Day 10: Welcome to New York!

04/18/2022

The big surprise of the day is breakfast at our 3-star LIC Hotel in Queens:

they have ''real'' cutlery with porcelain dishes, which is immediately washed by the staff in the dishwasher after use. And the same goes for the drinks: they have glasses and cups!!! No plastic cups like we had in the last hotels. Amazing!!! We are totally thrilled!!!

This hotel definitely deserves an extra star!

Otherwise, breakfast is similar to the previous hotels. To the son's chagrin, there is no waffle machine here - he settles for the pancake alternative. Otherwise, there is various toast bread, jam and honey, porridge, muesli and cornflakes, oatmeal and yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon and meatballs, pancakes and French toast. We are satisfied ☺️

After a short stop on the hotel's rooftop terrace, which offers a beautiful view, we drive to Manhattan by car to return our van at AVIS. I chose a downtown station so that we can continue walking from there, because we have tickets for the Empire State Building at 12 o'clock. Thanks to loads of construction sites and traffic obstacles (driving by car through Manhattan is really a nightmare), we reach the station and can return the car without any problems.

We then walk about 10 minutes to Madison Square Park and Flatiron Building (unfortunately it is under construction), then we continue to Times Square by metro. The daughter is a bit disappointed, as we neither encounter the Naked Cowboy nor the numerous street performers who are supposed to be here. We promise her that there will be more going on in the evening.

After observing everything from the stairs at Father Duffy Square for a while, we continue walking towards the Empire State Building. It's only 11 o'clock, but maybe we can go up early?

When we arrive at the Empire, there is a very short queue. We ask if we can go in with our 12 o'clock tickets now - the man at the ticket control is very nice and lets us go. It's also not a problem inside that we're early. Wow, I would have expected more crowds here, but I'm fine with it.

At 11:30, we reach the museum after going through security again. It's really well done, with many films, cameras showing video clips that match the background image, and lots of information about the construction of the Empire. Of course, visiting King Kong's hand is a must.

When we reach the top platform, we can't really enjoy the view because it's so windy that either our hair is in our faces or we have to be afraid of seeing our phones "fly away" while taking pictures. Now I regret for the first time that I left my DSLR camera at home...

With icy fingers and cramped hands, we take some good photos and amuse ourselves about how some women's hair stands straight up in the wind. So funny 😜

TIP: Use the toilets in every attraction, museum, etc.! Unlike Washington DC, public toilets are a real rarity! And this will become problematic during our trip!!!

After almost 2 hours, we leave the Empire State Building and look for something to eat for lunch. Since we are hungry, we take the first thing we find. In this case, a pizza place called "Littly Italy Pizza" that serves wagon wheel-sized pizzas. Certainly not "healthy food", but the small packaged salad should cost $12 - so I switch to a piece of pizza at half the price. 🙈🤷🏻‍♀️

Then we go to Dunkin' Donuts to have a coffee and eat a donut before continuing the sightseeing program.

We pass several Covid-19 testing tents on our way to Grand Central Terminal. It's really a cool train station. Frankfurt should take a hint from this.

We continue through the streets of Manhattan to the Rockefeller Center. The ice rink in front of the center is no longer there in April, but you can show off your skills on the roller rink. And many people do. We watch in fascination for a while (I'm hopeless on roller skates) and then walk along Fifth Avenue towards St. Patrick's Cathedral, passing many luxury shops. I happily give up such "luxury" based on what they present in their shop windows - who wears that!?

Well, at the next store, the line is twice as long as the one at the outlet in front of the Nike store. Madness... is there something free here??? When we get closer, we catch a brief glimpse of the store for which these crowds are waiting: LEGO Store!

What???? This is crazy....

In my internet New York group, I read that public toilets are quite scarce (true!) and along Fifth Avenue, you should use the Trump Tower for a restroom break. That sounds great! I need to go to the bathroom, the Trump Tower is just a few meters away, so we go in to pee in the tower of the former president 😆🤣😇

At the door, they already advertise that the Trump Tower is publicly accessible to all visitors. Well then, come on in.

