The travels of Tim and Megan: New York, USA

Monday

Our train from Washington DC arrived at New York Penn Station at around 9.30pm. We checked into the Chelsea Savoy Hotel, which was pretty decent, and headed straight to Brother Jimmy's. Our good friend Daggy had told us about Brother Jimmy's - the "greatest place on Earth" - so we just had to try it out. Brother Jimmy's is a chain of bars in New York that serve real American food. It just so happens that Monday night is "All you can eat wings and ribs" night at Brother Jimmy's. So we figured it would be rude not to! For just $19.95, you get as many ribs and wings as can stuff into yourself AND as much Budweiser you can drink. The wings and ribs were delicious and we definitely got our money's worth (photo below)! It was a really good bar and we could almost sense the spirit of Daggy lurking there.

Tuesday

The last thing we felt like on Tuesday morning was food, with our bellies still full of the finest ribs, wings and beer you can imagine. But nevertheless, we were booked into a food tour in Greenwich Village on Tuesday morning. It was a lovely, sunny morning, so we walked from our hotel on the corner of 23rd Street and 7th Avenue down to Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, where our tour began.

Greenwich Village is a largely residential area on the west side of Lower Manhattan. A large majority of the district is now home to wealthy upper class families (and a sprinkling of celebrities). However, the area was originally crammed full of poor immigrants and was known from the late 19th to the mid 20th centuries as the home of American bohemian culture.

The first stop of the tour was at Joe's Pizza, a very popular pizza parlour, made famous by appearing a number of movies and TV shows, including Spiderman II. We each had a slice of Joe's delicious pizza (and we could see what all the fuss is about - definitely worth popping in for a taste!). We then visited a specialty olive oil shop (where we had bread and oil tastings) and a local favourite restaurant called the Home Restaurant, where we had a little taste of macaroni cheese. Across the street from the Home Restaurant is the Cornelia Street Cafe. We popped inside and went down to the basement, where they have live music, poetry and comedy routines every night. It is also the place that Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick had their first date (photo of Megan there below)!

For lunch we went to a vegetarian Asian fusion restaurant, where we had had "vegetarian pork", a dumpling and salad. It was surprisingly tasty! After lunch, we continued to wander the pretty streets of Greenwich Village, learning about the history of the area and the celebrities that frequent the neighbourhood. We passed the Cherry Lane Theatre, where many famous actors have 'cut their teeth' and got their break and we also saw the apartment block used as the exterior view of the main apartments in the "Friends" TV series (photo below). After a few more stops for chocolate chip cookies at a milk and cookie store, a selection of cheeses from Murray's Cheese Shop and some other delights from an Italian delicatessen, we were really full!

There was one more stop, however, for a delicious cannoli (Sicilian pastry dessert and New York favourite) at an amazing cake / pastry shop on Bleecker Street. The tour was brilliant. We learned a lot about the historic area and we tasted some amazing food. We decided it's probably best for our waist-lines that we don't live in New York!

When the tour finished at around 2pm, we walked to the nearby Chelsea Food Market. Sadly we discovered that Eleni's cookie shop no longer makes the most delicious cookie the world has ever seen (the "Cranberry Everything Cookie"). We were disappointed, but our wallets were relieved. We wandered around the Chelsea Food Market and had some gelato, before Megs decided to do a spot of clothes shopping, while Tim wandered the streets of Lower Manhattan.

In the evening we caught the subway up to The Bronx and the shiny new Yankee Stadium to see our third baseball game in New York. This time the Yankees were hosting the Chicago White Sox. We loved the new stadium - we had a great view from our seats and there were so many excellent food and drink facilities. We had the obligatory hot dog and beer for dinner and some crackerjacks to keep us going late in the game! Word of warning though - the Yankee merchandise stores inside the stadium are a massive rip-off. You can buy the same stuff in Times Square for much lower prices!

Sadly the Yankees lost 3-2, although it was an exciting game throughout and the Yankees were so close to pinching it off the last two plays. A White Sox outfielder jumped high at the fence to haul in an Alex Rodriguez shot that seemed destined to clear the fence for a 3-run home run. Then off the very last play, Robinson Cano drilled a shot out to the same side of the outfield and the same guy sprinted to his left and dived full stretch to just hang on to the catch to end the game. Had the ball snuck past him, both Yankees on base would have easily scampered home for the win.

