As it was our last day in NYC we wanted to fit in as much as possible. We started by walking to Grand Central Station and we happened to get there right near the end of rush hour. At first the building felt very maze-like until we found the main concourse, which feels like a giant dome. It felt like the building had far too many entrances and exits because people were coming from every direction and disappearing out the other side. We stood at one end and watched the commuters for a bit before moving on.
After Grand Central we walked a few blocks to the Empire State Building. First we did the Skyride, a motion master ride which gave some information about the building and local attractions that you can see from the top, such as Central Park, High Line Park and the Brooklyn bridge. I found the screen fuzzy and hard to watch which kind of ruined the experience. The ride didn't compare to any of the other rides we had been on but it was good to see for the view it gave of NYC. Also, a lot of the information it gave we had already heard about on other tours we had been on. After the ride we went to the top of the building and looked around. It was nice to see the city from above during the day and we got a good look at the Rockefeller building as well as the famous Chrysler building, which was once the tallest skyscraper in New York.
Once we had seen enough of the New York Skyline we hit the streets again. Rob was keen to see the High Line, which is a park built on abandoned freight railway tracks which were raised above street level. Parts of the track have already been converted and the Trust is planning on converting more. Some of the old tracks have already been demolished but we walked roughly half of what has been restored. The tracks are 30 feet (9.14 meters) above street level and at times pass through buildings where the loading stations were. The gardens look like they would be very pretty in spring and summer but everything looked a bit bleak in winter.
At the end of the High Line we thought we would walk up to Central Park for a horse and carriage ride but realised we were about half way down the island of Manhattan and it was probably a bit far to walk in one go. In the end we caught the subway, which was starting to lose some of its novelty as the station smelt horrible and there was a weird homeless man peeing on a rubbish bin. This may have been why it smelt so bad.
We arrived at Central Park and inspected the horses. I wanted to pick the prettiest one but we ended up having to take the one at the front of the line. The horses name was Eddie and our driver was Mike. We got driven around a small circuit of the park which circled the ice skating rink and went past the Zoo. I was impressed to see that at the entrance to the park there is a water trough for the horses to stop and drink at. It was a pretty slow ride but it was definitely a nice way to see the park. The clip clop of the horses hooves was relaxing in the same way the sound a train makes.
After our tour of the park we walked to the ice skating rink and hired some skates. For some reason they always make hired skates horribly uncomfortable, which means you can't skate for long before your feet hurt. However we did have fun watching a group of kids having an ice hockey lesson. They would have been about 5 years old and could barely skate in a straight line let alone hit a puck but it was good fun to watch them giving it their best while failing. When the lesson was over we handed back our skates and caught the subway back to Times Square.
Just off Times Square is Madame Tussaud's wax museum. The museum takes up 5 floors and you start at the top and make your way down. The statues are grouped into themes such as sports stars, celebrities, politicians and singers. We were able to have our photo taken with most anyone we wanted except Barack and Michelle Obama as Madame Tussauds had their own camera set up and wanted you to pay for their photos. Some of the statues looked very realistic but others they hadn't quite got it right such as Julia Roberts.
We ended our last day in New York by going to Ray's Pizza for dinner again, then back to the hotel and to bed early, since the shuttle to the airport was arriving at 2:30am to get us to the airport for our flight to Canada.
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