Day 67 New York (Day 2)

Day 67 – New York (Day 2) – Saturday 21/7/12

Weather – Fine and Sunny 20C - 27C

Sunrise – 5.42am

Sunset – 8.21pm

Time difference - minus 14 hours ex Sydney

A slow start today, the bodies were stiff and sore from yesterday, but once we got going it was OK. We walked off the ship in search of Central Park. As we walked along we took in the locals going about their Saturday morning stuff, and there is plenty to do in New York City.

We bought a few things along the way in preparation for the Christmas in July dinner that our dinner table is organising in a few days time. We cant have it on the 25th as we are at St Thomas that day, and open dinner that night. So we elected for the 24th, which, with the time difference, will be the 25th in Australia.

We arrived at Central Park in pretty good time, it only took about 20 mins or so. Nice patch this, an it was alive with a fun run of some type. We met Ian and Mary, and decided on a Hop On Hop Off bus route. There were 3 day routes to select, and had we had more time, we would have done the one big loop which was about 4 hours. We elected for the Downtown route that had all the iconic buildings, landmarks, and monuments.

It was a glorious morning, in brilliant sunshine, quite a pleasant change from the day before. We sat top deck in the open, with the sun giving us an overdue dose of rays. What a wonderful treat it was to see all those places that have made New York such a notable city. Two hours of traversing all the Manhattan burbs down the westside through the middle and up the east side. Each area had its own unique sub-culture which was fascinating to see. The obvious highlights was the grandeur of the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Sq Gardens, the Flat iron Building, the Charging Bull and of course the new buildings under construction at the World Trade Centre site.

The East side had it's own charm and history, with its multi story tenements, Chinatown, Little Germany, Little Italy etc. We got off the bus, and sated the starving bodies at the West Side Bar and Grill. I had a New York style burger, which was yummy, with a side order of Potato and Carrot Hash, because we could :)

On Saturdays, not sure how often, but today was one of the days, when Broadway is closed to traffic, and it is turned into a street markets. It was really good to look at what was on offer, and yeah we did buy a few things. It was about now that I was wishing I had left some room in the tummy for the food delights on offer. There was a curled sausage that was just enormous, that was begging for a taste test, and a paella that had me wanting even more.

We go side tracked by an impressive M&M merchandising store, that had just about anything that was possible to put an M&M imprint on. We went through the first and second floors, and with more time could have gone higher. Impressive, even for the cynic in me. Back outside and across the road was a similar store Hersheys. We passed that one and returned to the markets, we we got the compulsory New York T-Shirts at 5 for $10.

Whilst buying the shirts, we lost Ian and Mary, but continued on for a bit. With the weariness creeping in, and the clock against us we turned for home and walked or way back to the ship. Just like milking time on the dairy farm, the streets of west side New York were awash with cruise passengers walking all the same direction, back to the ship.

Sun Princess left its berth on time at 5p, reversed out into the Hudson River, swung the bow to starboard and set off southerly as we said farewell to New York City.

We were very fortunate to be invited to Pam and Randy's suite for the sailaway from New York. What a wonderful way to end a wonderful port visit to a wonderful city. All those things that we had heard and read about New York were true, and it is definitely on the 'must return' list.

We retraced our way out , passing Statue of Liberty, Governors Island, through The Narrows past Fort Hamilton and under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge about 6pm. We then proceeded through the bouyed Ambrose Channel, and set a southerly course to our next port of call, Saint Thomas, in the Caribbean.

The dream continues :)