My first site of the classic New York Central Park horse and carriage ride (as seen in Ghostbusters)
More lovely snowfields in lovely Central Park West
Me, wrapped up warm on our first trip into Central Park
It's the stone Lion outside New York Public Library on 5th Avenue, very close to our hotel. The lion is also in the very first shot of Ghostbusters. See a theme developing?
We're here! Look - yellow cabs! (Outside Central Park again).
Tim and I landed in New York on a dark Friday evening. As we landed, the orange lights surrounding the river looked like molten lava trickling into the city. While the plane searched for aparking space, it was shocking to see the enormous piles of dirty grey snow that looked like sand at first, all over the runways. It took a dispiriting hour and ahalf in a lengthy que to get through customs, and then we grabbed our cases and hailed a cab.
Getting to Times Square took about thirty minutes. We went through a tunnel from the Queeens side of town. The cab smelled a little ripe, with a background soundtrack of reggae and kettle drums as we caught glimpses of the glittering Chrysler building, and the impossible-to-miss gleam of the Empire's spire on the island.
Leaping out at the Hilton, it was all a big as we had expected, and the neon was even brighter. It reminded me of the late-night mini-cities outside Universal Studios, only much much colder and less crowded!
DAY ONE:
Saturday.
Tim and I walked for ages, originally intending to head for Madison Square Gardens, for some reason we took a detour and wandered around Central Park. It's covered in snow, and there were sledders of all ages hurtling down the banks towards some extremely sturdy trees. We watched the extremely tame squirls (sic) for a bit, and enjoyed the fresh air and the excercise.
Much excitement came from seeing both the Tavern on the Green, and later the New York Public Library from Ghostbusters (tick those off now)! We had a decent breakfast, and didn't feel remotely hungry even before the show this evening.
This evening we went off-Broadway to enjoy the last performance (for now) of Evil Dead: The Musical. Possibly THE FUNNIEST SHOW EVER! We were exhausted after our hiking all day, and our feet had almost recovered by the time we went out. We were glad we found the energy, because the show did not disappoint. Aimed squarely at those who've seen the original movies FAR too often (hands up, the two of us) it's a good-natured piss-take of all things Deadite, with a wonderful actor playing the doomed Ash, and musical numbers that will stay in your head, so that soon you're urging others to JOIN US and catching this whenever you can! Not quite as bloody or noisy as I was really expecting, the blood eventually flowed and cheerfully spattered the first tthree rows of the audience! They were all wrapped in plastic. Tim and Iu were quite far back, but that just meant we screamed encouragement even louder. The makers got it all right - especially the use of important quotes, taking the piss out of dumb decisions, and highlighting a latent homoerotic attraction between Ash and the other bloke in Evil Dead 1....hmmm, something I'll have to rewatch....
Then, still not hungry but full up on mini-Oreos (ah hah...) we staggered back to the hotel and fell asleep to the sound of CNN.
