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1st Album – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156252&id=629422836&l=a3759045d2

2nd Album – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156649&id=629422836&l=c09d313cd9

I’ll need to check to see if there are any more…

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But, as we were nackered we had overslept, and we ended up not getting to the bike pickup point until after midday. I’d found a place on the internet that hired bikes out round central park and accepted bookings online, so i’d arranged a 3 hour trip. BUt, when we arrived at the address, there was no such building. Cutting a long story short, the guy who ran the company basically sits outside on the street with his bikes, and doesnt actually have a business address. And, he’d been having some computer problems so hadnt even intended being there that day. Luckily, some other bikers helped out and phoned the guy to see he’d had a booking, and they were kind enough to loan us 2 of their bikes. They were a bit naff, but they did the trick.

The paths around central park are a bit weird. There is little in the way of signposts, and the rules about where you could cycle were a bit vague, so we mostly stuck to the cycle path on the roads going round. But, we didnt see very much unless we stopped and walked a bit into the grassy park itself. Lauren was struggling up some of the hills, so decided to go off to some well-known restaurant in the park for lunch. It was good food, but the portions were tiny and it was really pricey (Sex and The City girls had seemingly been filmed there). After that we hopped back on the bikes for a while and headed back to drop them off at 4pm.

We were a bit tired after this again, and freezing cold, so headed back to the hotel to warm up. Needless to say we ended up falling asleep for an hour or so, but eventually got up and headed off to 5th Avenue.

I’d promised Lauren i’d buy her wedding present in Tiffanys (DOH!) when we were in NY, and also she’d seen a handbag that she quite fancied in another town, so we went off to find Tiffanys and had a look around the place. But, when we were about to ask to get served, we were told that the store was actually closing (7pm). So, we left empty handed. This didnt deter our spirits though, even though most of the shops were closing, and we soon found the handbag shop that Lauren had spied, and she got the bag that she liked. With a matching purse. Obviously.

As everywhere was closing down, we just headed back in teh direction of the hotel, but we were hungry again by this point, and stopped off at a steak restuarant. They were massive – i had a ribeye that must have been 7×5 inches long and over an inch thick. It was great. Yum Yum. But, we’d stuffed ourselves too much, and was still tired so headed back to the hotel.

I’d kept trying to pester Lauren to actually go out to some pubs etc in the evenings, but she never fancied it. So, apart from Wicked and a trip to Time Square, we spent the evenings watching TV or episodes of True Blood on my laptop.

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Following that we continued a walk down to where we catch the ferry out to Liberty Island to see the big statue. Unfortunately, there is only a limited number of tickets available each day that allows you to the “crown” inside the statue, and this was booked solid until the end of the year. So, we just took the normal ferry service out to the island and had a look around, and took several photos. We didn’t bother venturing inside to the “museum” as we’d heard the history of the statue (gifted from the French).

We took the ferry back to the mainland, and decided that whilst we were in the area, we’d go and have a quick look at Wall Street and then catch the tourbus to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, we missed the last tour that day due to having a quick stop for something to eat, so we ended up just getting the bus back up to Rock, where walked back to the hotel again.

We weren’t used to all the walking, having spent 6 weeks in a car, so we were pretty nackered each day. Plus, that evening we’d arranged to go and see the musical Wicked on Broadway. This was actually pretty good (i’m not a fan of musicals – too much singing and prancing about for my liking), but this was ok. I spent most of the 2nd half trying to eat a snickers bar and pringles as quietly as i could. After the show, we had a walk back down to Times Square for a wee nosey about again, and stopped off at a little diner place where we got a massive slice of pizza each, before heading back to the hotel and falling nackered into bed.

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We’d decided we were just going to have a walkabout day, so we got more accustomed to the layout of the land. But, as the closest thing to us was the Rockefeller centre, we decided to go there first. They had a sign at the desk saying that the very top floor was not accessible that day due to filming, so we did ask if the view we were gonna get was still good before dishing up the money. I’m not too sure why the building s famous, but we paid the entry fee and got the lift to the viewing floor.

