New York Visit (Wednesday)

Wednesday arrived and after a relative sleep in, we headed to 72nd Street station and took the express to Penn Station. As we were running behind time, we settled for another bagel with cream cheese (they're kind of addictive!!!) We queued for close to 2 hours to get to the top of the Empire State Building - it was worth every moment though, the views were spectacular and we picked the perfect day for visibility, although the wind was quite severe. We lunched at TGI Friday's at the corner of 34th and 8th (I think) and took the M34 crosstown bus to pier 83 to catch the 14.30 circle line cruise, but we missed it by a mere 2 minutes! However, our NY Pass also gave us admission to the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum which is only 2 blocks up. This is an entire museum based on a retired aircraft carrier and is very impressive, lots of history to learn about from WWII up to 9/11. We also 'flew' a fighter jet in a 360 degree simulator churning our stomachs thoroughly. Also there was a small slice of home in the shape of a retired British Airways Concorde sat on a barge on the Hudson - a strange sight! From the Intrepid, we took the M50 Crosstown bus to 50th Street station and the subway back to our hotel. A quick change saw us out again and on the subway back to Rockefeller centre for some night time ice skating. From there, we walked back through to Times Square via Avenue of the Americas for an obligatory hot dog and pretzel. Once again we hit the subway back to our Upper West Side neighbourhood for a couple of well earned beers at the Westside Brewing Company.