Week 18: New York, New York!

A completely fabulous time was had by all!  Thanks to a R and her dedicated hotel research, we stayed in the brand-new and utterly perfect Hotel Z in Queens (Long Island).

R and I met at, and emerged from JFK into glorious 80 degree wall-to-wall sunshine, straight into a super-funky little bar at which I had my first (since US arrival) DELICIOUS bite of full-on all-American hamburger! Which set us up for a lovely afternoon's mooching and meandering around the less high-profile "sights to see", such as the fascinating 5 Pointz, where graffiti is legal, large and loud!

We spent a musical hour admiring the artwork while enjoying the sounds and sights of a street party.

With a little "directional help" from the (very friendly) NYPD, we then stumbled on a "lo-fi urban country club" in Brooklyn - actually dumpsters that have been converted to a swimming pools. It was our personal "only in New York" moment!

 

 The day was rounded off absolutely perfectly with cocktails in the roof-top bar of our hotel, sun setting on the amazing Manhattan sky-line.

 

Sunday dawned a little wet and windy - and we had just the perfect itinerary planned. A long and leisurely Mexican lunch followed by War Horse on Broadway. Both exceeded our expectations. War Horse was a slightly different production to the West End, but equally good - it remains the top of the pops for me!

 

Buick with cat - or cat with Buick!



<<<<----- We fitted in several more long treks through the city in the rain (wet, but warm) and enjoyed the-biggest-pizza-in-the-history-of-the-world, back at the hotel.

   

A very "green" NY Taxi repair garage!



 

 

Our last day was dedicated to seeing a few of the "old favourites" and a visit to "Ground Zero". The skies were intermittently grey and damp, so we were happy to be on a water-tour which motored around and delivered magnificent views including the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, the bridges, skylines,vEllis Island and of course Lady Liberty.

We parted at JFK check-in, congratulating ourselves on "the perfect weekend"... Then we met again an hour later  in departures....and sat out our four-hour delays! Incredibly, the rain had caused massive delays to every flight.

"Irregardless" (sic - and enjoy, R :) we had the most brilliant weekend!