1 October: The departure from Ischia was relatively straightforward, but we were greeted with a 'taxi' strike in Napoli (perhaps Italy wide..., we didn't know). So off to the line for the bus from the sea port to airport, which was to put it mildly 'an every person (or family) to themselves affair'. We got lucky and planted ourselves in the very spot that the half hour later bus stopped at (within a mm), readily boarded the bus and got seats, and watched the ensuing battle between the remaining hoard to get onto the bus afterwards, classic Monty Python stuff! We just made our flight to Madrid, and then spent an hour or so getting to our very hard to locate accommodation several kilometers from the airport. Then watched FC Barcelona versus Celtic FC in a UEFA match before retiring for the evening.
2 October: Next morning I got up at 5 am to drive down to Colmenar de Oreja to pick up a couple of pieces of luggage and say a final 'see ya later' to Chema (Chelo was asleep) and then slowly made my way back to the airport as the Madrid rush hour gathered momentum. Collected the fam at the hotel and off to the airport to get our flight to New York City. Here are the girls looking at the airport tarmac activity after we had landed at Newark International Airport in the good ole US of A. We made it to our accommodation on Saint Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, hallelujah! A stroll and meal in the neighborhood followed by a welcome night's sleep completed our day.
Our goal for the day was simply to get down to World Trade Center area and to see the Statue of Liberty. But first, let's find a place to eat, see anything Luca?
OK, no breakfast yet, but spirits are still high...
No breakfast yet, but good advice for national politicians...
Finally breakfast at a posh restaurant with waiters that take pictures...
Luca and her tin soldiers...
After lunch we started to make our way to the southern district of Manhattan a la foot. The weather was magnificent at a balmy 25 C at the beginning of October! Here's the clan walking down near the City Hall district.
4 October: Yesterday was a big day after our travel day, so we attempted to have a more relaxed day today. First off to the Flatiron Building district, here's a snap just outside the subway station with the Empire State Building in the background.
This station was near Eataly, an enormous shop dedicated to Italian cuisine. The kids in front of the Halloween oriented display at the entrance to Eataly.
We found a good location to watch the Eataly people making pasta, and well watched them make pasta for half an hour. This gave the kids some appreciation of how good pasta is made!
They were then better equipped to select the appropriate pasta for the night's dinner.
We took a break from Eataly to go outside and eat some pasta near a park. Frankie and Sam accompanied Robsie back to Eataly to acquire the evening's victuals while I sat on a park bench to people watch and be Luca's nap/kip furniture.
On the way to our next excursion destination we came across this sign that aptly described this little girl.
The subway was always fun to 1) try to get a chair and 2) to check out the myriad of passengers.
We made our way to the Highline, an elevated railroad that has been converted to a park several stories above street level. Here are the girls playing in a water feature a la bare feet.
And this picture gives a more accurate impression of the number of people on the Highline that the kids had to negotiate during their wet the path game!
This busy street goes under the Highline park.
On our way back to St Marks Place we encountered the Marilyn Monroe heat vents that Luca graciously exhibited the manner to place one's dress over!
We also encountered more over the top Halloween displays.
During the morning near our accommodation we met the proprietor of a sort of New York style quasi-posh Mexican restaurant. Food was great but the kids were tuckered and fell asleep on or around us immediately after eating their food as me and Robsie ate our meals.
5 October: Today was Central Park excursion day. Early start hopped on the subway and made our way to the north end of the park. We were immediately in awe by the large number of joggers running! OK, so there are about 2 million residents on this rather smallish island borough of Manhattan and jogging areas are at premium, but this defied our expectations. We reasoned that the upcoming New York marathon undoubtedly was the cause of the assumed spike in runners everywhere, it was akin to a very busy ant colony...
The northwestern sector of the park is as close as you get to wilderness in Manhattan, a nice picturesque setting.
The autumn colours were on display, which also was beautiful...
And fun!
