The Purple Penguin

Up and out after a rather noisy night. This hotel is noisy and the building work next door doesn’t help at all. Really needs double glazing. As we left we noticed we don’t have a peephole thingy, just a hole in the door. That’s interesting. The door is also a bit weird – you can’t do the double lock as it’s in the wrong place. It should be above the latch as that’s where the opening in the door frame is, but it’s below the latch. Weird. Otherwise it’s a nifty little hotel and the room, though small, is nicely decorated. Complete with flat screen telly and nifty stereo system. Just the door is odd and it’s noisy.

Headed out with the intention of going to the Intrepid, which is an air and sea museum. We spent the evening working out the plan and how to get around and what we would see. We had a ticket for the Intrepid in our City Pass (great deal and I’d definitely recommend getting it) so thought why not? So we got the tube to Times Square (sore feet meant we didn’t really want to walk much) got out and gawked and waited for the bus. We took the bus down to the docks where it was a zoo, zillions of people. So we stopped and went to Starbucks (yea, yea) and got coffee and sat and people watched. Then slowly strolled down and past the Circle Tours (also have a ticket for that in our City Pass, but we probably won’t be doing it) toward the Intrepid. Which isn’t there. At all. Just an empty dock with that building netting around it saying it’s closed. Until 2008. So much for our good planing. However we got to see the west side and the docks and also found this nifty little barge – The Science Barge. We didn’t do the tour but did stroll out and have a look. Quite nice people, came out to tell us about the barge and give us a brochure. So back to the bus and rode that to Grand Central.

Grand Central is, well, grand. Beautiful building. Stood and gawped with all the other tourists then headed for the tube. Took the express (now that we’ve worked that out) to 89th Street and the Guggenheim. The Guggenheim is being restored so the outside is covered with scaffolding. That was a bit disappointing but it was open and, although the top levels didn’t have an exhibition on it was still worth walking up just to see the building. I was actually there more for the building than for the art, which was good as there wasn’t much that I really liked to see. But the building is fantastic.

Left the Guggenheim as we were starving and stopped at a little place called Cafe Grazie. Very good lunch with starters (roast pear salad with gorgonzola and Joe had the carrot and ginger soup) then just pizza and omelet for mains but they were very good. Even managed to squeeze in a shared creme brulee. Could barely walk when we finally left so of course we decided to head through Central Park.

Another beautiful day and very warm so the park was full of people enjoying the sun. The playing fields were full. Lovely park. We strolled along the east side then worked our way over to the west. Saw turtle pond (with loads of turtles) and Belvedere Castle and walked through the Rambles. It’s a lovely place and a good couple of degrees cooler then the rest of the city. Back to the hotel to chill out a bit before we head out for the evening.