Well the time sure has flown by and I can barely believe that nearly two months has gone by since the last post which was an all too brief note saying we were in New York. So it’s in New York that we shall begin.
Amazing place and I absolutely love it. It’s like walking around a giant movie or TV set. Even though I had never been there before it was like I had and on the first day I was like a little kid. Day 1 we spent the day walking round with Steve, who having just finished writing the Rough Guide to New York was very knowledgeable. Having arrived that morning on the night bus from Montreal the night was pretty subdued especially having walked what felt like most of lower Manhattan. Day two started by meeting Ian and Louise and going up the Empire State Building, which was just awesome. Incredible views from the top and an amazing building inside as well. After, we took in a few more famous landmarks before heading off to the museum of modern art. By this time, it was time for lunch and a trip to Central Park. We hired a couple of bikes in Central Park after all the walking we had already done we felt like it was the best way to see it. In the evening we met Ian and Lou again for cocktails before heading off to Little Italy where we went for the best pizza in New York, according to Steve. I gotta say it was pretty damn good!
Day 3 was more of the same visiting New York landmarks, of which there are many. We took a trip to Harlem, the Ghostbusters fire station, several pubs in various areas, all the while looking like I had a camera permanently stuck to my face. I took approximately 1000 photos while in New York a selection of which can be seen here. That evening we met up again with Ian and Lou and along with Steve and Tiff headed over the river to Brooklyn. On Friday evening they open Brooklyn brewery and we spent a few hours there sampling their wares. We went somewhere else after that, but in all honesty I have no recollection of the rest of that night, but by all accounts I had a great time. Saturday was not an early start, although I did go out and take some early morning (10:30) shots in Battery Park. We spent the afternoon firstly in Chinatown before heading to the meatpacking district to check out this wild garden they’ve grown on a disused bit of highline railway. In the evening we headed back to Brooklyn where I can safely say I ate the best steak I have ever eaten at Peter Luger Steakhouse.
Sunday was July 4th and as I put in the last post we headed off to Coney Island to witness the phenomenon that is the World Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. It was a boiling hot day so a great time to be at the beach, but it was packed as you can imagine it would be on a holiday weekend. We flew back to London the next day although we did have time in the morning to walk over Brooklyn Bridge which was, dare I say it, awesome! Our flight home was slightly delayed (4 hours) taking off after the man driving the refuelling truck drove straight into the side of the plane. Lucky I’m not a nervous flyer! If you can’t be bothered to check all the photos I put a smaller selection into this video.
London was brief but hectic as was the whole time in the UK, but it was great to catch up with friends and family even if only briefly and thanks in particular to all the people who accommodated us while we were back or put on BBQs.
We finished the hols with a couple of weeks in Spain which involved some time relaxing by the beach and reading plenty of books. The best of which was Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes, an excellent read. I also bought one of these excellent Sony e-readers, which I highly recommend. Then we went off to Madrid where I was for my 40th birthday. Simone asked what I would like to do so we spent the morning on a tour of Real Madrid’s stadium before heading off to Athletico Madrid’s stadium after lunch for the afternoon tour. Brilliant! Even though I had now reached 40 and become a grownup I didn’t let that stop me going out a getting drunk on mojitos and having a raging hangover the next day. I don’t feel like it’s been my birthday if I don’t have a hangover on the 5th August. Check out the photos from Madrid here. After a weekend back in London and a final catch up with people plus a visit to see QPR thrash Barnsley we are now back in El Salvador. I spent my $1000 return to work bonus on new mountain bike and I’ve been out several times already and I’ve carried on with the surfing although the weather has been pretty shocking. Simone’s birthday tomorrow so we going away for the weekend, report and photos to follow and hopefully quite soon I’ll try and get some video of some mountain bike action on here.
Hopefully speak to some of you soon on Skype we are normally online at about 10:30pm UK time, so keep a lookout and give us a call.
Laters
B & S xx
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