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Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, Empire State Building, Friends, Grimaldi's Pizzeria, holidays, National September 11 Memorial, New York City, USA
Final days in New York city…
I look back now and realise I do miss New York; the hustle and bustle, those wonderful yellow taxi cabs with constant horn blowing and the sights that are famous and known throughout the world. My two friends Tracey and Sandy and I went there in 2015 and I can’t believe its been two years; where does the time go. This post will cover a few of the places we visited whilst in NYC.
I really enjoyed our visit to Brooklyn. I hadn’t been there before on previous visits to New York but Tracey booked us on a bus tour and I have to say I loved it that bridge is just beautiful; and the lovely views looking from Brooklyn back to NYC.
One of the main reasons my friend booked this tour was to visit a wonderful pizza restaurant called Grimaldi’s whose history of coal-fired brick oven pizza cooking can be traced to the first pizzeria in America back in 1905. It was a fabulous little restaurant and just before lunch there was already a lengthy line up waiting to get in but as we were on a bus tour, we went straight in.
We also took a cruise of NY Harbour one afternoon which was a great way to see the city buildings and the Statue of Liberty although I hear the Staten Island ferry is a better way to get close to the statue and its free.
We also went to the National September 11 Memorial but didn’t go into the Museum as the line was very long. Tracey had visited the museum before and said it was worth the visit but as we were time poor we decided not to line up. We were so glad we paid our respects at the Memorial though; it’s a beautiful site for such a tragic event.
It was our friend Sandy’s first visit to New York so we wanted to make sure she went to the tope of the Empire State Building. We hopped off the hop on hop off bus tour at this stop and went to the viewing platform for some beautiful sights of NYC.
Coney Island was another place we went to on the bus tour to Brooklyn. This was a nice place to see and just take a stroll along the beachfront. The huge roller coaster was not working but I wasn’t sure if that was a long term thing or it was just closed for the day.
We also had drinks at a rooftop bar in NYC with fabulous views and excellent cocktails!!
Every art gallery I visit I always go to see the Impressionist paintings; I love them and remember many years ago I would buy the prints from various galleries and have them framed to put up around my home.
And the amazing sculptures….[not that I bought replicas of these for my home!]
We were very fortunate as when we visited the gallery, the MET Gala had recently been held with its theme of “China: Through The Looking Glass” so the displays were about traditional Chinese fashion – so with my love of China it such pleasant surprsise.
After the MET, my friends and I decided to stop by Grand Central Station as I had not been there on my previous visits to NY. Wow isn’t this just an amazing building; busy with people rushing about on their way to somewhere.
We stopped and enjoyed a drink and some snacks which afforded us the opportunity of checking out some of the people rushing to get a train or just enjoying a walk through this incredible station. 
And finally our last stop was a late lunch at Eataly – a magnificent marketplace where you can eat fabulous Italian food and drink Italian wine/shop for fresh Italian food; meats and cheeses/chocolates and biscuits/bottled sauces and absolutely everything Italian. I loved this place and my friends and I shared a pizza, some pasta and bread and a glass of great Italian wine. We walked around the marketplace after lunch and I could not believe the amount of foodstuffs etc that could be bought – truly amazing and there is even an Italian cooking school!
As I think everyone knows, NY is famous for its bagels; our friends told us about a lovely little shop just a ten minute walk from the apartment that sold the most delicious fresh bagels with all sorts of toppings; my favourite – egg salad with chives. Along the way we passed gorgeous buildings and flowering bushes; benefits of visiting in the spring.
We planned and paid for a lot of our NY day tours from Australia and one was a bus tour seeing the sights of both uptown and downtown. We chose the Big Bus Tour Company and from our friend’s apartment we walked to the bus stop and sat upstairs on the bus, which afforded us the opportunity to see the buildings and other sights without any obstructions – and of course there are so many colourful sights in NY…
And of course my (and I think many others’) favourite building – the iron building…or flat iron building – one of the two but I love it anyway!
