Day 4
We had both slept without earplugs - they're not the most comfortable and I think we were so tired the noise didn't matter!
Steve got a result after complaining about the birthday surprise. The receptionist had to talk to the manager and they decided to waiver the cost. We had not used anything. The wine had arrived while we were at the theatre, but they offered everything as complimentary.
Breakfast today was at Andrews Coffee shop a little way up 7th Avenue. We shared a fruit cup, and I had apple and cinnamon pancakes, which I couldn't finish, and Steve had a Western omelette which included ham, green peppers and onion accompanied by some fried potatoes.
Using day 2 of our tour bus passes, we picked up the bus near the Empire State Building and followed the same route to get down to Battery Park to catch the connecting bus for the Brooklyn tour. The Battery Park is in front of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which is actually a large vent from the subway and famously featured in the Men in Black film. Battery Park itself is also undergoing extensive redevelopment but we found our way round to Clinton Castle where we could buy tickets that include landing on Liberty Island and use the restrooms. Unfortunately tickets to actually go up the statue are sold out for a couple of months, and even tickets for access to the pedestal were sold out - so definitely one to book ahead if you're in New York and want to go inside. Having a little time before the bus was due to depart we looked around the information panels describing the history of Battery Park and Clinton Castle which has had several incarnations.
The Brooklyn tour promised a stop with good views of the Manhattan skyline. When we picked up the bus for this tour, it was already pretty full and there were no seats on the upper open top deck. This turned out to be a blessing as it was very hot and the lower deck was air-conditioned although it did mean we couldn't see the sights so well. To be honest this tour was not what it promised to be. The view of Manhattan where the bus stopped was largely obscured by construction works, most of the commentary on the audio guide was out of sync with our location and at 2 1/2 hours was far too long. Others evidently thought the same. After returning to Manhattan the driver was persuaded to let us off before the designated stop. We went to get a long cold drink and a snack at a Pret a Manger on Broadway near Fulton Street subway before getting the Metro back towards our hotel.
Thankfully a very helpful lady who was also going uptown directed us. We were not on the right line for getting to Penn Station and had said we needed to get to 28th street which we thought was the nearest to our hotel, since there is a 28th street station 3 blocks away from our hotel. Having changed trains on to line 6 which has a 28th street station we decided to get off at the 33rd believing we would be only 2 blocks away. Outside we realised we were much further east than we wanted to be as 6 is the Lexington Avenue line and doesn't run near 7th avenue. So we walked across the avenues to 7th and down to the 31st, a little longer than we thought for a chance to freshen up, catch up on blogging and decide what to do this evening. A map of the lines at the subway station would have avoided all this but there wasn't one at all at the entrance we went into. Checking out the subway later shows there are three 28th street stations on different lines - we'd got on the wrong subway! You live and learn and at least we can now say we have tried bus, taxi and Metro in New York!
Although we had spent much of our day on buses, we were pretty tired so decided to stay local for dinner and just went across the road to Harrington's Bar and Restaurant. I ordered a dry martini with lemonade but it wasn't quite what I was expecting - the lemonade was evidently a fresh, still lemonade and very sweet. Steve had a Sam Adams Summer Ale. I chose a saffron linguine for dinner which included what the Americans call shrimps but we call King prawns and a saffron infused creamy tomato sauce, and very delicious it was too, but I still couldn't eat it all. Steve had a Cottage Pie - a traditional dish in the US as well it seems.
So, one more day in New York and we will finally be going to Liberty Island.
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