New York New York

Yesterday saw Ross, Kris and I jump on a bus in DC to take a 5 hour journey north to New York, Kris and I came here back in the summer of 2006 but wanted to come back in December to enjoy the city at Christmas time. To top the trip off, Neil (my cousin) moved here couple of months ago and Scott also decided to fly in from Vancouver to join us. So not only are we lucky enough to be spending a few days in New York on the run up to Christmas we are also reuniting with family along the way.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and after dropping our stuff off at Neil's apartment which overlooks Ground Zero Ross, Kris and I hit the pub whilst we waited for Neil to finish work and Scott to fly in. After quite a few beers we met up with Neil and went for a curry (Bradford stylie) and our first Indian since we left the UK (was starting to miss the Beekash).

This morning we were up and ready for a day of sightseeing, somehow I got stuck with the map reading and off we set deciding that the $99 red hop on/off bus was no match to our free walking tour of Manhattan. First stop was to City Hall and a great view of the Brooklyn bridge, then onwards up Broadway to Greenwich Village. We walked through Washington Square park where I recognised the big arch from the title sequence of Friends.

After wandering through the quiet streets of the West Village we carried on north to the famous Flatiron Building then onto Madison Square Garden, As I was doing the directing I thought it was a woman's perogative to lead the men into Macys which was packed with manic Xmas shoppers. We window shopped our way up 5th Avenue and finally arrived at Times Square where we spotted Elmo and Mickey Mouse Santa.

After stopping for a cheesefest lunch at the Stardust diner we carried on north and Kris spotted McGee's Pub. For the How I Met Your Mother fans out there, this is the pub which inspired the writers for the show. Inside they have show memorabilia including Barneys Awesomeness poster!

Finally as the sun was going down we walked through Central Park to John Lennon's Strawberry Fields where we saw a large crowd forming. As we got closer we heard Imagine being played acoustically and stood and watched a huge crowd singing along. On returning to the apartment google answered our suspicions that today is the 31st anniversary of John Lennon's death!