30th September: New York day 3
October 8, 2009
Today, we’d intended to hire bikes and cycle around Central Park in the morning, followed by having a nosey round some of the shops on 5th Avenue.
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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