When waking up we had no idea about what we would be doing today. We had some ideas like going to a movie, visiting Glenn en Gina but no real plan. Then Glenn send us a WhatsApp message about what to do today. Danielle really wanted to go to Central Park since we didn’t had time in the beginning of the week. So after taking a shower and having breakfast at the Starbucks near our hotel we went for a drive to the Ward’s residence in Staten Island.

After arriving there we took the express bus to Central Park which took us about 40 minutes and we got of the bus at the entrance of the park. In the park we walked in uptown direction towards the turtlepond. From there we walked towards the Belvedere Castle.

We were lucky that we had Gina with us as guide so we got to see the nice spots. We saw a lot of nice places like the Bethesda fountain, the boathouse, the Shakespeare theatre and a lot of squirrels.

I was willing to find a geocache in the USA during this trip to drop the “Around the World” travel bug. And what would be a better place for a travel if then one which would like to travel around the world then the Central Park where lots of foreigners try to find a geocache. It took us a minute or 10-15 to find it due to juggles around but I found it in the end.

After the geocache we visit the strawberry fields and the imagine sign which is a memorial to John Lennon who lived a cross the street. And there we had some luck as the self declared major of strawberry field was just talking about the area.

The hike made us feel hungry and there was a nice dinning place in 72nd street called Dallas BBQ. This was a place Gina recommended us to go in the beginning of the week but we didn’t had the time to do so. The place had some awesome food for really great prices for the Manhattan area. Glenn, Gina and Danielle went for a half chicken and a Texas size piña colada. I picked the beef baby back ribs with a Texas size beer. And as you can see it tasted great.

Then we went to the Apple store where Danielle got a pink bumper for her iPhone. The store was crowed and there was a line for the elevator. I can imagine that this is the best selling store in the world.

We picked a metro to the area where Little Italy is for a dessert. We went to the Ferrara Bakery which is an Italian American bakery which is said to be the first place in the USA to server espresso and was established back in 1892. On the way there we got to see a live breakdancing session I the metro.

Glenn found out that his cousin was working at the firehouse that night and suggested to pay him a visit. He is working on the Ladder 5 which is a fire station near to the Freedom Tower. It was the station where former major of New York City made a phone call to president Bush on 9/11. For us this was a unique opportunity to visit a firehouse. It was really packed and with equipment and firefighters.

From the fire station we went back to our car at Staten Island by Metro, Ferry and train. On the train we needed to wait very long at a certain station without a real reason. All of a sudden 2 men came I to the train told an older man to get out which he did. The two men were undercover policemen and arrested the man. At the time we came back at the car we said goodbye to Glenn and Gina for the last time this trip. And we went back to the hotel.

The day which started without having a plan ended up to be one of the days we have seen the most of the city. Thanks Glenn and Gina for taking the time to show us a bit more of New York we had a blast.

We were tired after yesterday’s party or the jet-lag is over because we both woke up after 8:00 in the morning. As you might have seen in the blogpost from yesterday we had a great time and the wedding was the main reason for making this trip. And if we would need to decide again we would do it again.

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant together with all the guest and the newly weds which stayed a night in the hotel after the party. It seemed like the party continued for another couple hours. We got to learn some more sign language and showed some party pictures!

After breakfast we said goodbye to the families and friends of Glenn and Gina and we left the hotel to go to Woodbury Common. This is said to be the largest outlet mall in the world with 220 different shops. And we still wanted to do some shopping. After driving 45 minutes we arrived there and it seemed really busy. The shops are much larger them the shops we’ve seen in any other outlet we’ve been to.

We’ve spend over 4 hours and we still have the feeling there was more to shop. We bought a lot of stuff at Tommy Hilfiger, glasses at Michael Kors and had a great deal on 7 for All Mankind jeans. After the shopping we went back to the hotel since we planned to have dinner together with Glenn, Gina, Ian and Maxx in Hoboken, New York.

Gina took Glenn to a pizza place a couple weeks ago and Glenn sensed us the picture via WhatsApp. We both told him we want to get such a gigantic pizza slice too. And so we did. It was a really busy neighborhood which was caused by the celebration of St. Patrick’s day. This is celebrate 2 weeks early here to not have a conflict with the party’s in New York City at the official date. The pizza was delicious and the slice where about 50 cm. long. We took a normal size pizza with the 3 of us and we were lucky since it was enough food. A normal size pizza is the size of a family pizza in Germany.

We had a blast this evening and we had some laughs for which my stomachs still hurts! I can only say:

“Talk to the hand, please”

Thanks for taking us there Gina and Glenn, Ian and Maxx thanks for the fun we had together!