Day 3 of our New York pass was pretty full on and involved us doing a tour of the Rockefeller Centre, seeing the giant Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Centre and going to the observation deck at the top.
After navigating the bus that we needed to catch to get into town, the first stop on our list was a tour of the world famous Rockefeller centre. Our tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable and very friendly and personable as he took us through and around the many buildings that encompass the Rockefeller Centre. The highlight of the tour was getting to see the famous Christmas tree up close as well as seeing the amazing Swarovski crystal star located directly behind it.
After a well deserved lunch stop after all the walking in the morning, we checked back in at the Rockefeller Centre to go up to the "Top of the Rock" viewing platform which is one of the highest points in New York City. Unfortunately for us we had picked one of the cloudier days to do this activity so the visibility wasn't as great as possible. However we all still enjoyed the view and enjoyed taking lots of photos with the Manhattan skyline in the background.
Day 4 of our New York Pass involved a trip to the Museum of Modern Art(MOMA) and just happened to be the day that we all realised that modern art wasn't really for us and was a little bit ridiculous. We started off our tour on the top level and planned to make our way slowly down to the bottom, taking in all the art at a leisurely pace. After touring the top level which included a giant block of concrete, a mess which looked like a construction site and a hallway where you walked down the middle and speakers screamed the days of the week randomly at you Jess, Caroline and I were ready to leave and never come back again. The next level down did have some nice paintings including some Van Gogh's but after that I was very happy to chill out on the couches with Caroline and Luke whilst Gerard explored the rest of the museum.
After our extremely underwhelming trip to MOMA, we decided to soothe our spirits by trying a famous New York City bagel. The bagel shop we went to had about 30 different types of bagels, as many different types of cream cheese or spreads and plenty of different meats to add as well. All 4 of us were extremely satisfied by our bagels and felt re-energised to tackle the afternoons activity - the Museum of Natural History.
The Museum of Natural History was one of my most anticipated tourist attractions when arriving in New York City and it didn't disappoint. The only disappointment was that because we went during the day, none of the exhibits came to life like they do in the movie Night at the Museum. The museum had a large dinosaur section with many different dinosaur skeletons which in some cases took up an entire room. The museum also consisted of exhibits dedicated to African animals and cultures as well as many other parts of the world. We would highly recommend a trip here if you ever find yourself in New York.
After a good nights sleep we started day 5 of our pass by going to check out Grand Central Station. After seeing it represented in many movies and TV shows over the years, we imagined that we knew what it looked like and how big it is but the scope of the size and beauty of Grand Central Station is incredible and impossible to put into words. We blended in with all the other tourists taking phots and trying to avoid all the poor buggers who had to wade through all of us to try and actually catch their trains.
Once we had thoroughly digested Grand Central Station, it was time to take a movie & tv set tour through New York by bus where we were taken for a few hours around the city to places featured in movies & tv shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother. What we were all surprised to find out though was that many of the places made famous in these shows such as the diner and the Soup Nazi's shop in Seinfeld, the fountain in Friends and Maclarens bar in How I Met Your Mother were inspired by places in New York but were filmed on custom sets in LA. The tour overall though was definitely value for money and we all had a good afternoon.
Comments