Day Three in The Big Apple.

We got up on day three with Tom suffering from the start of a cold. That always knocks him for six, he is still suffering now a week later and has kindly shared it with all of us. 

He wrapped up warm and made good use of the 'skiing' underwear I had bought along (for Skiing underwear, read Long Johns!!!)

We looked at the diner in the hotel for breakfast but were shocked at the prices, they wanted 18 dollars for a simple cheese omelet,

 So we decided to go out and see what we could find. We came across a diner in a side street which had a fair few locals in so we gave that a try. The trouble with the Americans is the huge portion sizes, far too much for one person, 

The prices at 'Salt and Pepper' were much better you could have a full breakfast for 7.99 dollars including toast and drink! Bargain.

After breakfast we headed off to find Bryant Park, Carl had been before and said that there was usually something going on there, we were early and arrived before it was too crowded. There was a big skating rink in the middle and it was surrounded by a Christmas market.

I have just noticed we are getting a bit Ant and Dec here, I am always on the right side of Tom!!!

Needless to say we didn't go skating, although if we had got our own skates it would have been free!!

One of the stalls was selling Hot Chocolate and when I say Hot Chocolate it was so thick it was like a melted bar of chocolate. Carl had discovered the make when he had visited New Zealand and loved it so of course we had to give it ago. 

It was so sickly that I could only manage a taste, Beth managed half a cup and Carl finished the rest!! I am not sure if there are any outlets in this country but watch out for it.

Everywhere was beautifully decorated for Christmas with the businesses making huge efforts to out do each other. So every street corner was festooned with decorations.

These giant fairy lights were outside a building on the Avenue of the Americas. We were on our way to central park to take a ride on a horse and carriage. 

This is Charlie, he took us all on a sedate walk around the park, our driver told us about the various landmarks including the spot John Lennon was murdered and all the huge skyscraper pent houses that cost millions and millions of dollars owned by the likes of Madonna, Lady Gaga and Sting.

After Central Park we headed back to Times Square and booked lunch at Bubba Gumps Restaurant. We had tried to get a table the day before but it was a 90 minute wait, on this day it was a mere 15 minute wait, so we took a look around the shop and they called us up to our table.  It was a great fun place to eat, totally dedicated to Forrest Gump. Our waiter gave us a quiz to do and we won some sweets!

Although the majority of the food was shrimp based there was also a selection of chicken and I had the most wonderful southern fried chicken breast with mashed potatoes and gravy. There was a deal on drinks and if you bought a cocktail you got the glass free, so I had two cocktails in these wonderful glasses and bought two home, one for me and one for my friend Madeline!! (we put them to good use on New Years eve!) It was good to have a bit of a sit down for a late lunch because it was a bit if an action packed break, we walked miles and miles!

Late afternoon early evening we headed up to the Rockefeller Plaza to see the world famous Christmas tree and surrounding decorations. 

The tree is HUGE I later found out that there were forty thousand LED lights on it, because of the size of the Rockefeller building behind you don't get a true idea of the massive size.

There was a light show on the outside of Saks in Fifth Avenue which was brilliant as well. I took a few photos but it doesn't really do it justice.

All the lights were accompanied by music!

On the way back to our hotel we walked by Radio City, all lit up.

We were exhausted, we had crammed a load into the day and we really needed a cup of something and to head back to the hotel. 

On the way back we stopped off for a sit down outside Bryant park (there were loads of tables and chairs) I put my phone on the table and accidentally took this photo of the skyline !

When we finally got back to the hotel I checked my phone app and was surprised to see that we had walked 11.37 KM !! Although my flights of stairs was down on the previous day as we walked the final 6 floors up the Empire State Building!