New York with Kaylene and Chris

Tuesday 17^th

New York with Kaylene and Chris

We popped in to Grand Central Station this morning on our way in to Time Square to meet with Kaylene and Chris.  Grand Central station is more than a train station, the terminal is a full blown destination unto its self with plenty to see and do.  The station is huge; the barrel vaulted ceiling is speckled like a Baroque church with a painting representation of the winter night sky with stars shown from back to front.  There are shops, a market and restaurants, its really quiet amazing.  It is so much more than a train station.

We jump back onto the subway and get ourselves into Time Square, with a little time to spare till we catch up with Kaylene and Chris, we go into the Bubba Gump store and have a look around and pick up a few bits and pieces.  We then piano piano make our way to meet with Kaylene and Chris.  Off to Tiffany’s, not so piano piano!!!  Luckily on the tour we did, the tour guide made mention to us that there is the third floor that sells more reasonably priced items.  We had a very quick skim around on the ground floor and realise that we didn’t have the coin to be even looking here, so we quickly got up to the third floor. It was a convenient time for Himself to mention to me that I had not been paid what we were expecting from the QVH, his timing is impeccable!!!  Not deterred in the least I meandered around the third floor, still no price tags on the items here either.  There were some very lovely items and I did manage to pick up something, not for me, but a purchase way made.  Kaylene, on the other hand was very restrained!!  Who would have believed that I would make a purchase and not Kaylene, I would have tipped the reverse for sure.   Quickly over the road to have a look at the Luis Vitton gear, no purchases made here.  

We then dropped into St Patrick’s cathedral which is on the corner of 50^th street amid the glitz. A lovely little cathedral.  We then start our marathon walk to St Paul’s chapel, it looked a fair distance on the map, it did however, feel like we had walked the whole length of Manhattan by the time we reached it some 2 ½ hours later.  On our way we found the Stand bookstore. This is a bookstore with 18 miles of books. The place is astounding and distributed over four levels and the books were so cheap, we were very glad we stumbled upon it. We continued to walk on till we found St Paul’s Chapel. It was worth the walk.   St Paul’s Chapel is now know as the “little chapel that stood” because it survived a second brush with destruction on September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Centre buildings collapsed just across the street.  Other than a lot of dust and debris, there was no damage to the church.  Because of its proximity to Ground Zero, St Paul’s became the site of an extraordinary, round the clock relief ministry to the more than 14,000 volunteers offering assistance in the recovery effort.  The Chapel was a place of refuge, where food, medical attention, space to rest, and support were provided to hundreds of rescue workers.  The moving exhibit Out of the dust: A year of Ministry at Ground Zero, was excellent and very moving indeed.

We then ducked over the road for a bit of a look around Century 21, a great shopping venue for little money, situated next to World Trade Centre, its huge! It has all the departments  -shoes, clothes, home accessories, cosmetics, men, women, kids, jewellery, handbags all the best brands in very discounted prices! Himself brought himself a new Skagen watch and was delighted with his purchase.  We got the subway back to Time Square, all four of us were a wee tad weary after the long walk.  However, it must be noted that our walk took us right through Soho; no one can say that we didn’t see Broadway as we had a great walk right along the entire length of Broadway!!

We had dinner at Bubba Gump’s shrimp house, yes, from the Forrest Gump movie and it was very novel.  Then off to our Broadway show the Lion King.  This was a great experience; the show was incredible with amazing costumes and performers.  We all had a fantastic time. 

When we came home to Rita and Mick’s we watched a lovely DVD on Italy, so we could reminisce about our tour of Italy.   What a brilliant day, but we were clean tuckered out !!