Before we set off on our bicycling adventures we had a lovely breakfast close to the bike store on Amsterdam Av. It was a popular franchise bakery/café that we later found right throughout New York called Le Pain Quotidien. We both ordered soft boiled eggs that was complimented with fresh pieces of their own breads and sat in the warm wooden décor surroundings. The Mocha was actually quite poor but came in a large bowl cup that made the experience all the better. We decided that it was one of our favourite places in the city.
We returned to the bicycle store to pick up the bikes with two helmets (yes Mum's, we wore helmets!) and a massive chain. We paid quite a hefty fee of US$100 for 24hrs of hire but later found it to be completely worth it. We began our journey next to the Hudson River travelling south along the footpath. We rode for around 40 blocks and made a left turn towards Timesquare, again hoping to get tickets to the Late Show with Letterman. No luck, taping was at a halt for the whole week so we decided that next time we were in the city it was a must see (we used to Letterman to put us to sleep in Melbourne!).
The streets were packed by now and it was somewhat refreshing compared to yesterday. We leisurely rode through lower Manhattan on 5th Ave and saw the true New York as we had ever so pictured it. There we were dodging on-coming traffic - as in people not cars mind you, right on the streets footpaths (too scared of road at this point). We were strongly informed once by a lady in her true New York accent to “Get awff the syde warrrrlk”. We didn’t, we just laughed and repeated the sentence in our best accents about 100 times and made our way to Washington Square, on the side warrrrlk.
A great corner building
Mystery building?!
Once we got to the Square we were again informed by an NYPD officer that we couldn’t ride the bicycles through the park. He had just served his city so proudly as all great NYPD officers do there. We obeyed and walked towards a group of musicians playing a great tune on one of the park benches. Their band consisted of a variety of instruments from an amazing silver lined guitar to a wooden boxed single stringed bass instrument. The occasional trumpet would blow some notes and we both took time to take in the nice music with our surroundings.
Stuck in time... They don't seemed to have had a revamp of their buses or police cars in years.
We decided to work our way toward the World Trade Centre site into the financial district of New York. I was pretty amazed at the fact that after the eight years proceeding 9-11 the site was still bare. I’m sure there is a great scientific reason for this but we both contemplated our reasoning and came up with nothing! Moving further south we came to the bottom of the island and found ourselves in Battery Park. From here we had a nice view of the Statue of Liberty and experienced our first New York hotdog. The guy was sneaky - he charged us $2 extra because silly me agreed to the bigger sausage. (They cost $1 each more but he didn't tell us that). Hopey wasn’t too happy but we soon moved on from that. A quick photo snap on the park bench and we were again off on the bikes.
World Trade Centre Site
This time we found Wall St and quickly scanned through the financial centre of the world. The security was quite immense I thought but I guess better safe than sorry. Trump Tower was right in the middle of it all as well. By this time hunger had set in and China Town was the next destination. We ordered wonton noodle soup at a restaurant that acclaimed to have the best noodles in the world. I wasn’t too certain of that but what they did have was the loudest Chinese waitress in the world. She would stand at the counter of the small rectangular shaped restaurant and scream out the orders from the customer straight to the kitchen from there. We happened to be sitting next to her!
Wall Street - Kaz didn't think the flag was big enough...
Another great corner building. We loved these.
Hmm... This was pointing to the Department of Police.
Bike Envy! - We saw so many amazing bikes, this one was one of the most original.
Our next destination was back uptown to the famed department store Macys. We didn’t stay there for too long and actually found the place very disappointing maybe on par with Myer, Parramatta. The weather started to change and once we got back outside to the bikes the rain began to set in. We dissembled the lock chain as fast as we could in a hurry to get out of the rain and found a nice little surprise. Someone had accidentally left their umbrella on the back of one of our bikes. We both thought it was such a nice gesture, someone really cared that we would have to ride in the rain!
And pose - This jacket was the only OK piece of clothing in the whole of Macys
We were quite tired by now from all the bike riding but thought it was best to tough it out and stay up. We found a rare café called Starbucks that happens to only be on every corner in NYC and settled in there while the rain passed. As the night moved by we had an urge to fulfil the child in the both of us and found ourselves at the Amazing Ripleys Believe It Or Not. Fairly expensive for the experience but we happened to amuse ourselves amongst the shrunken human heads and 8 foot 3 giant man. Our evening ended at a nice Japanese restaurant close to our hotel. We ordered a couple of dishes but a special mention has to be made to the fresh sushi they made. A must have if ever in New York.
Ripley's - They asked if they could preserve my brains.
