Lizzie and Scott

OK - today was our last day on the guided tour. Our itinerary included a walking tour of the city during the morning, visiting a number of sites that have iconic Christmas decorations on view, and ending at an amazing restaurant that goes all out for Christmas!

Our afternoon was free time, but then we hooked up with our tour group again in the evening for a trip to Dyker Heights where the neighbourhood goes crazy for Christmas lights!

In preparing for this update, and wading through all the photos I have that are worthy of showing, I have decided that I am splitting this day in to two separate updates. The one you are reading now will deal with the day time tour and free time, and my next update will cover the Dyker Heights lights.

After our incredibly long and trying day in the rain yesterday for the big parade, we were able to have a bit of a sleep in and jumped on the subway to meet up with the group at 8 am. We were driven uptown to the southern end of Central Park where we commenced our walking tour. First stop - the famous Plaza Hotel!

Now, here's the thing about The Plaza - it's not generally open to the public, and CERTAINLY not for tour groups. The doorman turns a bit of a blind eye to small numbers of the public entering the foyer to view the decorations, but by about 9am they close the doors to everyone except guests.

So we gingerly climbed the steps in drips and drabs and entered the beautiful foyer where we were faced with a spectacular tree and decorations that were everything we could imagine and more!
As we left, the doorman stopped our tour guide and had a bit of a word to him - from what I heard, he wasn't happy about our tour group coming in and had told our guide not to bring any further groups back. I guess our guide will be meeting with management in the future to smooth the waters!

From The Plaza we wandered down 5th Avenue and again passed the old Louis Vuitton building (you've seen this one before)
But this time, we also paid a visit to the new LV building which I don't think was quite as impressive as the old one!
From here, we passed the windows at Tiffany's - famous for diamonds and of course, the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's. We didn't see Audrey Hepburn, but we did see plenty of bling!
Next, we saw the St Regis Hotel
From there, we moved on to The Peninsula Hotel
But the best was yet to come!

Apparently, the Lotte New York Palace Hotel is a very famous place (I've never heard of it) and despite being built in 1980, it incorporates some buildings that were built in the 1880's! The first thing we saw was the beautiful tree in the courtyard, but walking inside we were blown away by the amazing decorations within the stunning foyer!
Then it was off to the Papillon restaurant and our final stop for the morning. The owners let us in before the lunchtime crowd, and also allowed our tour guide to book a few tables for the group to have lunch - this was unusual because this restaurant does not take reservations.

After wandering through the two stories of this restaurant and viewing their decorations, Lizzie and I decided that we wouldn't stay for lunch, and would spend our afternoon doing our own thing.
And so off we went to explore the city by ourselves. One of the first things I wanted to checkout was the subway grate where Marilyn Monroe was famously photographed wearing a white dress in 1955 promoting the movie The Seven Year Itch.



We located the grate on the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and East 52nd Street (helped by a security guard nearby) and, despite the area having changed a little bit over time, we found the spot that Marilyn stood in that iconic photo. What do you do when you find this location? Why, you try to replicate it of course!

Who did it better???
Whilst we were here playing movie stars, I just happened to look up and what did I spy? The unique and beautiful Chrysler Building!
Seeing this building so close, I thought we should take a closer look. Lizzie also wanted to check out Grand Central Station, so we headed off to take that in as well.

We had a little trouble finding Grand Central, but once we found a way in we made our way to the concourse. It is a beautiful station indeed!
From there, it was on to the Chrysler Building. Inside, we were met by one of the ushers who informed us that the building was still used for business and in order to ensure we didn't disrupt any of the tenants, we had to stay next to the walls and away from the elevators. Also, we weren't permitted to video anything, but could take as many photos as we wanted. I don't know why videos weren't allowed, but I wasn't going to argue. The foyer was simply beautiful and a reminder of a different life all those years ago.
From here, we kept wandering the street and happened across many different decorations - New York City really gets in to Christmas!
Then it was on to Times Square - the "crossroads of the world". This area is incredibly busy, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is full of hustlers trying to make a quick buck off the unwary. A word to the wise, if someone dressed in a costume comes up to you and asks you if you want to take a photo of them politely decline. This is a scam - they will let you take your photos and once finished will demand payment from you for taking the photos. Every second person you pass will have tickets to sell you, or an offer that is too good to refuse - again, politely decline and keep moving. Oh - and keep your purse/wallet/handbag in a safe place (no, that's not in your back pocket) as you will be bumped and jostled in the crowd as a way of relieving you of your valuables.

If you are alert and wary, you'll be fine! You can't come to NYC and NOT see Times Square at least once. Now that we've done it, we have no need to go anywhere near it again!
So that was our day up until early afternoon. We made our way home to recharge and get ourselves dressed in warm clothes for the night tour. You'll need to read the next update to learn about that!

See y'all soon!