Wednesday 8th July - New York Day 3

Our aim today was to go to as many attractions included in our 2-day New York Pass as possible in order to make sure we got our $110 worth! So we started out this morning by re-visiting the Empire State Building in order to take the ‘Sky Ride’ which we omitted to do yesterday. We hopped on the hop-on bus but it took nearly an hour to get there as there was a police anti-terrorist exercise going on which blocked off some streets. There were about 15 police cars screaming through the city in convoy which caused traffic havoc.

Both Terry and I feel that the $150 - $200 which we would have had to pay for a helicopter ride over NYC/Manhattan was too expensive so we thought the Sky Ride would be a good substitute. We entered a small cinema with a huge curved screen, and when the film started the seating area started swaying and bumping about imitating a sky ride. It was a bit too bumpy and when we ‘swooped’ in various directions I began to feel somewhat nauseous and was pleased when it ended. It didn’t really emulate a helicopter ride at all, it was far too fast - kids stuff really I suppose. Still, we did get some good aerial shots so it was interesting in that respect.

Our next excursion was to the ‘Top of the Rock’ - i.e. the viewing platform of one of the Rockefeller buildings.

We went to the top of this Rockefeller Building

Having wasted so much time on the bus earlier we decided to take the Subway - big mistake! At the first stop we discovered we were going the wrong way i.e. in the 'downtown' direction instead of 'uptown', so we leapt off the train and asked the customer information guy. Having explained our mistake he gave us a somewhat pitying look, rolled his eyes and told us we had to go two further stops downtown and change there for an uptown train. So that journey took longer than expected too.

We both felt the view from the Top of the Rock was slightly better than the Empire State Building. Having less haze around today helped I guess. We did get a far better view of Central Park:


And we were able to have a good view of the Empire State Building too


We had lunch in that area and afterwards we visited the NBC television studios. Not having watched much - in fact no - American TV (it is crap - sorry Shae!) we were slightly ignorant of what studios we visited although fellow American visitors were delighted to see them. We went into the NBC News studio, from where we could see the live broadcast of the 24-hour news programme MSNBC; the ‘Late Night With Johnny Fallon’ Studio (whoever he is although again our fellow visitors knew). This is the studio from which the Johnny Carson Show was broadcast for 10 years - I have heard of him; and lastly the ‘Saturday Night Live’ Studio. Perhaps when we are staying in Boston we will be able to view these shows so we can say we’ve been there!

We walked back to our hotel from there and had a ‘feet up’ session before making one final use of our Pass - a visit to New York’s Madame Tussauds. That was excellent although we both admit not being able to recognise some of the more ‘modern’ film stars. John Wayne, Paul Newman, James Dean - yes, but younger ones gave us a few recognition problems. Many of the other waxworks were really good and we had our photographs taken with 'President Obama'.


We now have jobs at the White House and therefore will not be returning home!
Dinner was at the same Deli Bar that we went to on Monday evening, and, being the two tired though intrepid travellers that we are, we are spending the evening in the hotel.