Through the huge entrance hall in red-orange colored marble, past "Trump" clothing boutiques (who buys that stuff???) we take the escalator down to the "Trump Grill", another "Trump Store", and the "Trump Fan & Souvenir Shop" where the toilets are located. Although the toilets are not, as expected, "pink" (something I read somewhere), the toilet partitions are actually piggy pink, everything here is in a visually striking red-orange marble. Oh dear... but perfect for a bathroom break!

The Trump Tower is empty, only one table is occupied in the Trump Grill, we don't see anyone in the Trump Bar, or in the shops either. However, there is a busy traffic of people pass by the toilets. 😆 Seems to have spread 🤣

We pass the Apple Store and walk to the metro station at the corner of Central Park / Fifth Avenue and go back to Queens to our hotel. Here we want to relax before going back to the Empire State Building for the second time tonight.

We bought the New York City Pass and booked the Empire State Building through it. You can then visit the Empire a second time without a reservation after sunset on the same day you visited during the day with a fixed time slot. That's what we're planning to do tonight. Unfortunately, the weather forecast seems to foil our plans, as rain is expected from 7 PM onwards.

Well, then we'll just take our umbrellas with us and hope for the best.

At around 7 PM, we reach the Empire State Building for the second time. We have umbrellas with us, but luckily it is not raining yet, so we would like to go up as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the current security guard is anything but nice and insists that "sunset" means 8 PM, so we are not allowed to go up before that. He also doesn't accept the argument that hardly anyone is here and that going up before sunset would reduce the visitor flow in the dark. He sends us away quite rudely. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr..... Then they should write "8 PM" in their offers instead of "sunset".

Feeling annoyed, we search for something to eat for dinner. We choose Taco Bell, where you can customize your dishes on the monitor - even vegetarian ones - a real alternative to the fries that I usually only get at burger joints. We have time and have a relaxed dinner, use the refill machines 3 times, and surf the internet.

Yes, it only happened to me once that I bought TWO drinks so that at least 2 of us have something to drink. Since they give you an empty cup with the note that you can get "free refill" at the corresponding machine, I will only order 1 drink from now on. The husband doesn't drink "sugary water" anyway, so I make an exception for the kids and myself. Unfortunately, sparkling water is not so common here...

At 8:15 PM, we try again for the Empire State Building and this time we get in easily - it's already dark outside.

We walk through the museum again and want to take a better photo with King Kong (the one from earlier is unfortunately blurry), but the line to take a photo is too long for us. So be it.

On the top platform, a strong wind blows that I can hardly open the door to go outside. Now we are even more afraid for our phones. I don't even take out my Insta 360, afraid that the pole might fly away. We walk around the platform several times and enjoy the view. Wow!!! At night, it's a completely different view than during the day!🤩🤩

At some point, our fingers and ears are freezing, so we go back down. But it was definitely worth it! The weather gods were also kind to us: as soon as we leave the Empire, the sky opens its floodgates! Quickly take out the umbrellas and go to the subway. It's pouring rain, we manage to make it from our Queens subway station Court Square to the LIC Hotel somewhat dry. Wow, what a weather!

Hopefully, it will stop tomorrow because we actually want to go to the Statue of Liberty. It would be pretty annoying in the rain...

While the kids go back to the hotel, we turn off just before at the liquor store and buy a bottle of Prosecco. Surprise

In the hotel, especially the kids are so tired that we spontaneously decide at 11 o'clock to toast our daughter on her birthday tomorrow.

She already has her birthday in Germany, so what! Armed with the bottle of sparkling wine, we surprise the kids in their pajamas and toast to a very special birthday in New York (of course, the son only gets water to toast 🤭):

"Happy 18th Birthday! 🥳🥳🥳