Ginger DJ Rob

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Its Easter Sunday and we'd always planned to see the Easter Bonnet Parade up at Fifth Avenue . With cash getting short we attempt to buy a cheap breakfast. It was an even harder challenge as we couldn't really find anywhere open until we came across PAX Wholesome Foods. With a name like that we expected something special however it was possibly the worse pre-packed breakfast yet with the majority being thrown in the bin and we were overcharged. We arrived at Fifth Avenue with crowds swelling around a number of posers with their bonnets. As we got deeper into the crowds the hats got better and more TV crews interviewing the owners. The guy (pictured) in the wedding dress within the slideshow below drew particular attention though I wouldn't say he was wearing a bonnet as such but his pet parrot. Judging from the activity on Flickr this guy is a regular at any public parade . Everyone was in high spirits and those wearing the bonnets we...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Saturday and the weather is wet. For breakfast we head uptown to Broadway for some breakfast by taxi. The Red Flame Diner was a favourite the last time we visited New York. being a weekend and raining it was busy but only for the more than 2 per party suckers so waltzed in for an instant table. Made the mistake of not having French Toast but went for the yoghurt and granola. The yoghurt had the consistency of whipped cream, not that pleasant. We wanted to see a Broadway show in the evening so poped along to a ticket agent, the Times Square Visitor Center. Nothing on at a bargain so bought seats for Phantom of the Opera at top price for our evening's entertainment. Before leaving, Kerry made the smart choice of buying our Guggenheim museum entry tickets. For the same price as on the door and no booking fee we overtook the round the block queue who were getting drenched in the rain (couldn't help laughing at that one). The Solomon R. Guggenhei...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Breakfast took a little more time to hunt down. I really wanted another French Toast fatboy breakfast and eventually stumbled across a Belgian cafe called Markt down 6th Avenue. The waitress giggled to herself when we said 'cheers' as in thanking her for taking our order. Not ferry good views We didn't have that much planned apart from doing the Staten Island ferry crossing so headed downtown. Kerry prepared herself for the boatride with some motion sickness pills. Although it wasn't raining, yesterday's wind had taken a chillier turn and was bitingly cold especially as we exited the subway for the ferry terminal. Quite a few people were taking advantage of the Good Friday holiday and looked like the boat wouldn't be big enough for us. Still we all piled on with the majority onto the Statue of Liberty side with the ferry having a noticeable pitch to the side. The cold wind really made things uncomfortable plus the dull grey c...

Jetlag, don't you just hate it. We were up and had finished the slightly pricey Eventi hotel breakfast by 7:30am. The High Line With a gap of 5 years from the last visit, the High Line in Chelsea was a new tourist atttraction having only been around fully converted since June 2009. It was an old elevated railtrack used to transport industrial freight in the 1930's and hadn't been used since 1980. Luckily local residents saw the potential and added their own artist and horticultural charm. There's about 2 miles worth of relaxed walking (apart from the day's biting wind) away from the traffic. The over-the-road bridge had been turned into a small stage with a glazed window to view the underneath cars. Later was a recently added sound installation featuring a different sounding bell every minute from church to bicycle, school to peace bell, all sampled from New York. Shopping With our High Line visit over at about 10:30am we still had to wait for the shops to...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr It's Kerry's actual birthday today and we have an 8 hour flight to Newark, NJ for our second visit to New York . Last time it was 5 years ago for Kerry's 30th ! Purple Parking took their (bloody) time collecting and dropping us off at the terminal so didn't have that much time before the Virgin flight apart from treat the birthday girl to some champagne and oysters. Waiting lounge was full to the rafters and we also had a 40 minute delay. Luckily, being in Premium Economy rocked! Nice wide seats, having priority boarding and more champers to drink whilst waiting to take-off was luxury with a tantalsing view of Upper Class section and the bar. Didin't quite expect a screaming 2 year old sat adjacent to us though but at least the entertainment choice diverted our attention. We both watched ' The King's Speech ' (I loved it) and ' Black Swan ' (bit slow) with complete polarised opinions. Landing and immigration proc...

Some new and recent cracked open tunes in a pecking order of clucking! Number 1 for this month for me is Antranig - 'Back That Up' on Subliminal US . If you can't view or hear the chart see my GingerDJ April Chart on Juno Download Related articles My first Juno Download chart (gingerdjrob.com)