01 June 2023: Central Park NYC

Another late sleep in after another late night (one that we thought wouldn’t be late).

We headed straight for the subway, ok, not straight for, after coffee for - and jumped on a train uptown to 72nd street as today was our Central Park day. We started off at The Dakota. I saw the gates, I didn’t want to stop at them though. Walking past was enough. Looked up at the building and felt a little sad. We wandered into the park and tried to dodge all the walking tour groups. There were at least half a dozen with up to twenty people in each group. And they were loud.

Just a little way in was Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic. There was a guy playing guitar and singing Beatles tunes and a few people joining in on the harmonies. The mosaic itself is small, unobtrusive, and simple. I guess that gets the message across.

We walked on, towards the Lake and Bethesda fountain & terrace. There were lots of horse drawn carriages, guys with bikes for bike drawn carriages and just people on bikes or walking or running. It was a really lively place. There were also quite a few school tours. When we got to the fountain there must have been at least three different schools on excursion. There was a guy busking under the terrace (take a look if you go in here, the ceilings have just been restored with replica Minton tiles from the original 1860s makers) and the school kids all joined in on “All of Me” and “Shallow”. The acoustics were perfect for it. And just for information sake, the ladies toilets here are clean and ok to use, except they have very short doors, so when you stand up, everyone is looking at you. It’s a shock to the system.

We came across a large bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen reading his “Ugly Duckling” story to a duck, so I went and sat beside him to hear the story. Oh, there’s no audio, it was just in my head. We walked past the (closed) boathouse and on to the Alice in Wonderland statue. A lady was sitting in the statue, and so I now have a photo of myself with Alice and a strange lady. We strolled past or under lots of little bridges, saw an obelisk, watched two NYC policemen on motorbikes escort a car followed by a large police van (looked like the riot squad to me) and then stop just up from us. There was a driver and no one else in the car, so buggered if I know who they were escorting. We also saw many squirrels (yay).

We jumped back onto the roadside and had a look at the front of the Met and the Guggenheim. Unfortunately you can’t even get into the lobby of the museums without paying. After spending days in museums in London and Rome, we didn’t think we’d see many different things in these ones to justify the price.

Back into the park again to cross over to the other side - so we did a LOT of park walking. The park is very big. You have been warned. We found the Jackie Onassis reserve, which is pretty hard to miss considering the size of it, and looked across at all the very expensive apartments and buildings overlooking Central Park. A bit more wandering, a few more squirrels and a large flock of pigeons all angling for mating rites and we were at 93rd street. 93rd street and Central Park W have the best hotdog stand in NYC. Or so I’ve been told by some world famous video bloggers. Now we haven’t had a different hotdog in New York so we have nothing to compare it to, but I think it’s safe to say that Jimmy’s hotdogs were pretty good. We went back to the park to eat them and I didn’t spill any sauce on myself (bonus)!

We decided we were just too wiped out from the previous few days and there wasn’t much else uptown that we wanted to see, so we headed for the subway to catch back downtown. On the way, Mr Whippy of my youth, be still my beating heart. It was creamy and yummy and everything I remember them to be. And it’s a hot day today (29c) so it was nice to cool down with an ice-cream.

We’re currently back at home (The Hotel Chelsea is now officially my home away from home) resting up a bit before our last dinner in NY tonight at the MO cafe (Mandarin Oriental). My feet hurt.


Later…


We’ve just arrived ‘home’ from our last dinner in NYC at the MO lounge. I got the times mixed up so we arrived at 6pm rather than 8pm! We could have stayed at home for longer and relaxed that bit more. Oh well. We caught the subway up to Columbus Circle and the MO was just around the corner. We left at 5:10pm thinking that we’d arrive around 6pm due to the peak hour traffic and packed subways. It wasn’t packed. It was less packed than a Brisbane peak hour - maybe because the trains are more frequent and so much longer. So we arrived at 5:30pm. We wandered around aimlessly for a bit and then went to Target as Mark didn’t bring enough undies. They have their undies behind glass in a locked cabinet!!! We had to ask the lady to open it so that we could get a pack. And they sell things in logical sizes - 10 pack set of socks, 12 pack set of undies etc. Just buy them once and bam, you’re done!

We headed up to the hotel and explained that we had the times wrong but were hoping we could be seated anyway. The maître D lady was very serious and bristly. Mark mentioned how we had booked a window seat and she very firmly put him in his place with a brusque “requested” as there were no guarantees. *insert eye roll here* We got a window seat and lazily worked our way through a couple of drinks and a meal so that we could savour the lights turning on over NYC.

Now, I heard about this place through a VBlogger as a way to have a city lights dinner without it costing your first born. Having said that, NY prices and Aussie dollars make for an expensive night out even if you are eating at McDonalds (which we haven’t). But, the $6 for a coffee is $9 for us. So $20 and $25 cocktails are to be savoured when had. Anyway, this place overlooks the lower end of Central Park. You can look across to the expensive apartments across the park, and all the fancy skyscrapers to the right. An ideal place really and cheap compared to many other ‘nightlight view’ places we had seen around.

We had a cocktail each (if you are looking at the menu in the photos, I had ‘Do you speak Mandarin?’ and I almost did after two of them) and then decided on our food, all while the sun was slowly sinking. We had some green chickpeas hummus for an entre, which was pretty nice, and then Mark had the New York Strip Steak (as you do in NY) and I had the Roasted Chatham Cod for our mains. The cocktails were sensational. Enough said. We did however try the Hazelnut Chocolate Decadence for dessert and it was pretty good.

