to yak to, I've decided to write about it as well!We arrived at Newark at 3.45pm and were through immigration and baggae within about 15 minutes (all were surprisingly nice too.) We met up with my sister, Jenny, at Newark, she had flown from Birmingham. I had pre-booked a car from Carmel Limo, after a free phone call it was there within minutes, and was very swish! The journey from the airport was slow going, but the driver chatted all the way and pointed out all the sights. The weather was colder than home when we arrived, but got steadily nicer throughout the stay, we had taken scarves, gloves, thermals, the lot, and wore a bit less each day, we never felt cold.
We stayed at Hotel 41, it was just as we imagined and was in an excellent location, just off Time Square. Jenny stayed at the Milford Plaza, that too was nice, not at all like the bad reviews it seems to get.
The first night we had decided to walk to the ESB, to see New York by dark, it was spectacular. Buying the tickets on-line really did save time and hassle. We then walked to Grand Central Station, St Patrick's Catherdral, then the Rockerfeller Centre, just taking in the atmoshere. We intended watching the skating, but the rink was being 'hoovered', then to have a cocktail in the Rainbow Room, in our excitement we had forgot not to wear jeans so had to miss that too! We then wandered back to Time Square for some food. We spotted Carmine's and managed to get a table straight away. The food was huge -two portions would have fed 6 people with ease, but it was really good. We thought we had tired feet - we were wrong!
We were up early the next morning and had a walk down to Macy's, but it didn't open until 10am, so we sat on a bench had a cig and watched the work crowds - we really felt we were in New York!
I'd booked a Big Apple Greeter, Chuck, and we were all meeting at Hotel 41 at 11am. I had been swapping e-mails with Chuck the week before hand so it was dead exciting meeting him. We had decided to see some of Soho, Greenwich Village, China Town and Little Italy, as they seemed the most difficult areas to cover alone. Chuck started by having a chat about what sort of things we wanted to do, any special intrests we had. The BAG's provide a 2 trip metrocard for each visitor, so the first thing we did was have a 'How to use the Subway' lesson - that was worth it's weight in gold throughout the holiday. It was so easy once you had a bit of confidence and understood the uptown/downtown bit, we cut out the Manhattan section of the subway map to make things easier to handle too. Chuck gave us a printed map of Manhattan off the internet, we abandoned our heavyguide books for this for the rest of our stay, it was loads easier than faffing around looking in books.
We got out at Union Square and walked the whole four areas! It was really good, we would have never seen a quarter of it if we'd tried to do it alone. We got on with Chuck like a house on fire and all talked non-stop! We went to Dean and Delucas - a must for any foodie. He took us to lunch at a little Chinese 'cafe', we would have never gone in there in a million years but it was fantastic, and only $20 for a huge meal for the four of us. Chuck left us at 4pm and we did our first solo subway trip! I would reccommend booking a greeter, we had the most brilliant day and wouldn't have been half as confident exploring on our own if we hadn't. On the way home we got New York cheesecake.
That night we went to see The producers - we were disappointed to say the least. As we were still full from the cheesecake we went back to the hotels to rest our feet without tea!
On friday I had booked Tavern on the Green for lunch, so we made our way down 5th Ave shopping, F.A.O Schwartz is wonderful, we managed to pop into Bloomingdales, before walking through Central Park to get to the resturant. Tavern on the Green is so pretty and the food was delicious. In the evening we went to Twelve Angry Men, it was really good, and we had the buzz that you should have when you come out of the theatre. Jenny had seen Mama mia 9which was also good, so we met up outside her theatre and went to Ellen's Starlight Diner for supper , great fun.
Saturday we took the subway down to Ground Zero, went to St Paul's church (very moving and dignified.) We were outside Century 21 for opening at 10.30am (big crowd waiting, you need to go early, when we went back at 4pm it was horrrendous) We had about 1 1/2 hours serious shopping (total $900 saved!!!!!) We walked to the Statern island ferry, did a on/off/on/off, really good, especially as it's free. Go on the right hand side right to the front for the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We then walked round to Seaport and then walked the Brooklyn Bridge. We got a cab to Katz's Deli - what a place! It's absolutely amazing, the food, the atmosphere and the people! Our feet were killing us by this time so we forced ourselves into a cab and had a wild ride back to Century 21! Staggered back to the hotels via the subway, collapsed exhausted for about 2 hours (longest time in room without sleeping) Then forced ourselves out to hit some Irish bars to revive ourselves!
Sunday we had a relaxing day shopping and seeing everthing on the first night in daylight (getting two sets of ESB tickets is well worth it.) We popped into the Carnigie Deli for lunch - big sandwiches but not a patch, in anyway, on Katz's! At night we went for a few drinks, then Joe Allen's for wonderful steaks.
Monday we did more last minute shopping, nipped into Bloomingdales, then had frozen hot chocolates and banana splitz at Serendipity - wonderful!!!!! We had booked a minibus on tne return to the airport (luggage had grown!!!!!!) Everything went really well until my partner checked-in, he has the same name as someone who is not allowed to fly, but luckily a different date of birth. He had his boarding cards and cases marked with SSSS and was subject to extra security checks (which was scarey) and all our baggage was searched. Does anybody know whether this will happen every time we go to the US now?
We had an absolutely wonderful holiday, it was amazing seeing all the famous sights in real life and New York is just how it is on telly! The people are so friendly (except in the ESB), the food is amazing and we felt safe all of the time, there are hundreds of police everywhere.
The advice we would give to any first timers like us would be get the most comfortable footwear you can find, get a Big Apple Greeter, plan a flexible itinery, book as much as possible before you go, experience all the different sorts of New York eating (take resturant advice from Tripadvisor, they are spot on, I made a list before we went and we took it with us everywhere and it was really worth it), walk as much as you can you can see so much more. To everyone going to New York you can't help but have a wonderful time, enjoy it!
. We were contacted by the greeter program about a month before we were booked for, they gave me Chucks phone number and said to contact him as soon as we got to the hotel. Chuck actually e-mailed me about 2 weeks before we went, he wanted to know where wanted to go and any specifics, I also asked if my sister could join us. 
