Day 2 - New York

We got up early next morning and got a BA flight to JFK, New York. It was a really good flight with lots of surprisingly good food and great movies.
When we arrived in NY I was so excited when we got to security and spoke to a real New Yorker! It was so funny to hear them speak!! We got a yellow cab to our hotel, the Excelsior. On the way to the hotel we got a clear look at the New York skyline and it was amazing how imposing it was. Our taxi driver was great and gave us a running commentary of all of the areas on the way in. I was again very excited at the mention of all of the names of places that I had only heard of on TV before - Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan! We checked into our hotel and went straight out for a look around. The hotel was nice and very grand - but it was quite personal. It wasn't huge but the lobby was quite opulent and welcoming. All of the reviews of the hotel describe it as being a hidden gem and I couldn't agree more. Great location and far enough away from the buzz to make it relaxing.

The first thing we did was get a hot dog from a street vendor and eat it as we walked through central park towards the Rockefeller centre. We had booked to go up the Rockefeller centre that evening so it would give us a good view of all of the areas. It was also a good opportunity for me to get lots of great photos. While at the top of the tower a man with the same camera as me offered to lend me his wide angled lens. I couldn't resist and I got some brilliant night time shots as the sun went down.

After James dragged me away we walked from the Rockefeller centre to Times Square to get some dinner. We found a Texas BBQ where we got stereotypically huge portions of food! I was worried that this was going to be the standard throughout the US but fortunately this was an exception! We ordered cocktails to have with dinner and they were also oversized - but still a great way to spend our first evening in New York. We walked to the nearest underground station to get the subway back to hotel as it was quite a long day for us. Fortunately we didn't feel too jet lagged!