We uber’ed home, still not keen on the subway at night. We were both totally exhausted from the previous few days, and I hadn’t had a bath in that great big sumptuous claw foot piece of magnificence in the Hotel Chelsea, so I decided it was now or never. SO worthwhile. I may or may not have fallen asleep for a bit. Shush. And then we had to pack. Urgh. Hotel Chelsea to be home no more. It was a very sad story, but it was time to move on. It provided the most memorable NYC holiday ever – I still can’t believe we stayed there. Tomorrow, one last NYC brekkie and then Washington DC, here we come!

Central Park prettiness photos here!

28 May 2023: Minneapolis to New York City

I’m currently sitting on an American Airlines flight on our way to NYC. Very exciting times. I’m also going to be spending my time, looking back over the past few days as I’ve been very slack with blogging, while Mark continues to watch the latest season of ‘The Mandalorian’.

So, it’s the day after the wedding. Woke up feeling fine but pretty hungry. After the fiasco of a breakfast yesterday, we decided to head to Jimmy’s the attached (but unaffiliated as we were informed) bar next to the hotel. Our hostess was Jodie and she was the best hostess we’ve had so far. She was funny and informative and taught me all about the different ways to order fried eggs in the US. She asked us if the bugs in Australia really were as big as the internet said they were. We kind of confirmed they weren’t quite as big, but close, and I told her that it was the drop bears that you needed to look out for. She obviously wasn’t in on that joke. 

We ended up with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and fruit. And it was a great brekkie. Still can’t say much about the coffee though. I didn’t bother with tea either. There were grapes in the fruit salad, and they aren’t anything like our grapes. They tasted like they had orange mixed in with them and they were delicious. I asked Jodie what type of grapes they were and she said red grapes, even though they were green with a slight pink tinge. So nice.

Back to the hotel, pack the bags, all the regular stuff, but then we realised we needed a snooze. So snooze we did. As we were leaving we got a bonus goodbye with Shea as she was picked up her bridesmaids to take them to the airport. So that was nice.

Arriving in NYC was very exciting. We had a window seat but as luck would have it, we were on the wrong side of the plane to do the city flyover. La Guardia is big, but well signed so easy to get around. We waited for about 45 mins for our bags to arrive though - and then they put them on a different luggage carriage to what was advertised. Urgh.

Bags in hand, I used the Revel voucher that I had. $20 off the first ride was worth it! Revel are a new rideshare company that uses Teslas exclusively. So not only was it a good deal, but we were offsetting some of the carbon emissions we saw back in Toronto. Bonus: the tesla had a clear glass sunroof - so we got a good look at the city as we drove through. I should add, the airport is set up well to find taxis and rideshare. They have lanes for each company, and when you order the rideshare, it tells you which lane to go to. Plus, the staff at the airport were really helpful as well.

Our Revel driver was great. Brooklyn born and bred, he told us about bits and pieces as we went along. The first sight of the buildings was so exciting (as we came out of the tunnel). That’s a big skyline! The traffic wasn’t as bad as we’d expected and we made it to the hotel in no time. The Hotel Chelsea that is. Let me just say that again: the HOTEL CHELSEA. If you don’t know about this famous old place, find out about it here. I can’t believe we’re staying at the Hotel Chelsea.

Walking through the front door and into the plush lobby set the scene for what was to come. The girls on the desk were lovely, all in black vests and white shirts looking very professional. Even better though - they upgraded us! Thanks here to our fabulous friend and bestest travel agent Kylie who I’m pretty sure made a deal with the hotel and we got the benefits of it. The staircase alone was a sight to behold. All ornate cast iron, with marble steps. We made our way to the old fashioned lift and up to level 5 (room 5c - I want to record that for posterity). We opened the big, heavy door to the room and we were blown away. You need to watch the video in our album link to see what we saw.

A junior balcony suite is what we landed in. A narrow hallway with gorgeous parquet wood and stunning curtained cupboards led past the bathroom into the main area. The first thing I really saw were the curtains. They had little holes in them so that light came through, making it look like it was made of stars. There was a big heavy curtain on either side of those and when we opened it up, we were looking over 23rd street. The main area of the suite had a king size bed and the thickest old fashioned rug I’ve ever stood on. There were ornate carved bedside tables and then a small dining table for two, a 2.5 seater lounge, two single velvet chairs and a big old fireplace and marble topped mantelpiece with a lovely white orchid on it. It felt like a suite in an old hotel (which, I guess, it really was)! 

The bathroom was just as luxurious. Black and white marble everywhere, with brass fittings. The shower itself had two shower heads, one was a waterfall and the other was a handheld that pointed almost horizontally across the shower stall. I discovered this was fabulous for a sore back and I want one in our shower now! A huge bath, and fluffy hotel branded bathrobes topped it all off. The lights in the bathroom were also dim-able which made for a nice bath experience. 

We were totally beside ourselves and felt very posh indeed. 

We went downstairs to check out a bit of the hotel and find some dinner. There was a lobby bar, a private dining room, a function room and the attached restaurant, El Quijote. We decided that the tapas bar was for us. They had a crazy cocktail menu and I ended up with one  called Sherry Martinez which was gin, amontillado sherry, almond, and lobster oil. It was strange but also delicious. We ate potato tortilla, sardines & anchovies, jamon croquettes, and yummy chicken skewers - admittedly, all our favourite tapas dishes. 

We went for a little wander after dinner just to check out what was on our block - lots of lights, lots of little cafes and pizza places, lots of weed shops and lots of people out and about. Appropriate photos of the Hotel were taken from the outside, and then we went up to our (ahem) suite to settle in for the night.

NYC arrival pics (or really, a million photos of the Hotel Chelsea) can be found here.