Halling Holidays: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Helen had a major birthday on the 8th November. Over the last several years she has had a hankering to go to New York and also wanted to see the Caribbean. On “the day” we stayed at a hotel in Darling Harbour as we had tickets that night to Leonard Cohen playing in Sydney. Birthday presents were opened in bed and the surprise of opening a box to see a personalised brochure of a trip on Queen Mary 2 (QM2) leaving Ney York bound for the Caribbean rendered someone speechless (no mean feat). Further reading resulted in the realisation that sister Jo was also booked. An immediate overseas call was made to said sister who was quickly abused when she announced that she had most of her wardrobe organised but had hidden it in boxes when we were over in July as Helen had a habit of exploring her wardrobe!

As there was only a little over 3 weeks to our flight to New York (returning 22 December) there were some quick arrangements to be made for Christmas which we are hosting for over 20 people. However, we managed to make the flight, were upgraded to Business Class which was great and arrived at a very cold New York on the 3rd December. We stayed at the Hilton Millennium with a good view from the 40th floor of the World Trade Centre development.

On a crystal clear but cold Saturday we headed off to Central Park. Our first stop was a hot dog stand before we set off. Despite bare trees the colour and low light gave the whole park a wonderful ambience. We walked through Strawberry fields and a memorial called Imagine for John Lennon. Shortly after we came across this look out on the lake with Bow bridge in the background.

Towards the South side of the park there was a constant stream of horse and carts for those not up to too much exercise. (We felt it was too cold to sit.)

At an underpass near the South of the park was a family singing some wonderful harmony with songs such as Avé Maria and the Hallelujah chorus.

And a little further on was the busy Wollman rink.

As we wandered South of Central Park down Broadway we ended up at Times Square – it was all lights and people.

In the evening Jo arrived and we all had an early night so as to try and overcome jet lag.

Sunday was another brilliant day and after a lazy start we went off to the Rockefeller Centre. The views were spectacular albeit extremely cold thanks to the wind chill factor. Central Park in the background cuts a great swathe through the city.

On the South side was downtown Manhatten, the Empire state building and to the East and South the Hudson river (where it is possible to land a jet plane).

We also managed some Christmas shopping during the rest of the day.

In the evening I had arranged for dinner at a special restaurant. This had Helen guessing quite unsuccessfully at all sorts of ideas which might constitute special. When we arrived we were asked to leave our coats at the cloakroom and after a brief wait were shown to a large table at the end of the restaurants internal balcony. Helen had a jaw dropping surprise as her mind slowly comprehended that the table was occupied by a range of family and friends from all over the world.

Guests were Pam & Robin (Canada), Nancy and Sasha (France), Sue and Martin (England) and Steve & Jilly (USA). Helen was speechless (well for a small period) and her expression was something to behold. A special thanks to all who made the trip as well as keeping the secret which made this such a special occasion.

As an added bonus Helen also found out that Sue and Martin had tickets for QM2. More surprise and speechlessness!!

The meal was at the Messa Grill on 5th Avenue and the food and service were just brilliant – so if you are in NY looking for somewhere then….

Needless to say we all slept pretty well that night and the following day caught up with Steve and Jilly for brunch as we had not seen them since 2009. They had to leave shortly thereafter as they were driving to Connecticut to stay with some friends for a couple of nights.

In the afternoon we set off for more exploring which included Central railway station – a wonderful space….

and the Guggenheim museum which was spectacular but the architecture did not have quite the same impact as the Bilbao version.

Although we were in the middle of winter and it was very cold, the desire by some for colourful plants is strong even if it is cabbages.

The day prior to boarding we decided to spend visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where, up to recently, most ship bound New York immigrants found themselves. (Excluding first class passengers who were normally processed on board their ship.)

The first thing that struck me when we were alongside the Statue of Liberty was the view of Manhattan. You could see the gap where the Twin towers used to be. (The building with the two cranes and blue protective sheeting is on the West side of the WTC site.)

They used to dominate the skyline...

As for the Statue of Liberty it is spectacular from any angle.

We then caught the boat over to Ellis island. The main building includes a vast arched hall which many new immigrants would have been overawed by as they would not have seen anything similar in their home countries as such structures were normally limited to palaces.

Health and legal checks were carried out with the first test being to climb the stairs from the baggage hall to the processing hall (shown in the photo). (Fortunately for us this test no longer applies.) The audio tour was illuminating and at then end I found that there were four Hallings (with first name John) who had been processed here. More research needed.

When we were waiting for the ferry back, a ship was being welcomed into the port by the fire boats. The low sun light made for quite a spectacle.

On the day of our departure the girls had concluded they did not have enough clothes for the voyage and I (foolishly?) volunteered to look after the bags and get them on board while they went shopping. This however did give me the opportunity to take a range of photos from the Statue of Liberty….