Travel: Adventures in New York

My travel journal from a recent stay with family near New York in February 2019.

Saturday

Arrived at JFK, New York and transported to Greenwich, Connecticut for our week's stay with family. Even though we had had a 4am start, walking around Greenwich Point Park and glimpsing the New York skyline at sunset was too good an opportunity to miss.

Greenwich Point Park

Sunday

Our first foray into New York and we arrived at the glorious Grand Central Station - it is more beautiful than you would imagine a station to be!

Grand Central Station

The grid system in New York makes it really easy to navigate around (but only if you know which direction you have left the station - it took a couple of wrong turns to get it right)!!

We had tickets for the Rockefeller Centre to do the Top of the Rock observation deck. Although it is not as picturesque as the Empire State Building, you can at least see the Empire State from the Rockefeller. It was not too crowded on the observation decks and there was no queuing either. You can buy tickets online to save time and once you are up there, you are not time limited. For four adults it worked out at around £120 - well worth it (although it costs more if you go at sunset).

Chrysler Building, Views from Top of the Rock

Empire State Building through Bryant Park

Monday

Top of my "to do" list was visiting the High Line, which is an abandoned elevated train track which is on the West Side of Manhattan. It has been transformed into a public garden and sculptural space. There are some fantastic views of the river near Hudson Yards and the High Line wends it way down to the meat packing district. 

We dipped off the High Line in Chelsea, and had a fantastic lunch (the nicest tuna nicoise I have ever had) at Park, before delving into the really hip Chelsea Market and buying some amazing brownies from Sarabeth's.

Tuesday

"We'll just walk through Central Park" we said. We started at the Fifth Avenue Plaza Hotel end and walked towards the Natural History Museum in the biting cold, stopping at Gapstow Bridge where Kevin McAllister met the pigeon lady in Home Alone 2. Only a few steps into Central Park and you feel like you have left the city behind, it's so tranquil.

We stopped at The Dairy visitor centre and shop which originally provided milk for children - a very gothic building. In February there were no eating establishments open, so we popped out of Central Park and hit on a lovely restaurant called Parm for lunch who serve the best Chicken Parm sandwich in New York!

We didn't make it to the Natural History Museum as we were all enjoying the park so much that we wanted to explore further. We ended up walking right up and around the Jackie Onassis reservoir (note, there is a one-way route around this - we walked it the wrong way)!!

Wednesday

A quiet day in Greenwich starting with brunch diner-style and watching an enormous dumping of snow descend. Very cold but very pretty.

Thursday

My brother in law hired an 8-seater car and drove us up into the Catskill Mountains to Hunter Mountain, where after a lunch in a distinctly Overlook style hotel (even down to the weird black and white photo in the corridor) we had a go at snow tubing. Two hours of great fun for all ages!

Friday

Our last full day in New York was spent travelling across to Staten Island and back on the free ferry service, where you can get great views of the Statue of Liberty. Be aware that at South Ferry there are lots of people strongly encouraging you to to a paid tour directly to Ellis Island. One of these guys told us (outside the Staten Island ferry terminal) that this was not the ferry to Staten Island!!

From South Ferry we walked along the river and into the financial district, having an amazing lox and cream cheese bagel at Hanover Gourmet Deli. We walked along Wall Street and there were film trucks everywhere but we never found out what they were filming, and stumbled across Seaport. Seaport has a very different feel to the rest of New York - lots of places to eat and shop but more spacious.

Brooklyn Bridge was our next destination. It is so impressive. You do have to keep to the dedicated pedestrian lane though or you will encounter fast and furious cyclists!

From here we headed walked to the World Trade Centre. I was unprepared for how moved I was, seeing all the names of those who died. Very sobering.

Our final stop was a metro ride to Times Square, which I absolutely hated but felt it needed to be done! 

So we really did pack a lot into one week in New York, but I still think there is plenty to return for.

Have you been, what would you recommend?

Love Mrs Jones x