24. - 30. October: Family trip to New York
After we hadn't had a family holiday this summer, we booked five flights to New York ... shopping with four women ... Thomas asks for some compassionate messages ...
So after we started early Friday morning in Frankfurt we arrived in New York (still in the morning, 6 hours back) ... except for Thomas, it was the first time for the girls ... here after arrival at JFK Airport ...
After checking in at the hotel in the middle of Manhattan (so f...... expensive) we had a first walk along the Fifth Avenue towards Central Park ... and in the evening we had a lovely dinner in a nice restaurant (which turned out to be the only nice dinner in a restaurant) ...
Saturday morning we were picked up by Monica & Edward, Cynthia's cousin, whom she hadn't seen for 36 years (!) ... they first showed us around Manhattan by car, then drove northwards to Carmel and showed us around where they live ... photo taken at lunch
We were all very welcomed at their home ... photo taken after a lovely dinner, Monica cooked for us ... we hope they'll visit us in Germany soon!
Sunday morning we took a tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ... here the ride by boat over to the statue ... Manhattan in the background ...
... and we finally arrived ... unfortunately you cannot go up to the top anymore ...
... but at least to the platform right under the statue itself, where this photo was taken (again with Manhattan in the background) ...
... next stop was Ellis Island, where so many immigrants started their new lives in America ... it was operated until 1957, now it has been fully restored ... what a fascinating place ....
the evening dinner took place in a chinese restaurant (by accident) ... the Chardonnay came in red colour, the chilli prawns were sweet & sour, but Carola got the chilli flavour on her dish ... and so on ... the only good thing was the Tsingtao beer ...
Monday, the shopping mania started ... in the world's biggest shopping centre, Macy's ... surprisingly an additional 11% discount for foreigners ... the credit card turned red-hot ...
After the first shopping day we had dinner at TGI Fridays, expensive and uarghh ...
Next day shopping continued, but in the evening we could get five top-tickets for a brand new show at Broadway: Boeing Boeing. What can we say? We laughed our heads off, absolutely hilarious ...
... after the show we had dinner in a Thai restaurant, which was alright ...
... here the two of us after the show on broadway, close to Times Square ...
The evening was finally finished with a drink in the hotel bar ... what should we drink in the middle of New York? ... a Manhattan of course ...
After much rain the day before (which lead us to the third day of shopping!!!), we visited the Empire State Building on our last day ... we endured lots and lots of checks and security controls, but finally ...
... we made it to the top, felt the first snow flakes (yes true) and had - although cloudy - some nice views ... here to the south (Manhattan, Statue of Liberty) ...
... as mentioned before, it sure was cold and windy up there ...
While walking through the streets of New York on our last day, we saw the impacts of the world-wide crises live ... the police cars getting smaller ;-) ...
... but the original ones were there as well ... and lots of them ...
... after walking to Grand Central Station (which was very impressive), we headed back to the hotel and flew home overnightWell .... what can one say about the Big Apple ..... it was a fantastic experience, which we all thoroughly enjoyed ..... a fascinating city which certainly never sleeps!!!!!!!