage through the park to the restaurant – well almost to the restaurant. As Bon Jovi were giving a free concert in the Park we had to walk about half the way.
The food was nice but not stellar at the Boat House but the location is awe inspiring – right in the midst of the park looking down towards mid town – absolutely fantastic.
We took a pedal cab back to the hotel which itself was just great fun (completely touristy
) although when he went two blocks the wrong I did feel a tad guilty.
Sun – Another later start is followed by a cab down to SoHo for lunch with an old work colleague again at Balthazar (I am creature of habit if you hadn’t realised) which is really nice. Unlike last time I was here I managed to eat all of brunch but as it is a little early I can’t have a beer with my meal
After that mrssimongr gets to go to Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic store which she is very excited about. She manages to get a few things but I don’t think the four poster bed will keep under the luggage allowance so we have to pass on that.
I make a quick stop to the Apple store and dodge the 3 hour queue that is dedicated to the iPhone!
The afternoon is fairly relaxing as we prepare to go out to New Jersey for dinner with my boss. It is quite a long car ride out there through some not wonderful places on the way. Some nice canapés are consumed before we have a little drive around his suburb – some of the houses are absolutely massive – beyond mansions – almost stately homes! The dinner is great (which makes three nice dinners in a row now) and the finishing touch is nice.
We both sleep most of the way back to the hotel as we know tomorrow could be daunting.
Mon- A fairly early start leads us to some serious shopping in Bloomingdales and Saks (mrssimongr prefers Bloomingdales to Saks – as do I) where I pick up some brilliant new kitchen knives from Wusthof.
It’s back to the hotel after lunch in Bloomingdales for a little rest before Bon Jovi at Madison Square Garden. The queue to get into the area is a farce but as we have allocated seats this doesn’t stress me… too much. The seats are truly amazing – about 20 rows back. Now I am not a huge Bon Jovi fan but the spectacle is great. I am in charge of camera work being taller than mrssimongr and I don’t need to concentrate too much on the concert.
About half way through mrssimongr sees them setting up a little platform about half way down the arena. She knows from seeing them in Sydney that John Bon Jovi will be performing there at one point so she slowly sidles across there. Sure enough the man himself pops up and she is only about two feet away from him – some great video clips are grabbed with the new camera (lucky that I was able to change the SD card in the dark when it failed during the first 2 mins of the concert).
Eventually the concert ends and we stream out with everyone else. We decide to walk back to the hotel (I don’t tell mrssimongr exactly how far it is). We end up walking through Times Square at Midnight – what a way to finish our last night in New York!
Tue – Well this is it time to head off to the UK. We have time in the morning to visit the site of the Seinfeld Diner and grab some pics there. We then head to the Guggenheim which is very disappointing. Firstly the whole building is being renovated so half the galleries are closed and the outside of the building is covered in scaffolding. Then inside they are having a display of very modern art – not my bag at all – what a let down. I want to run to the Met just to get the NY mojo back.
There is time for one last visit to Tiffany’s (and sadly one last purchase) a visit to the Disney store for the Oz based nephew whilst I duck to staples for emergency computer supplies.
Back to the hotel and we have a slight tipping incident. When left the room we gave the guy $7 to take our 7 bags down to storage. We then paid another guy $7 to take them from storage to the kerb and at this point we had no cash at all so can’t tip the guy who took the bags from the kerb and put them in the car. Now forgive me for being cheap but I think it is a bit steep to have to pay $25 to get 7 bags from a room to a car – am I completely off the planet with this?
Anyway the town car whizzes us out to JFK past the MiB towers again and finally we get to the airport. After some “final” shopping at the Met store in the airport we can finally sit down in the lounge and think to ourselves – “Well if that was New York – we did it!”
Phew!
I promise to upload some pics shortly
Surprisingly this does actually work and as mrssimongr has been well drilled about security we are through quick smart with no hiccups.
) whilst throwing back the delightful cheeses. I catch up on Rambo (massively ultraviolent gorefest), Spiderwick Chronicles (I am sure there is a plot in there somewhere) and The Butterfly Effect (spectacularly depressing but I have been trying to see this for ages).
Linear Mode
