The Broadway tour was actually a walking tour of the Broadway district....& it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING!! The guide would walk around for a bit then we would escape into the foyer of a posh hotel to defrost for a bit, then head back out to freeze our arses off again. The tour was interesting & included a backstage tour of an off Broadway production called "Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating & Marriage", which was a bit weird, but it was just too cold to be walking the streets so we were all quite relieved when we could scamper back to our nice, warm apartment.
The next day Bec & I decided it was girls day so the boys headed off to the new Yankee Stadium for some college football....in the snow! In the meantime the girls finally got to go on the Gossip Girl tour. It wasn't as good as the Sex & The City tour, mostly because the guide wasn't very good - she spent most of the time reading off her cards, but we had fun anyway. Is it a little bit sad that the highlight was the cupcake stop??
Then it was into Times Square to watch the rehearsals for the massive New Year's party, complete with practise confetti, the countdown & ball drop. I guess that should have meant we wouldn't have to go to the real one......hmmmmmm!! New Year's Eve day was started at the American Museum of Natural History....or the museum from the movie Night At The Museum. I have to say it is an amazing museum - the sheer range & number of dinosaur skeletons is enough on its own but I was done in when it came to the African animal exhibit. Even though I have seen most of them for real, it was still cool to see them in the museum - stuffed!
The museum is on "Museum Mile" which is directly opposite Central Park & there had been a fresh sprinkling of snow overnight so we took the chance to walk around the park snapping heaps of shots of acres of virgin snow. Just gorgeous. Then it was 4pm & we were packing our goody bags with snacks & heading to the Times Square district ready for a night of madness......freezing madness! We made it to the front of the queue to get into the one of the roped off sections in Times Square (after waiting 90 minutes) only to be told that we would have to get rid of the backpacks....WHHAAATTT?? So we ran back to the apartment, emptied our bags, filled our pockets & raced back....to join the end of the queue!
The queue was hell, people pushing & shoving, yelling at each other & generally being arseholes! Every so often there would be a few tense minutes when the crowd would rush forward & there threatened to be a stampede but eventually, by 7pm, we were back in the enclosure, pockets intact. We were lucky & ended up right in front of a giant screen & could see the ball BUT although the screens were supposed to come on at 6pm they didn't come on until nearly 8pm & by then the enclosure was so full that we could no longer see the ball & were right under the screen. The other thing is, they would have a performer on every so often & then they would just replay that performance over & over again. Add to that a temperature of minus 4 degrees & by 9pm we were done! We escaped the madness of Times Square & holed up in a bar in the courtyard of our apartment. The beers were $2, the music was loud, the bar staff were all drunk & the telecast of Times Square on the big screen was in Spanish......oh yeah & it was a gay bar!! Happy New Year, certainly one to remember!!
