Day Four and Man Down!!

We woke on the morning of day four with Tom being poorly, he had started with a cold the day before and during the night was freezing cold and had a horrible cough. He simply was not well enough to brave the freezing air. He decided to stay put, so we bought him a big mug of coffee and some food and left him in bed to try and sleep it off. 

We decided to head for a few places that we fancied visiting, Grand Central Station, Little Italy and China Town for starters. 

We were lucky because we were near a variety of subway stations. We decided to walk to Grand Central Station and managed another Hot Chocolate on the way. Once we arrived it was just like all the pictures I had ever seen!! Thinking about it, we were just visiting the equivalent of Kings Cross in London!! I know what I think when I am battling to get home via Kings Cross and hordes of tourists are having their photos taken at Platform 9 3/4!!

When we came out of the station we spotted a sports shop that was closing down so we called in, Beth and I each got a pair of Sketchers trainers for 19 dollars a pair, Beth also picked up a New York Jets top for ten dollars. Carl also picked  up some bargains. The queue to pay stretched from the back to the front of the shop, but it was worth it, particularly as when I checked later I realised they hadn't charged me the right price for the top, I paid 40 dollars for all three items!

We then got on the subway to Canal Street and China Town. 

We had a good look around the stores and bought some bargain perfume and aftershave!! Beth got a new backpack , then at lunchtime we decided to stop at the best American institution - Dunkin Donuts!!

The donuts were lovely but there was also free wifi!!!

By the time we had had a good look around we realised that we were very close to the Brooklyn Bridge, so we took a walk up there via the City Hall. 

We were surprised to see lots of black squirrels buzzing around the trees and the grounds of City Hall.

There were a few grey ones but I don't remember seeing black ones before. 

In the end as we approached the bridge we realised that it was packed with tourists and I had got to the point where I couldn't do any-more, so we settled for a picture of me in front of the bridge!!

We headed back to check up on Tom, when we got back to the hotel he wasn't a huge amount better but he was hungry so we headed out for some dinner. Our hotel was opposite Madison Square Gardens and there was always something going on there. On this particular afternoon there was a huge passing out ceremony for thousands of New York Police Department officers, the event was covered by local news teams  

There was some ongoing controversy involving NYPD and the Mayor, Bill de Blasio. Two Police officers had been murdered in the previous week and when talking about that the Mayor had said that young black and Asian youths had every right to be distrustful of NYPD. Quite clearly this caused a huge fall out for the Officers who turned their backs on the Mayor at various functions including the funeral of one of the slain officers. 

That night we checked out the online reviews and decided to dine a a place called Brother Jimmy's BBQ Restaurant, next door to Madison Square Garden. It was a great restaurant with lovely food. I had a wrap described as mild, but It was not my kind of mild!! My mouth was still recovering the next day.

They did serve some very lovely 'Hard' Cider!!

It looks like daylight outside, but it wasn't, it was a huge billboard which illuminated the whole of the restaurant!

We got back to the hotel and started to pack a few of our bits and pieces in preparation for checking out the next day, time was flying by.