What amazing views you get all around New York. You can pretty much see every famous building, central park, the bridges etc all from here, and as such i’ve taken loads of photos, so i apologise for anyone viewing the pics, as all you’re gonna see is skyscrapers from different angles.

After a while, we started looking up to see if we could see what they were filming, as we did see microphones and camera about the upper ledge. I also seen one of those director chairs, and managed to work out that it sayed “Adjustment Bureau” on the back. So, after a quick look up on the blackberry, we found that its a new film coming out next year with Matt Damon in it. After this, our excitement levels started to rise as we could see various folk all walking about near the ledge. Lauren didn’t really want to move from her spot, and her patience was rewarded when we actually spotted Matt Damon standing talking to some folk above (we’ve got photos). Its the first famous person we’ve seen, so i was quite happy, and am now on the hunt for more folk.

After “The Rock”, we continued our wee walk down into Times Square (which is just loads of neon lights and folk trying to sell you tours and other stuff), followed by a trip to The Empire State Building.

The queues werent as bad as what i’d expected, and we paid our money to get right to the top part (which used to be the highest building in the world, but not any more. I reckon they should drop their prices now that they’ve been beaten.) This basically gave us the same type of views as The Rock, but were able to see a bit more to the south. What annoyed me was that loads of folk had graffiti’d the glass viewing panels with scratches, ink etc, so it didn’t give you the best of views. We also found here that people were just really rude and kept barging you out the way, no even attempting to stay out of the shot when taking a photo etc. The Rock was definitely a better place with better viewing (you could even see our hotel from the roof).

After The Rock, we continued to walk about Manhattan for a while, and went to see Grand Central Station. Its one of the biggest train stations in the world, and as such was really busy. Probably more due to tourists taking photos than commuters. It was pretty cool though.

That night, after all our walking about, we were nackered, so ended up just having dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was really quite pricey. It worked out at $10 for a beer (i had 1), and $15 for a cocktail. But, the pizzas we got were really good.

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Big Sur & Pacific Coast Highway -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151742&id=629422836&l=8b695a3d87

San Fran 1 -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153495&id=629422836&l=5a5d94ae90

San Fran 2 -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155226&id=629422836&l=99a77e5567

San Fran 3 -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155233&id=629422836&l=40489691d1

Napa Valley -> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155235&id=629422836&l=39edf86311

That should keep you going for a while…..

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I jumped up and headed into the shower (which i cant actually remember being in. i must have kept my eyes closed). I dont really like getting up that early in the morning, especially when i’ve only had a couple of hours of rubbish sleep. I’ve been battling with a chesty cough so i’ve kept myself awake a fair bit. Lauren, however, has managed to sleep through my coughing fits, but this is probably due to the obscene amount of alcohol she has been drinking every day whilst driving. (Only joking)

We checked out of the hotel, and headed off to the airport…..

Checkin etc didnt go very well, as Laurens bag was 3 kg over the 50kg limit, and mine was 2kg under (which is weird considering i’ve got more stuff now than what i did coming over), so the wifey made us open up Laurens bag and got us to transfer some stuff from hers to mine. This is a crazy rule in my mind. I can understand that the weight the plane carries will affect how it flies, so i understand the weight limits. But if 2 people are checking in with a combined bag weight that meets these rules, then whats the point in making 2 really tired folk stand an unpack their stuff in the middle of check-in in full view of hundred of other folk. I was already hacked off that we had to pay an additional $20 per checked in bag (which i cant remember being told when i booked the flights). I was still half asleep though, so didnt have the energy to complain. I’ll write an email of complain when i get home again. I’ll add it to my growing list.

It was a 5 hour flight to New York and a time zone change of 3 hours. Luckily, we both pretty much managed to sleep the entire way there, and i only remember drooling the once. We landed in JFK and it felt like we must have walked about 5 miles to pick up our bags. We didnt have too long a wait before the bags arrived, and we headed outside and grabbed a taxi into town.

