A Trip to the Big Apple

A Trip to the Big Apple – Valentine’s Weekend 2015

 

Weather warnings up and down the Northeast corner of the United States were not enough to dampen (or indeed freeze) the mood as our family of four took on a New York City, enclosed in a layer of deep-set frost, that seemed to have been purpose-built as a movie set. 

 

Touching down at JFK on the Friday evening, we checked into our hotel on the Upper West Side, dropped off the bags and took a walk around the block to have our first meal at Josie’s – where I had my first encounter with the American standard of cuisine. All of the waiting staff there, and at every place we were at thereafter, put their British counterparts to shame in their speed, helpfulness and general friendliness. 

 

Overcoming the jet lag relatively quickly, we were up early the next morning for a Valentine’s Day walk down Broadway. Whilst bitterly cold on the way, we were soon warmed up by an extraordinary breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner (‘Home of the Singing Waitstaff’). The 1950’s style diner is regarded as ‘one of the best theme restaurants in New York’ by its own Wikipedia page, and it didn’t disappoint. Waiters and waitresses alike launch into song in between serving, and are tipped generously. The best of the best are even plucked away by top Broadway musical producers.

 

Next was a wander through Times Square, where the bright lights were even bigger and better than what we had seen in films and on TV. 

 

 

We moved onto the touching 9/11 Memorial site, where two pits of cascading waterfalls stand in the positions of the twin towers that were felled in 2001. In between the two is the National 9/11 Museum, opened in May 2014.  

The museum was superbly designed, fitted with over 10,000 artefacts and a poignant collection of audio and video recordings from that fateful day. It is built underground and adjacent to where the two towers stood, and contains comprehensive coverage of those involved, from passengers on board the planes to first responders at the scene. 

 

Over the next couple of days we took a trip up the Rockefeller Center for outstanding views of the City in all directions, we took a stroll through a snow-covered Central Park, we hit a few balls in a batting cage, and we went shopping along the famed Fifth Avenue. 

 

We were hardly stationary nor bored, and by the time of our flight home on Monday evening, we were confident that we had filled our time with absorbing as much of the New York experience as possible. It was undoubtedly a trip packed with things to do and overall fulfilment, in the City that kept on giving. 

 

James Lorenzo and family travelled to New York in February 2015