Wrapping up warm we headed down 5th Avenue again this time passing the Apple store, FAO Schwartz (better know to Heidi as Duncan’s Toy Chest in Home Alone) and the Plaza Hotel (very posh!) and ended up in Central Park.
There lots of these characters around wanting photos for tips. Stay away, they are dodgy!
Trump Towers, part of the Donald Trump empire.
Trump Towers entrance
The entrance to the Plaza hotel. A night here will cost you at least 6 or 7 hundred pounds.
FAO Schwartz toy shop.
Apple in the Big Apple
This beautiful park in the middle of Manhattan Island is two and a half miles long and it looks beautiful in Winter with the lakes partly frozen and frost on the ground.
We walked to the ice skating rink, which is actually a swimming pool in the Summer. The ice skating looked very scenic but it was quite expensive and as it was so cold, neither of us fancied doing it.
Central Park!
That isn’t Heidi and I in the picture…I hijacked a modelling shoot.
Wollman SKating Rink in Central Park.
There are lots of horse drawn carriages to take you around Central Park.
NY at night and at Christmas (with a yellow taxi)(and the Empire State building)(and McDonalds)..
Having found out that there was a New York Knicks basketball game on in the evening we went to Madison Square Garden to see if they had any tickets left. They were sold out. Doing a little internet research we found a site called stubhub which sold unused tickets. We managed to buy a pair. Woop woop!!
That evening we headed to MSG the home of the NY Knicks to watch them play the Boston Celtics, one of the best teams in the league.
Unfortunately Shaquille O’Neal was injured for the Celtics but we saw some other famous and very good players including Kevin Garnett and Amare Stoudemire (who was amazing!).
The game was amazing and the atmosphere even better!
We had an amazing view. This was at the start when the national anthems were sung
We got some free light up clappy tube things.
A chinese acrobat performs during a time out by scooping bowls on to her head with her leg whilst on a very tall unicycle.
Donald Trump gets interviewed at half time. He’s a famous business man and the equivalent of Alan Sugar as the person on the American Apprentice. He’s one of many celebrities at the match including actors and popstars.
A short passage of play I filmed:
It turned out to be a controversial and very exciting game with the match going down to the wire. With only a few seconds of the game left and the score tied at 116, the Celtic’s Paul Pierce seemed to score a match winner making the score 118-116 to the Celtics. The Boston fans were so happy since there was only 0.4 of a second of the match left, which is nothing and not really enough time for the Knicks to score.
But! With an incredible play, Stoudemire managed to get the ball and shoot on the buzzer from outside the 3 point line and….swish! The ball went in.
The whole of Madison Square Garden (and probably the whole of NY) exploded with elation!
However, the happiness was short lived as soon after there was an announcement to say the referees had reviewed the play and the shot was taken after the clock had run down.
It was an anticlimax but What a rollercoaster of emotions!! Even though the Knicks lost, the fans were still in good spirits and it turned out to be an awesome evening!
These were the highlights. Sorry, you might have to watch a quick Ad first:
Don’t know what beth means about the baubles!! Beautiful photos as ever, what amazing things you’ve seen and done. can’t wait to see you on sat. We’ve got a tiny bit of snow!
mum and dad xx