Our taxi driver was a bit weird. He didnt speak at all for the first 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden started to give us info about where the sports stadiums was, followed by a few minutes silence, and then more small talk. He was trying to be nice, but it was obviousl he was trying to force a conversation to probably get a better tip. The good thing about the taxis here is that you can pay be credit card if you like.

We arrived at our hotel, and the driver got out to open the doors and boot. I selected the “pay by credit card” option from our own little touch-sensitive monitor, and successfully paid. I thought i’d give him a $10 tip (20% of the fare), but when i got out he said angrily that i should have told him i was paying by card as he needed to add a percentage onto the bill to cover it, as well as a toll fee(which we didnt know about). This wasn’t something that was mentioned anywhere within the cab,nor on the information sheet i got when i entered the cab, so i gave him his $10 tip and walked off. So, it probably worked out that he only got a couple of dollars for a tip, but i’m a bit fed up with people being angry at us.

After we checked into our hotel (The Warwick Hotel), i was amazed to see just how central we were in Manhattan. We even had our own balcony with full views of 6th Avenue, and a big massive room. I had to laugh at the minibar prices though, as they are definitely not going to get touched. $6 for a small bottle of water. $8 for a small box of Pringles. $22 for 2 eggs delivered by room service. So, we wont be getting any room service either. We even have to pay for the wifi connection. The room and the view is very nice, but everything else is really pricey in the hotel. The Beatles, Elvis and other celebs have alll stayed here though.

Once we got settled, we decided to head out for a quick walk about town, and to get some food. New York is amazing – you spend most of the time looking up at the buildings and famous places, and we were soon happy to see 5th Avenue, Park Avenue, Broadway etc were all within easy walking distance from our hotel. We couldnt however find any restaurants we fancied, so ended up starving, and diving in to a TGI Fridays. They charged me $9 dollars for a beer.

After that, we just had a walk home, and had a look at started to plan activities for when we are here.

It does seem mad how long we’ve been away, and we do fly home on Friday, so its a bit sad that our trip is coming to an end, but at the same time, its been a good idea to make New York our last stop, as we’ll be leaving America on a high. And a full-up credit card.

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The drop off point for the car was in the airport compound, but after some GPS issues again, we eventually managed to find the Alamo car rental drop-off point. I just wanted to check that Alamo was going to be open when we arrived the next morning, and luckily it was. But, on the way out, we were stopped at a security checkpoint and were asked for out licence and contract details from the guard/already-angry-wifey. When we said that we didnt have our contract on us because we werent picking up or dropping off a car, she gave us a rollicking, and stormed off to phone someone from Alamo. After a 5minute wait, an angry guy appeared with a copy of our contract who then said that this should have been carried with us in the car at all times, as seemingly if we got stopped by the police and didnt have it, we’d go to jail. Their attitudes and customer service levels were terrible, and rather than politely tell us that we should carry it at all times (which had never occurred when we picked the car up in Miami), he angrily emphasised again that we could get sent to jail. Idiots.

Up to this point, we were considering cleaning out the car, and trying to wipe up the ant spray that had stained some of the seats before dropping it off the next day. But after the abuse we got from the staff, we decided against it, and let them clean up the mess. I don’t someone telling me that i’ve done something wrong, but they should never ever give folk abuse and speak to us in the way that they did. When i get back i’ll be sending an email of complain to the car rental company anyway. I’m happily turning into Victor Meldrew. If any hotel or restaurant has been rubbish, i’m gonna go and write bad reviews of them on Expedia and Trip Advisor, as that will have more effect.

After we got back to the hotel, it was a really hot day still, so we just went out and sat down outside the hotel next to the bar, where we soaked up some sun (i’m still pasty white compared to Lauren) and read our books and i mucked about on my laptop, before heading inside the bar for a couple of games of pool when it started to cool down outside.

