NY Day 5 The Ride and central Park

First stop this morning was breakfast at the Tick Tock diner at the New Yorker Hotel at the end of our hotel street.  Three of us had pancakes, Chloe had banana, Grandma had blueberry and I had apple cinnamon  Sarah choose the chicken and egg, a chicken burger with a fried egg! 😲

We returned to our hotel for a while before heading off for 42nd street to meet our bus for The Ride.  It was already cery warm in the sunshine and promised to be another very warm day.  We joined a large choir group that were in NY to sing at the Statue of Liberty, two bus loads of them and we were the only other tourists on there!

They were a good bunch and didn' need much encouragement to join in and sing.  The tour took us mostly around the area near times square and central park, with some information about the buildings but mostly just interaction with the outside entertainers plus those on the bus.  An I interesting and different way to spend an hr or so.

After the tour we walked up to Central Park stopping at Dunkin, Donuts to buy some munchkins and a pharmacy tho get some sunscreen.  We also grabbed some drinks.  By now it was quite hot, nudging 80 degrees again.  We sat just inside the park and ate our donuts and watch the world go by.  The park was very busy, we had very tired feet and it was hot.  After a chat about how to do the park we decided we would see more if we hired a pedicab.  There were lots of people trying to sell the tours so we picked one who said he would do two bikes for the price if one.  Grandma and I went in one and the girls in the other.  Our guides kept us together as we toured the park.  They showed us building along the edge of the park where the rich and famous have apartments along with pointing out different areas of the park.  The sunshine over the last 2 days had encouraged the blossom and magnolia to start blooming so the park looked beautiful.  Our guides stopped at the Bethesda Fountain and we were able to walk around it and take photos.  We then stopped at the fountain used in the title sequence of tv show Friends then showed us where to view the bow bridge.

Back on the pedi, dodging pedestrians, other cyclists, horse drawn carriages  and  other pedicabs we headed for strawberry fields.  Here we saw the imagine mosaic and our guides showed us the building where John Lennon lived and was shot.

Back near the park entrance we thanked our guides and found a street cart selling ice creams and sat a little long in the park relaxing.

We walked back down 8th Avenue, pausing in a couple more shops, before heading back to the hotel.  After a rest and refresh we returned to the Tick Tock diner for dinner.

The girls decided they wanted to return to Times Square for some shopping so they headed off while grandma and I went back to the hotel wherdcwe started packing for our return home tomorrow.

Leaving the girls to shop alone has resulted in some interesting items to try and pack in our suitcases!  Thanks girls! Large pictures don't easily fit into small suitcases!