nequine

As a big Les Mis fan, how different was the production? I'd have thought it would have been the same world wide???

pacenotes

As part of our wedding instead of asking for a gift list we asked for activity’s to do while on Honeymoon. One of the first things to be got for us was a Helicopter tour of NYC. We had booked online and all we could get was 2pm on a Thursday for that week! So I recommend you book ahead! But not too far in case of bad weather.

We walked down past the flat iron building.

IMG_4902 by A Con, on Flickr

Then we used our NYC pass to get us a big bus tour ticket and hopped on one of the buses that headed to lower Manhattan. We got down there in no time.

IMG_4923 by A Con, on Flickr

I took this photo and then every photographers nightmare happened. A full memory card! I had filled a 32gb card. I started to delete everything from the start of the CF card as I had been backing up as I went along. But it uses up huge amounts of battery Was I going to have enough for the highlight of our trip!

IMG_4928 by A Con, on Flickr

I’m guessing not many have done a tour of NYC by helicopter so I will tell you the basics. You arrive outside they make you fill out a form including your weight in pounds. Then they bring you inside to the desk to make sure you have paid and then you are brought to seats and once they know they have a helicopter for you, you then wait in a line with the people who you are going along with. You watch a safety video and get given a life jacket to wear on a belt.

Then a guy works out on a computer who should go in which helicopter and you get moved around a lot. He also works out where you will sit in the helicopter due to weight. The lighter you are the more likely you will sit up front with more rugby like players in the back.

IMG_4935 by A Con, on Flickr

View from the waiting area.

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Our ride for today. They walk you out and will take a photo that they try to flog to you but I didn’t even have to ask and they took a photo for us with my camera.

IMG_4941 by A Con, on Flickr

They then get you into the aircraft and the pilot will introduce themselves. You can just listen but you also get to listen to radio chatter too.

Our pilot for today.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

We took off and went low past Governors Island. Then around Liberty.
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A bit higher now over Governors Island.
 
IMG_4993 by A Con, on Flickr

Our Pilot then asked air traffic control to enter NYC over the river and he was allowed to enter.

IMG_5005 by A Con, on Flickr

IMG_5020 by A Con, on Flickr

Got to see another Concorde

IMG_5033 by A Con, on Flickr

Midtown

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Central park.
 
IMG_5053 by A Con, on Flickr

Then we turned back.

IMG_5062 by A Con, on Flickr

A great day for it.

IMG_5076 by A Con, on Flickr

That building is as tall as the new WTC but the WTC has the mast on top to make it taller.

IMG_5078 by A Con, on Flickr

IMG_5106 by A Con, on Flickr

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It doesn’t really come up but the pilot informed us that most of the new WTC is empty. You can see right through it with about the first 30 floors taken and the roof space used.

IMG_5139 by A Con, on Flickr

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As seen on the best movie ever the dark knight.

IMG_5176 by A Con, on Flickr

Then the pilot asked to land which he had a bit of fun as he had a last second change.

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Then we came in sideways due to the wind.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Then it was all over you sit waiting for a heliport employee to come out and get you. Then you jump out and walk back into the terminal.
 
IMG_5208 by A Con, on Flickr

IMG_5217 by A Con, on Flickr

Just wow what a great trip. If you visit NYC you have to do this. If it is all you can do skip everything else and just do this!

With smiles on our faces we walked up to pier 7 and got the ferry across to Brooklyn. We wanted to eat at the river café but they don’t do lunch and if we wanted dinner and do it justice you would have had to spend $500 so we skipped it instead doing a 3 course dinner in 3 different places.

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We walked around for a bit getting a drink by the pier.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

This cheeky one was dropping his nut case all over us.

IMG_5237 by A Con, on Flickr

Once hydrated we got a cab back over the bridge to our first place for dinner. Katz diner.

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Another place from When Harry met Sally. I didn’t know my wife was such a fan!

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You order from the counter and then sit down.

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We shared

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We then finished up and got the subway back uptown. Have to say it was clean and fast. We travelled in rush hour and it we had space but I think we were going the wrong way for the real crush.

For the next course we went to the Oyster bar in Grand central.

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I recommend the whispering walls just outside too. It was on a program in the UK recently and it really works!

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This poor lad was traumatised!

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Bubbles were as cheap as the house white!

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Couldn’t say no. But the waiter did offer some New Zealand oysters. Instead I had some from Rhode Island and towards Boston.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

I had the shrimp for mains.

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My wife had warmed oysters.

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We then went up to have a look around and once again I took rubbish photos.

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We left to walk over to the Rockefeller centre to see the city at night.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Loved the tree plates.

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Well when we got around the front there was a queue to get in. Little did we know that we got in the queue that was the queue if you had tickets! You have to go downstairs to get the tickets first and then join the queue! We went down stairs to be told they had sold out for the night. So we got some for 10am the next day as well as an art tour too. I then went to see if we could just go up to the bar on the 65th floor but it was closed for a private event.

We found a chocolate bar near our hotel so we got a cab to it. For our final course.

Chocolate martinis with paired chocolate.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Not my kind of thing but it was all right and a good way to end the day. We crashed out back at the hotel.

pacenotes

It was very 90s. They had a drum solo in one song and an electric guitar solo in another.

