NYC: First glimpses of Manhattan

9 June 2011

We took a yellow cab to our hotel. The fixed rate of $45 plus tolls and tip between JFK and Manhattan is such a good idea. For lack of cabs when we were going to the theatre one night we hopped into a limousine – no, not one of those black stretch limos, I feel that would have been frowned upon by the rich people inside it, but rather one of the posh cabs that can be booked and cost more. Despite the protestations of the driver that the fares were the same as an ordinary cab, we knew we’d paid a little over the odds to get to the theatre. Our biggest clue had been when the driver insisted that he could come and pick us up the next day to go back to the airport – and it would only cost $80 all in. Yes, enthusiastic man, that’s the same as $55.

I’d booked our hotel as part of a package with our flights with British Airways. I’d been sending myself mad trying to find a nice place that was in a good location, didn’t cost the earth, had free wifi in the rooms and whose reviews weren’t half-filled with people moaning about the room size, while everyone else countered that small rooms were to be expected in New York.

Hotel Metro, 45 West 35th Street, was our home for 4 nights and we can thoroughly recommend it. We were on the ninth floor with a fantastic view of the Empire State Building that rises into the sky just a couple of blocks away. The room was beautiful, with two gloriously comfortable twin beds, a TV we unplugged in favour of Suzy’s comically slow travel kettle, a desk, a chair, air conditioning and a safe that I failed to operate at first. We called the front desk for assistance and were told that someone would be sent up to help. Seconds later we heard a call coming over someone’s walkie talkie just outside our door. Please attend room 904, they need help with the safe. Knock, knock! We had the quickest response time you could imagine, as the maintenance guy had been in the corridor right outside.

There’s a nice-looking restaurant attached to the hotel, the Metro Grill, but after a bit of unpacking and a rest in our gloriously air conditioned room, we headed back out into the muggy heat of the city to the first destination on our itinerary. By now it was mid-afternoon and we went to the Skylight Diner on West 34th Street for what was neither lunch nor tea. So we called it trunch. With our body clocks being a bit out and our not getting up especially early during our trip, we tended mostly towards brunch and trunch.

Keen to tick something off my “to do” list, I ordered an NY chocolate egg cream. Now, I know this was invented in Brooklyn so really I should have tried one there, but 34th Street was closer to my hotel. An egg cream is chocolate milk with seltzer, which thins it out a little and gives it a slight fizz. It was nice, but a thicker drink or milkshake still wins in my book.

We had walked to the diner and having rested in its coolness for a while we braved the outdoors again to head to our next stop. We hailed a cab to take us to Grand Central Terminal. Of course, when I say we, I mean Suzy. She did all the hailing during our stay, while I took on the role of looking out for any empty cabs that might be headed our way and not laughing (too much) when one day Suzy attempted to hail a police car.

Posted in: friends, new york, photos, travels

Comments

One Response to “NYC: First glimpses of Manhattan”

bethany actually
9th June 2011 @ 8:18 pm

I’m glad to hear you got a good deal on your hotel room because I looked at prices there when we were considering staying overnight and HOLY EXPENSIVE, Batman.

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