I then went and checked in for our flights online, as well as some more researching on stuff to do in New York, before heading off for dinner in the hotel again. This time, it was rubbish. We were the only ones in the place, and i think it must have been the chefs day off, as the food i got was tastless. I’d ordered ravioli from the menu, but when it arrived, it was just a plate of boiled veg covered in a single sheet of plain dry pasta. It was tasteless. Its probably the worst meal i’ve had whilst away.

After this we had to pack up all our stuff we’d accumulated in the last several weeks into our 4 pieces of luggage. This is an art in itself, as you are only allowed 50kg per person for baggage to put in the hold, as well as an unweighed piece of hand luggage that has to be a certain size to make sure it can fit in the overhead cupboards on the plane. As i’ve got my laptop with me, this counts as my carry on luggage, so i only had limited space in the laptop bag to fill up with the heaviest stuff that i could carry. You get charged a fortune even if you are 1kg over your limit, or $100 for each piece of additional luggage that you want to check in. So we did our best, and then settled down to try and get an early night. But, we ended up watching True Blood until well after midnight, which wasnt good when we were expecting a 5am wake up call.

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The Space Needle was a massive tower that was built about 30 years ago for a big Expo being held in Seattle. We got the lift up to the top and had a good look about around the Seattle skyline. Its a pretty amazing view, with loads of skyscrapers, cruise boats, little islands and volcanoes in the background. But, it was obvious from the “attraction map”, that this tower was probably the highlight of tourist attractions. We did, however, have lunch at the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. I was a bit dizzy after that.

After lunch, we got the lift back down to the bottom of the tower. There was a “Ducks” tour that we’d seen, that took you on a tour of the city on land, as well as by sea, as their tour buses were amphibious. I’ve got some photos of them. The tour itself was good fun, but there wasn’t much to see in Seattle, but the driver was pretty funny and kept the tourists happy.

After this, we took the monorail into the centre of town. This was about a 1 minute trip, and must have only been about 400 yards. It was a pretty pointless monorail i reckon. But, after a walk around some of the shops and getting a local drunk woman to shout and swear at me for sitting next to her on the chairs outside the toilets in Macys department store. She wasn’t a happy camper, so i went and stood further away. We then had a wee trip to a local farmers market, and saw some pretty cool food being sold and fish getting thrown about the place.

This took up most of the day, but as our hotel didn’t have a guest laundry facility, we went on the hunt for a laundrette in the city which we eventually found up near the University. I’m still pretty intreagued with laundrettes. I’ve never really been in any in the UK, but you get all sorts of characters in the place, and you can see how OCD some people are about their laundry. I reckon its more like a library, as it would be good to take a book and sit and read with the calming machine noise in the background, and the smell of detergent and Bounce sheets.

After this, we ended up getting some more potnoodle style food from the shop and headed back to the hotel. Its got to the stage where we are both pretty fed up with eating out all the time, so when we get a hotel with a coffee machine or microwave we take full advantage. Some of the noodle bowls you can buy are really good, and have nearly made me cry with spicyness. Yum yum.

We still had one full day in Seattle before heading off to New York, but after us struggling to find touristy stuff to do, we decided to have a nice chill out day and catch up on some sleep the next day.

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AS our drive up to Seattle was only fairly short, we managed to check in to our hotel by late afternoon. Yet again, we’d got an airport hotel as we were due to drop off the car at the airport before flying to New York. I’d previously managed to cock up the dates of the drop off dates for the car, so i’d booked flights to New York a few days before we had to actually drop the car off. This annoyed me, as we’d had to miss a couple of things out, and basically rush up the west coast. The extra few days would have been a lot more of a relaxing drive.

It was a nice hotel, built next to some kind of forrest park that was some kind of conservation area, so the surrounding areas were all very green and forresty. It was that nice, we decided to stay in the hotel restaurant for dinner that night, which turned out to be very good. We also had to do a quick bit of research to see what we were going to do in Seattle for the next couple of days.

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