Tags
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!
