Holidays 2025

[pxr5]

That's a funny one thanks 

[Fishy]

Off to Cyprus next wednesday for a pal's daughter's wedding.. 34degrees.. toasty..

[Matt2112]

Off to Cyprus next wednesday for a pal's daughter's wedding.. 34degrees.. toasty..

Paphos? Ayia Napa? Limassol?

[Fishy]

Wedding is in napa but we're staying in paralimni/ protaras I think..

[David L]

Arrived in New York yesterday evening. Fairly straighforward trip. Flight was late by over an hour departing from Heathrow due to late arrival. However we made up the lost time and arrived close to scheduled time. First time flying 'Premium Economy' and was a bit disappointed tbh. The food was not 'as advertised' (where do they get those menu pictures done?  ). The headphones were a poor fit so the on screen entertainment was accompanied by engine drone the whole time ( I decided to only take my bluetooth buds this time - mistake). Unfortunately we also had a baby in the row behind that was not happy for a while early on. Having said that, the time didn't drag too much and the flight was shorter than I expected at under 7 hours.
We had little problem getting through the airport (immigration took less than an hour) and getting into the city via the Air Train and the Long Island Rail Road was quick and straightforward (we were planning on getting a yellow cab but changed our minds and saved some money).The room at The Grayson (west 39th) is frankly, poor. Considering the price it's not good enough. We are used to great hotels in Austria when we go on our winter trips so it's our own fault for spoiling ourselves! We were warned not to expect great accommodation but it would've been nice to at least have coffee/tea- making facilities and somewhere to put our clothes. Anyway, we will not be spending much time in the room, the beds (we went for two doubles to prevent getting a broom cupboard) are comfortable and it's in a great location.
We hit the streets just after arriving and wandered to a 7-eleven for a few snacks and some water for the room. We moseyed down to Times Square which is close and then looked for somewhere to eat. The plan was to stay up late and get a night's sleep to get us on track with local time. After eating some nice asian food at a small, clean cafe on 6th Avenue we looked for somewhere to enjoy a couple of beers before turning in for the night. We struck luck! Just around the corner, The Keg Room. An Irish sports bar with a decent selection of craft keg. We enjoyed three (different) halves and met a nice young guy, Jason, who was alone at the bar.
After remaining awake for nearly 24 hours we showered and hit the sack.

[Slim]

Where are you staying @David ? My old office was just off Times Square on 7th Ave.

[David L]

Where are you staying @David ? My old office was just off Times Square on 7th Ave.

The Grayson Hotel, West 39th street

[Slim]

Where are you staying @David ? My old office was just off Times Square on 7th Ave.

The Grayson Hotel, West 39th street

Nice, close to the guitar shops. Not far from the YMCA where I stayed in '87. And Central Park.

[David L]

Where are you staying @David ? My old office was just off Times Square on 7th Ave.

The Grayson Hotel, West 39th street

Nice, close to the guitar shops. Not far from the YMCA where I stayed in '87. And Central Park.

Tomorrow we intend to visit Central Park. We began today with Hudson's Yard including the viewing platform, The Edge - unbelievable views of the city and surroundings. We then walked The High Line. Next was the Staten Island Ferry followed by our first subway ride back to mid-town.
This evening we walked to a bar out on 10th avenue and then dined at a decent Italian nearby. By the time we got back to our room we'd clocked up just under 21,000 steps.

[Slim]

On my first visit to NY we (girlfriend at the time and I) took the Staten Island Ferry. We got off. Looked around for five minutes. Came straight back! At the time (1987) Staten Island wasn't really a tourist attraction. No idea what it's like now, might have a look on Street View.

[David L]

On my first visit to NY we (girlfriend at the time and I) took the Staten Island Ferry. We got off. Looked around for five minutes. Came straight back! At the time (1987) Staten Island wasn't really a tourist attraction. No idea what it's like now, might have a look on Street View.

Yeah, not much to see over there, we had a beer and then came back to Manhattan.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Where are you staying @David ? My old office was just off Times Square on 7th Ave.

The Grayson Hotel, West 39th street

Nice, close to the guitar shops. Not far from the YMCA where I stayed in '87. And Central Park.

Always hoped to visit Manny's when I was younger. Too late now, closed sadly.

[David L]

So, we completed the main objective we had for yesterday, to walk the whole way around Central Park. Before we got to the park, we took in the iconic buildings on the way - Chrysler, Rockefeller, Brill and Radio City Music Hall.
We entered GC in the SW corner off Broadway and made our way counter-clocwise. We went a bit wrong towards the northern end as we took the cinder running track around the Jackie Kennedy-Onassis reservoir. We were almost across to the west-side when I realised so it was imperative that, in order to properly complete the task in hand, we doubled back to get ourselves on track again (I'm quite competitive!).
We were able to do that without directly re-tracing our steps such are the myriad routes in the park. So, we took the route through the conservatory garden which was well worth seeing and around Harlem Meer. There's a bit of an incline at the Harlem end (Harlen Hill) which surprised us, in fact I was surprised by the relief of the park overall. I don't know why but I expected it to be flat - not so! A few, let's say, interesting characters at that end of the park.
We had stopped on a bench to fuel up on crisps, a banana and a shared bar of chocolate earlier so we pushed on around the northern end and down the western side towards our start point. Starting at 12:15pm we finished around 3:45pm. We were led to believe it's about 6 to 7 miles around Central Park. I would guess, we walked all of 7 miles, probably a little more, whilst in the park itself.
On exit we made our way to Valhalla Bar in Hell's kitchen which was a 10-15 minute walk away. Some good beer and friendly bar tender........and delicious chicken wings! We then went scouting for our next watering hole, Rudy's but happened upon Craft & Carry before we got there. A great find as it turned out with a decent selection of craft beer. Got chatting to a couple from Long Island who, unbelievably slid $30 along the bar towards us before leaving to buy our drinks! They would not allow us to refuse it however much we protested. How nice!
Anyway, we were invited to stay for the evening's Halloween-themed quiz. It was so difficult so we were amazed to win a $20 gift voucher for coming third - admittedly only six teams but we were chuffed.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped for food at the small Taiwanese cafe, Sanmiwago, where we ate on our first night - superb.....again. I had shrimp fried rice, Clare had Terriyaki beef rice bento. Washed down with Singtao beer.
28000 steps, a new record! That equates to around 13 miles, apparently.
Today, we're going back down south to see the Brooklyn Bridge uo close and personal.

[The Picnic Wasp]

That's a lot of steps on crisps, a banana and half a bar of chocolate. What kind of chocolate? Did it taste of sick? 😁

[Thenop]

That's a lot of steps on crisps, a banana and half a bar of chocolate. What kind of chocolate? Did it taste of sick? 😁

They are in the US, everything is supersized.