Up the Eiffel Tower in New York...

I've just come back from New York - it was fantastic!! I was a NY virgin, so I did it in style...
Managed to wangle a business trip for a conference, extended my stay for the weekend and a few of my pals joined me out there, perfect!

Arrived at Newark on Sunday 30th October 05 at 3pm. Sat in cab with a massive grin on my face, I couldn't believe I was there... the skies were clear and the sun was shining, the view over the Hudson to Manhattan was amazing, it felt like a dream.

Stayed in the Marriott Financial Center (2 blocks from Ground Zero) for 3 nights. Fab hotel, convenient for the conference and the J&J offices (oh and I didn't have to pay for it - bonus!!). Worked at the FPL Americas FIX Conference for 2 days - knackering! Despite waking at exactly 4.50am each morning (no alarm needed!!), I did manage to stay awake enough to go for some good meals and a few drinks....

So after spending 3 days/nights exploring downtown (and working, honest!), I then headed up to a new hotel 3 blocks down from Central Park, not quite in the hub of Times Square, but close enough to feel the crazy buzz.... Definitely a different kind of feeling to the financial district with it's suits and tall buildings, this was more manic, more energetic. I was encouraged to take Friday off work.... what a shame.... ha ha! So I spent the morning taking in the sights and smells of Times Square, Bryant Park, Grand Central, picking up a smoothies, and coffees on the way.... big smile on my face the whole time and a crick in the neck beginning to develop from all the architecture that needed admiring. And of course, I managed hit the shops briefly before the 4 crazy kids joined me at 3pm.

Yeah for Friday afternoon - Amanda, JP, Mat and Hannah join! Whooop whooop! So before they can kick of their shoes and take a nap, I drag them to Times Square, walk them past the ice rink at Bryant Park and then to the Top of the Rock (http://www.topoftherocknyc.com/). It's the old GE building at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza and you get to view NY from the 70th floor. It was only opened on the Tuesday, and I managed to get 2 for 1 on the cost of the tickets - bonus. We went at night and the views were FAB!! Hannah flagged, bless, so we went for a quick bite to eat at McGhees, just round the corner from the hotel.... had burgers and listened to far to much Gwen Stefani for Amanda's liking... JP just about managed to stay awake...

Saturday - up early, HUGE breakfast in Carnegie Deli (so huge that JP had to have a doggie bag for his corned beef bagel.... which he lovingly took around with him for the rest of the day.... and it even came back to the room, where it made friends with Wayne and Fred!). Jumped on the open top tour bus (http://www.coachusa.com/newyorksightseeing/), saw all the sights and places we'd have never had time to get to. Sights included: Greenwich Village, the New Times Square, Empire State Building (aka Eiffel Tower - I kept getting my words muddled!!) the Flatiron building and Union Square shopping districts, Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy, Lower East Side, East Village, Rockefeller Center, Trump Towers (where you can skid in your socks... eh 'Mand!) and a Western Union sign in Japanese... (eh? what was that guide thinking about!!?!).
We jumped off the bus downtown so they guys could see Battery Park, walk along the river's edge, see the Statue of Liberty (did you know that she was a gift from the French and she got shipped to NY from France in 350 pieces? Do you know why she's green? And what the 7 points of her crown represent??), have a beer, go to Ground Zero, Century 21 and then hop on the Statten Island ferry...... phew!! Oh and we saw firemen!!! Lots of lovely firemen......sorry, distracted there for a minute.... We jumped back on the tour bus back to the hotel, had a quick rest then jumped on the subway and hit the West Village for dinner in an Italian restaurant.

Sunday (JP's 44th birthday & New York Marathon day - not that we saw ANY of it! whoops!) - Attempted the Empire State Building (I got it right..!!), but with a big haze over it and the visibility ranging from 0-1 miles, we gave it a miss... Went to Macy's (Amanda bought some really nice carpet shoes), had a beer in Grand Central, hit FAO Schwarz and Mat lived his life long dream of dancing on the piano like in the film BIG.... we have photographic evidence....
To celebrate JP's birthday we hit the Dreams Hotel and had cocktails (well Vanilla vodka with lemonade for the girls, and beers for the boys) on the top floor over looking some of the city, followed by a scrumptious Asian meal in Tao (http://www.taorestaurant.com/) where we gave the waitress all the decisions to make and we lost Hannah to alcohol oblivion. We then had an after-din drink in one of the bars in the Hudson Hotel, where JP fell asleep and we had hysterics taking pictures of him! On arrival back to our room and perking up somewhat, he then spent a good 10 minutes running and diving onto his bed.... followed by a quick search for the Carnegie deli bagel and letting out a cheeky fart.... I think you had to be there....

So the final day came, and we made it up the Eif....Empire State building - AMAZING!! Mat has fab pics, I'll link you to his Flickr page when I've fathomed all this out...(http://www.flickr.com/photos/matjkd/sets/1322518/) Then there was a trip to Central Park, where we did a pony and trap ride, found the Dakota apartments and Strawberry Fields.... then it was time to head home.... :-(

All in all a BRILLIANT week, I love New York and definitely wanna go back. Thanks to Manda, JP, Mat and Hannah for all the laughs and making it even more memorable.... love ya xxx

p.s. what did I forget/miss out??