Day Two - New York in the rain

For the first time ever on a trip to New York, we didn't suffer from jet lag! We woke naturally at 7.30am - amazing! I've always woken around 4am on my first night here, incurably awake. I even had plans for the 4am awakeness! I had then expected to get very tired at some inopportune time today, but no, here we are at 10.30pm, awake but weary.  

We woke to grey skies and heavy rain, with cloud sitting low on the high rise like woollen beanies. 

Breakfast was across from Grand Central Station at Pershing Square. We were given a booth in a fabulous old establishment which ran like clockwork around local and international patrons.

We then set off to see The Met Museum by taxi, but on arrival we saw a line stretching out of the museum and far down the street of committed, umbrellaed people in the pouring rain, waiting to enter, and decided that we could wait until another day. This is after we had already decided not to go to the Intrepid this morning, as some of the major exhibits are outside. 

Into another taxi (love the new onboard system which lets you decide to pay cash or card, add a tip, and pay by paywave!) and downtown to a store I'd been keen to revisit after 16 years. Into a Starbucks across the road to wait for the store to open (now 11am and something doesn't seem right, despite the fact that 50 other people are waiting too), used the free wifi (thankyou Starbucks), to find that it was Yom Kippur and the store was shut! 

So, three strikes. We wandered north along Broadway, in the rain, until we (I) decided this wasn't fun, and caught the subway to Herald Square. The subway was cheap ($2.75 for a one trip anywhere within 2 hours), easy to navigate, and entertaining. A guy stood up in our carriage and loudly declared that he'd just been released from prison and needed money, but wasn't going to rob us (!).

After an hour walking through Macy's at Herald Square (massive store) waiting for the rain to ease, we wandered north on Broadway again, to Times Square.

It's an amazing city to walk around in. The architecture is varied and beautiful and purposefully designed to allow light down to street level. There are trees and parks and sculptures everywhere. The people are a mix of all races and nationalities under the sun. 

Bryant Park

New York Public Library

Our hotel with the Chrysler Building at dusk 

Grand Central Station Oyster Bar. I've been wanting to come here for 16 years!

From Times Square it was a short walk back to the hotel to rest a little and change into dry clothes.

The sky had cleared completely, and it turned into a lovely, cool night. 

We set off on foot for 5th Avenue, towards Central Park. We toyed with the idea of going to the top of the Rockefeller Centre to see the view at night, but were told that the earliest tickets were for 9.20pm! Another experience that can wait. 

We hopped another taxi back downtown to the Meatpacking District, where we had dinner on our last visit, 3.5 years ago. Tonight we chose 'Dos Caminos', a fabulous Mexican restaurant at the corner of 14th and Hudson. The food and service were excellent. 

We've had a wonderful day and are really enjoying being back in NYC. We would have loved to have brought the girls with us, but it would have taken us a month of Sundays just to get through H&M alone!