We carefully walked along the perimeter of the reservoir in the middle of the park to avoid being trampled by the myriad of joggers circling around this body of water! The direction was mandatory counter-clockwise. Over the several kilometres that we followed the track, we were in awe of three old men that clearly had authority issues that walked 'clockwise' against this great wave of humanity, akin to 'Moses parting the Red Sea'!
About halfway through Central Park we exited on the eastern side, grabbed street stand food for a snack and sat on the steps of the Museum of Modern Art to hear this fantastic blues band!
Are they good enough to earn this dollar? Unanimous yes!
There were more statues than you could poke a stick at... Here are the girls clambering on the one of Alice in Wonderland!
We then happened onto the 'Paws in Manhattan' jubilee celebration! Man do Manhattan-ites love their dogs. We saw dogs in purses on the subway, dogs in restaurants, strange pack-like assortments of dogs on the street with all leashes joining to one person's hand. At this event there were all sorts of dog activities. Here are the kids enjoying their helados watching dogs of every sort and persuasion being led through a dog obstacle course (the line was about 100 dogs long!).
And then we watched musical dog chairs... The aim was that you could not sit in a chair until your dog sat (and stayed sat), hilarious!
Everyone acquired a PAWS Frisbee, so we found a suitable hill for the kids to launch their Frisbees.
And what is a visit to Central Park without the obligatory ride on the horse carousel!
The girls took a picture next to the person impersonating the Statue of Liberty!
While Sam and I honed in our PAWS Frisbee throwing skills.
And then Frankie got into the action!
At the southwestern corner of Central Park there is a great assortment of large rocks, perfect for clambering, which was eagerly taken up by the kids!
What a great (and big) city park, it took up our entire day and we only experienced a fraction of it!
Until they managed to get situated in front of a window, when they became more animated (I have no idea what they are looking at from the window!).
We disembarked at Times Square and were immediately greeted by this strange yellow character and Elmo!
And then made our way to the optimal vantage point of Time Square!
Which is arguably the most capitalist piece of real estate on the globe, complete with an appropriate census of its positives and negatives!
Here's Luca in the theatre holding up the programme for the Lion King which has been running continuously since 1997 I believe. Luca is not the quietest kid on the block when it comes to viewing anything in an audience setting. The elderly man next to her was most gracious afterward regarding her running commentary over the course of the show, 'it [Luca's ongoing commentary] made the show great' was his quote. Robsie and I should have dragged him to the planetarium at the Natural Museum of History the following day to sit next to Luca (her commentary was not as appreciated at that particular venue)...
No photos were allowed during the show, but it was great, enjoyed by all. A few pics of the kids with Scar's costume and the advertisement poster.
Another snap of the kids with Mario and a few others after the show in Times Square.
On the way back to our accommodation, Frankie spotted one of the Madagascar penguins in a car parked on the side of the road... Only in New York...
Frankie and Sam on the climbing wall...
Robsie on the slide...
It was difficult to extract the kids from this park, but eventually we managed to get to the Natural Museum of History, a great outing for this overcast, moist-ish day. Here's a shot of the marine exhibition with the life-size blue whale suspended over the exhibit floor.
A museum impression of the epic battles that undoubtedly take place in the ocean depths between giant squids and sperm whales.
Ostriches...
Bull moose battles...
Dinosaur skeletons...
We also checked out the planetarium in which Luca managed to irritate most people during our intergalactic journey from the Big Bang to the current multi-verse. She was puzzled as to who was driving us along this journey and made sure everyone in the planetarium also was aware of this. We then headed over to the New York University (NYU) district for some tucker, and found a great hamburger joint. Undoubtedly the best hamburgers to date!
And this rather macabre Halloween display next to our accommodation provided a final street side discussion of how things in NYC are a bit different from other parts of the globe.
Well what can you say about NYC, no other place like it in the world. We had a great time. The people were really friendly and helpful wherever we went, it was noisy, busy, frantic and just plain good fun. We did only a handful of things we had on the list, but that's fine as that leaves a plethora of activities to follow up on in future.
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