And that glorious Empire State Building [which we did go up to the top…but more of the views on another post]
And then there is the famous Macy’s…we did a bit of shopping there and my friends bought so (so) many clothes and shoes whilst I think I only bought one item…just not in the mood for shopping!
The Trump Building is always good to see and we stopped off to take a look inside [before the current US President was elected] and then to Wall Street and a beautiful church just there in-between the high rise buildings of NY.
We went past the Brooklyn Bridge and one thing I regret is not walking it…maybe another time.
And one photo I took was of a lovely old building with a huge skyscraper in the background…bit mystical I thought!
I think the best way to see a city is either walk or take the hop-on-hop-off bus tour…the bus allows you to see all the famous sights within a day or two!
There was something I had on my ‘to do’ list whilst in London and it was to take a walk around the streets of Notting Hill. So one day when my brother and nephew went to Chelsea Football Stadium {never had any plans to go with them!!}, I walked from our Airbnb apartment in Kensington to Notting Hill which is about a fifteen minute walk, strolling along beautiful streets and wonderful homes; all white and black!
Then after about an hour I was feeling a little hungry so stopped off at a lovely little brasserie.
Once inside I ordered my usual drinks; sparkling mineral water and glass of white wine…and then found out there was free wifi – yay because the cost of international roaming on the phone is way too expensive. Seeing the London red double-decker bus go past was ‘so London’…lovely!
I ordered the asparagus and pea risotto and a plate of fresh tomatoes with olive oil and onion. The risotto was absolutely delicious but way too much so only ate half of that. The sourdough bread and the fresh tomatoes were incredible and it’s a shame I was too full to eat more of both, but I certainly ate my share.
I sat for a while and just enjoyed the atmosphere then it was time to leave as that evening I was going to the West End to see Les Miserables, my absolute favourite musical which I have now seen five times; once on Broadway, twice in Sydney, once in Melbourne and this time at West End…probably enough shows for a while as it’s got to the stage where I am crying even before Fantene passes away!!
In 2006 I had a wonderful opportunity – working in Waikiki for two whole weeks. It was the middle of summer and the temperature was quite high [bit too hot for me if I am to be completely honest]. But no complaining as it was two weeks in Honolulu paid for by my employer.
The beaches are lovely in Waikiki and very crowded with lots of Americans and Japanese and many other nationalities including us Aussies. So one weekend when we did not have to work, we took the opportunity to get out of the hustle and bustle and a group of us hired a car and drove around the island. It was such a beautiful day so we stopped along the way to the northern beaches to take lots of photos.
We then drove up to a particular area along the northern beaches where the beach scene from ‘From Here to Eternity’ was shot. I was shown the exact spot (well sort of) where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolled around in the ocean; it was nice to see but must say nothing special. 
But the other beaches were just lovely…
As part of the reason I was in Hawaii, my colleagues and I went to Pearl Harbour and we were given a private tour along with a tour of the USS Arizona Memorial which is a floating memorial built over the sunken hull of the USS Arizona. 
Waikiki was such a busy place; at all hours of the day and night so it didn’t matter what time you went out it was always crowded along the streets and in the bars and the shops. For me the lovely part was the water which was incredibly blue and clean. I enjoyed walking along the shore in the early mornings and evenings just enjoying people watching and looking at the different colours of the ocean. 
But, I think my most favourite time of the day in Waikiki was sunset. I was told of a particular hotel on the beach overlooking the water that was famous for watching the sun set. I walked to this particular hotel one afternoon and found a chair and table overlooking the ocean and took the following photos sitting down with a glass of wine…
All in all an incredible experience and whilst Waikiki was a little commercial it was lovely getting up to the northern beaches as the scenery along the way was magnificent.
My five friends ordered the duck pancakes which came out ready made on individual plates and then another huge platter with more ingredients to make pancakes.
For main course, my friends ordered the prawn and duck fried rice with Thai chilli paste…
Sue's Fabulous Travels 
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