New York - its ‘Wicked’!
We drove into New York on a sunny Saturday arriving at the Affinia Gardens hotel late morning. We received a warm and friendly smile from the two girls on reception who quickly checked us in early and up-graded us to our one bedroom suite...very nice!
The Affinia Garden hotel is a tranquil, modern hotel located in the upper east side of Manhattan. A small suite hotel with very friendly staff, spotlessly clean and with well-equipped rooms - ours had a full kitchen! It is situated just four blocks from Central Park and even closer to shops and restaurants on Madison, Fifth and Park Avenues. We grabbed our picnic and walked into the south east entrance of Central Park, up the Mall and met some friends at the Bethsada fountain – made famous by movies such as ‘Enchanted’ and ’Stuart Little’! Of course, we were able to bring our picnic from home, however, anyone wishing to spend a similar afternoon in the park should head to the basement of Whole Foods on Columbus Circle – with a massive variety of prepared foods, salads and fresh produce you can pick up pretty much anything you want for a park picnic…and much cheaper than having lunch in a deli! After eating our picnic and watching the world go by we walked over Bow Bridge and through the woods to the Alice in Wonderland sculpture and on to the boating lake where we hired a remote controlled sailing boat. It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon and apart from seeing the top of the tallest buildings peeking through the trees you can quite easily forget you are in the City.
Back to the hotel to freshen up and a quick change for the theatre. We zigzagged down avenues and across streets, stopping for a quick snack at ‘Chipotle’ before arriving at the Gershwin Theatre just off Broadway. ‘Wicked’ was fantastic - the stage set, costumes, music and humour kept us captivated throughout the whole show. We can see why it remains one of the most popular shows on Broadway. A walk through Times Square with its bright lights and street entertainers, ended the evening perfectly. It is truly a spectacular place and a must do for any visitor to the New York.
On Sunday morning we had breakfast at the delightful ‘Alice’s Tea Cup’ restaurant situated just one block from the hotel. Tastefully decorated and themed to Alice in Wonderland we had a wonderful brunch style breakfast of French toast baked bread and butter pudding style, pancakes, eggs benedict and vanilla flavoured tea!
On our way out of the city we drove down the east side, via the UN Plaza, through East Village and stopped for coffee, milkshakes and New York cheesecake in the West Village. We were so glad we had a weekend in New York. Central Park has so much to offer families with children of any age…plenty of play parks, open space, the zoo, rocks for climbing on, sculptures, not to mention the horse and carriage rides, boating lake and the inevitable street entertainers to keep you amused!
We are tempted to squeeze another weekend in before we leave!