By the time we got up this morning, it was about nine & we went out about ten then headed on over to Grand Central Terminus as it only a short walk plus you get to see some of the sights on the way. From the outside, it doesn't look that big but wow when you get in there the place is vast. It covers 3 floors, the bottom floor is where all the tracks & coffee shops are, and the main floor is the lobby & ticket area that you see in all the films. The upper floor is only at both ends, this where you enter the station at street level, with some great views of the staircases down. I think most people go there just to photograph that part & don't actually
travel anywhere. I think the best part of it was the side slopes down to the lower level, if you look up it’s an amazing sight. While we were there we got the 7-day travel MTA cards for unlimited travel on the subway & buses. At $27 each, they are excellent value for money. The only downside is you have to buy them from a machine & there's more than one type of machine in the station. When we finally got the right one it wouldn't accept card payments so we ended using our smaller bills up which I didn't want to do as changing $50 is a pain in the arse.
So then it was out of the Grand Station & lunch time. Where shall we go? So took a walk along 5th Avenue looking for somewhere good to eat. There are loads of places that do food but nothing seemed to appeal to us or have anywhere to sit inside then we came across MacDonald’s, as they say "when in Rome", so we dived in to get out of the cold wind that was blowing down the road. It's definitely not like anything in the UK that's for sure. We had a lovely Aberdeen Angus burger with Swiss cheese, large fries & a bucket of a drink all for $7. We then had a stroll around the shops in the cold & found a 99 cent shop so I got myself a woolly hat & scarf because I forgot mine, a bit more looking at the shops then off back to the hotel for an afternoon nap to make way for the evening out. After they have fixed the tap I could have a nap. I left Jane to have a have sleep & thought I'd go for a stroll on my own for an hour or so. Didn't go far but wanted to check out the subway. There are a couple of stations on either side of the hotel so I dropped down into one them. It's nothing like the London underground where you spend half an hour going miles into the earth to travel a quarter of a mile, it's just under the pavement down a couple of flights of stairs. I only went one stop just to see what it was like & make sure Jane could get down there OK. They go at a Hell of a speed those trains. I got back to the hotel at about six o’clock and had a bit of a rest then we went out for an evening meal, we had no idea where we were going to eat so we just walked around for a bit, it's not like you’re stuck for places to eat in this area it’s just finding a good place. In the end, we came across an Irish pub on 47th street that was tucked away called Langans. The food there was lovely & really good value. After a good feed & watered it was time to walk it off around the model shops in Time Square & even got a couple of free strange energy drinks because the trolley somebody was pulling them on fell over & they rolled everywhere. Finally got back to the hotel around one in the morning again, watched a bit of TV then crashed out. That was another day over with already but we were getting to grips with this place now & finding our way around without any problems.