They changed some of the songs too and the order of them. Thankfully I only paid $60 a ticket otherwise I would of been pissed!. At the end we thought it will come off for a while and come back with the UK production (Like the film) and be an even bigger hit!

offerendum

Great pictures from the heli^. Interesting fact with the empty WTC. I once saw a report about Oyster Bar on Television. Judging from your pictures I don´t think I will visit soon.

peterk814

Let me guess booked this trip on Miles and points?

pacenotes

We booked the BA flights via a 241 with points. Paid for the AA flight via a £50 off offer from amex travel and found the hotels via good deals online. I work shifts and night shifts so spent a few nights finding the best deals.

peterk814

Figures. I find it mildly amusing that you thought au bon pain was good and thought korean bbq was gimmicky.

pacenotes

A bagel is a bagel and cooking your own food is gimmicky.

nequine

Fantastic photos from the helicopter!

Pjack94

Great TR Pacenotes, reminds me of a similar trip I took last year.

CatchThePigeon

Really enjoying your photos and writing style. And well played on the challenge regarding your preference for bagels over cook your own Korean! Very diplomatic of you.

What was the one thing you did in New York that you wished you hadn't bothered with and what's the one thing looking back that you wish you had done?

757

Wow, what a great report so far from all your travels. It looks like you had an incredible trip throughout the Northeast and did tons of things! Having grown up outside of NYC, and spending many summers up in New Hampshire, it was great to recognize places you visited during your trip.

Thank you for sharing!

nequine

I'd be glad I was only paying $60 too from what you said about it!

pacenotes

After failing to get up the Rockefeller centre last night we booked ourselves an art tour of the Rockefeller buildings and a pass to up to the top of the rock. We arrived early and were the first tour of the day. Little did I know there is 14 buildings in the Rockefeller area all owned by the Rockefellers. They basically built NYC. They also bought and build the UN building and the world trade centres. The reason for the tour is because Mr Rockefeller’s wife had a small budget to spend on art for the buildings. She was given half a million dollars in the 1920s but ended up spending 5 million. All during the great depression.

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This art work is to show what radio is about.

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Anyone notice something about this one? Does it symbolize anything.

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Here was the Egypt building

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The old AP building

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Once again I think it looks like what I was on about above.
This guy spent ages pacing around shouting into his headset.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

If you ever get to see this go behind it and look up. I thought it looked like someone on a cross….

The British building

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Not real gold but in the great depression I’m sure it got some tongues wagging.

This was the last few days of this piece of art called Van Goff’s ear.
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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

This was Mr Rockefeller’s entrance as he hated all the boobs on the other entrances.

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That was the end of the tour and the very nice tour guide brought us up to the front of the queue to get up to the top of the rock. There were about 40 in the queue so about 3 elevators worth of people so we were up in about 10 minutes.

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That pencil building

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

The reason to go up the top of the rock over the ESB is that you get to see the ESB

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Once down we had to race back to the hotel as we had late checkout. We were moving hotel down to lower Manhattan.

We got an uber all the way down to the Conrad New York. I had asked in advanced about getting a view of the Irish Hunger memorial. Citing about being Irish but the real reason was you get a view of the river.

We checked in early at 13:30 but the room was ready. We were up on the 14th floor which is the top floor and got a great view of the river over to New Jersey.

The Irish Hunger memorial.

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The river view

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All rooms at the Conrad are suites.

You get a room when you go in with a TV and a couch.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Then a kitchen area with a coffee maker and all types of wine glasses.

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All lights were controlled by a fancy switch.

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Then you walk into the bedroom with loads of space.

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It has a separate toilet and shower.

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Very nice room, I think we got the two biggest standard rooms in NYC! I’ve stayed in some very modern hotels in London and they have no life, I personally call them sex hotels serving moet champagne for the young lads to show off to their call girls. This hotel had a modern taste but it oozed class.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

With that I called up some ice for our last bottle of champagne and went out to explore Lower Manhattan.

If you read most blurb about NYC now they talk about shake shack. Turns out there were one in the lower floor of the hotel. We got hot dogs and a shake.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

You know when they big something up and it’s not as good as you heard. This was one of them times. But maybe what should I of been expecting it’s a chicken hot dog.

Everywhere you walk you get great views of this.

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We walked over to the supreme court. Expecting Law & Order to be filming but it was just boring old court day today. We went in but after talking to the security guards not much was happening today.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

We even pretended to push off the media on exiting shouting no comment but no one was listening. We hung out at the mayor’s office park for a bit and then checked out century 21. I went big and bought some socks then headed in rush hour back to the hotel. I will never call London crowded again!

That night we had booked a table at a place called the chefs club. It’s all about experimenting and was uber hip.

We literally got a table looking into the Kitchen.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

The poor chef in front of us was on toast duty. His job was to toast the bread and then put hummus on it. With even that easy job he burnt a few piece of bread!

For starter I had a prawn toast.

Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

My wife had the calamari with said Hummus on toast.

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Untitled by A Con, on Flickr

For main I had a Lobster cannelloni.

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My wife had the chicken

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Both of us had this as a pud

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Can’t remember anything about it, I was stuffed so couldn’t finish it.

We headed back to the hotel and found the Irish hunger memorial locked so couldn’t have a look around.

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Tomorrow we head up the One World trade centre and catch our flight home.

offerendum

Interesting opinion about London hotels. Could you give excamples?
Really enjoyed your many details about Rock^