27.7.2012 – 27.7.2012  31 °C

It was our last day today for using our Big Red Bus ticket so we had to complete the downtown loop. M&D had done part of the loop yesterday when they went down to Battery Park to catch the Brooklyn tour so we planned to only complete the first part of the trip.

We caught the bus from a bus stop not three blocks from our apt. Similar to our other day trip on the bus, today the temp was sweltering so it was not very pleasant sitting up the top of the bus in the blazing sun looking at more and more buildings! The trip from our stop took us up to Times Square and then over to see the Empire State Building. I realised today that I’ve always got the Empire State Building mixed up with the Chrysler Building… I have always had the image of the Chrysler building in my head whenever I’ve thought of the Empire State… I am actually a little disappointed now that I know what the Empire State looks like…. The Chrysler Building is so much more beautiful to look at!!! I had heard an urban myth though that the top of the Empire State was built in this way so that zeppelins could dock at the building…. I guess I’ll need to Google to see if this myth is true or another joke!!

Bus continued thru Mid town down to Soho, Chelsea and eventually to China Town. We got off in China town with a plan to find some sort of tasty Chinese for lunch. We found lunch for 7 dollars each! The 7 dollars included a main and a soup! Amazing!! The main wasn’t quite as good as the Thai we had the night previous but it was pretty all right! I think we’ve now found the cheapest non-Maccas full meal that money can buy!!!

We battled the street sellers in China Town to get ourselves back to the subway before we headed back up the city to the Meat Packing District. The MP District was once a down and out part of the city but like most parts of Manhattan is now a beautiful green district. Basically what the council did was convert an old elevated rail line into a long thin urban park! You get a great view from the Highline (the name of the Park) over the city. I’m sure the people who used to have apartments on this high line must have been depressed looking out on old noisy trains.. today they get to look out over native grasses and plants (I bet the value of their property sky rocketed once the park was introduced)! The Highline is pretty amazing.. I mean, building a garden on old railway tracks? Obviously, the plants are all low shrubby/ grassy styles as there just isn’t the soil to support large trees. I think the fact that it is all low lying plants actually makes the park, because it gives you the chance to view more of the city! All in all, a park on an old elevated railway line really works!!

By the time we had walked half of the Highline I had built up a mega head ache so I called it a day and we headed back to our apt. Dinner was a basic salad and vege dinner in front of the TV watching the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics… Speaking of which, American networks don’t do the Olympics well…. For starters, we got the Opening Ceremony delayed so it would be shown in prime time. Secondly, we got to watch 5 mins of ceremony and then 4 mins of ads… That is no exaggeration, I started to time the length of the ceremony vs the ads… The whole ceremony ran for 4hrs!!!! And a good percentage of that was advertisements… I WAS SO GRUMPY… I didn’t get to see the end because I fell asleep after 11pm……………….. L Day Four over in NYC and ended on a grumpy (but semi excited because the Olympics has started) note..

Song of the Day– U2, City of Blinding Lights