Wednesday

After a quick stop at the not-so-delicious breakfast room at our hotel, we kicked off Wednesday with a trip to Wall Street to see the famous New York Stock Exchange building and get close to a very large bull. Allegedly, Wall Street started off life as fertile soil for Dutch farmers, before it became apparent that they really should have some protection against the pesky English colonialists. Hence, a wall was built, eventually giving way to the street that now runs in its place. Fighting the briefcases and pinstripes on a sunny Wednesday morning, we found it hard to imagine that farms ever existed on the same patch (and if they still did, how much they would be worth today...).

Our first stop was the famous Bowling Green Bull, a 3,200 kg bronze sculpture which symbolises the financial prosperity that New York's fortunes have been built on. We hurried towards the bull, as our peripheral vision had warned us that danger was afoot. Sure enough, we were just beaten to the bull by a large (but surprisingly fleet of foot) group of Japanese tourists, so we had a short wait until their photo shoot was completed. Luckily, they were soon distracted by the back end of the bull (a 3,200 kg bull has some rather impressive...um....symbols of prosperity) and Megan was able to jump in for a photo (see below).

We then meandered towards Wall Street itself, where we admired the stock exchange building and took a short walk through the surrounding streets before continuing on to our next destination - Brooklyn!

You see, last time we were in Brooklyn, we had wanted to go to Grimaldi's - famed for its award-winning pizza, which many call the best in New York - but we were put off by the ridiculously long queue. This time we were not to be deterred, even if it was 11am and (as we were shortly to be made aware) Grimaldi's didn't open for until 11.30am. Luckily, we have been in Britain long enough to know what to do in such a situation: initiate an orderly queue. And so we stood at Grimaldi's door, watching crates of tomatoes and mozzarella being unloaded, and feeling smug to have beaten the large crowd forming behind us. First through the door, we loaded up at our red and white checked table and got our pepperoni pizza order in quick smart...because yet another tour (this time a bus full of octogenarians) were bearing down on us. Turns out, Grimaldi's was worth it. Best pizza in NYC indeed.

Next up was one of our favourite things to do in New York - a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan. It's also a great way to work off some of the Grimaldi's pizza! We then split up for a couple of hours - Megan heading to Soho for some shopping, Tim going uptown for Yankee merchandise and bulk buys at the Hershey's chocolate store. However Tim wasn't aware that a massive celebrity (we're talking A-list here) was hanging out in Times Square waiting to meet him - see photo below!

After the triple excitement of purchasing a Yankee jersey, visiting the Hershey's store and meeting Elmo in the flesh, Tim needed a beer to calm down, so we met up and headed to Blind Tiger, a bar on Bleecker Street renowned for its large selection of foreign beers. We had a couple of beers there and then returned to the hotel for a change of clothes before heading out for cocktails and dinner at another one of Daggys' recommendations - DGBG Kitchen.

Dinner was great, the highlight being the huge range of sausages we could choose from as a "side" or "entree". We got a cheese number for a shared entree, which was cracking. We couldn't go past the burgers for mains or a completely unnecessary chocolate brownie sundae for dessert to round off another excellent day in the Big Apple.

Thursday

Our final day in New York started off fairly bright but soon turned grey and wet. Thankfully, we had planned to do some shopping anyway, so the rain was not a big inconvenience. The first stop of the morning was Trader Joe's supermarket, not far from our hotel. They had some amazingly fanciful treats in there! We bought some cookies and some almond butter (just like peanut butter, but made from...yeah).

Then we wandered up to Penn Station and bought train tickets for our journey out to Newark airport later that day. While there we bought some brunch at a bakery and ate it outside Madison Square Garden! The it was onward to Macy's - the massive department store. Tim bought a couple of casual shirts and we enjoyed sifting around the enormous shop while it was pouring outside! Sadly Macy's was our first experience in USA of poor customer service. Everywhere else we had been had spoiled us with friendly and helpful service...whereas Macy's was more akin to UK "service".

We caught the subway down to 5th Avenue - probably the most famous stretch of shops in the world - and we visited Nike Town, which was also insanely large. Megs bought some new running gears and then we decided it was time for a late lunch. On previous visits to NYC we had eaten at the Tick Tock Diner and Megan was kind enough to bow to Tim's desire to make a repeat visit. Tim had the best vanilla milkshake on the planet and an awesome bacon and cheese burger, while Megs went for the cod fillet burger. Good old Tick Tock Diner - solid as ever.

The rain had really set in by mid-afternoon, so we decided to head off to the airport a little earlier. We grabbed our luggage from the hotel and caught an earlier train out to Newark airport. Despite a slight delay to our flight, we had a very comfortable trip back to London, just in time to catch the Royal Wedding on TV! It was most likely our last trip to the States for a while, but we had a brilliant time - it really is a magical place.