Closing the holiday with Montreal
Montreal was the last part of our two week holiday in September that began in New York and continued in Canada. We decided to drive… Read More »Closing the holiday with Montreal
Travel
Niagara Falls 2018
Having spent the first day in Toronto, we set out on Monday to visit Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is less than a two-hour drive from… Read More »Niagara Falls 2018
Hello Toronto
I posted about New York a few weeks back. And although it has been several months since our visit to Canada, and I’ve been meaning… Read More »Hello Toronto
The Brooklyn Bridge
If you’re in New York, especially for the first time, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge should definitely be on your to-do list. It was on ours and we parked it for the last day. I had started the day by meeting an old friend at One World Trade Center. After this, Ashwina and I set out. On our way there, we stopped by a really expensive Greek restaurant which appeared to be well rated. I keep thinking that Manhattan has a separate standard when it comes to food and the expensiveness of said food.
We saved our energy for the Brooklyn Bridge, so we took the subway to Brooklyn Bridge City Hall station. Finding the bridge turned out to be rather easy: follow the crowds and few signboards. It really amused me to see that the bridge had a good number of hawkers selling souvenirs and water.
Brooklyn Bridge City Hall
The Brooklyn Bridge is a little less than 2km in total length which makes it quite a good walk. Thankfully, the weather was really good and we were able to walk the bridge without a drop of rain or the need for a jacket!
New York – Views from the Top
I’m back in London and the week has been busier than busy catching up on work. It’s Saturday, so trying to find a time to finish this blog post. My New York diaries continued with meeting Sneha after nearly 10 years. She took me and Ashwina to ABC Kitchen which turned out to have some really good food in well-sized portions. Remains the best food I ate in New York.
After the failed attempt to view New York from Top of the Rock, we decided to try again. It seems like many others also had the same idea as we only got tickets for little over an hour later. We figured out getting some other things out of the way to kill time. Primarily taking a walk down 6th avenue to find our way to Grand Central Station.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
At Grand Central Station, New York
The hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station, New York
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
If you’ve been following the last few blog posts, you’ll know that Ashwina and I are in New York and wandered around Times Square at the start of the week. It goes without saying that most tourists have the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on the top of their places to see. And so did we. Let me tell you about our fun visit to see Lady Liberty.
Planning our trip
I spent a good deal of time researching where to buy the tickets – or more like what would get us the best sightseeing deal. We looked at the New York Pass which allows you access to several attractions, but the numbers just didn’t stack up. So, I decided to buy the tickets directly from Statue Cruises, who are the only authorized official provider of tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I realised that they were also the cheapest because I bought the Pedestal Reserve Ticket which gave us access to the pedestal on which the Statue sits.
We got lucky as there was no availability for these tickets for several days except Tuesday! Unfortunately, the Crown Reserve Ticket was sold out. People book these several months in advance.
It’s also recommended to do one of the earliest slots of the day as they tend to be less busy. We booked ours at 10 am, which is the time we needed to enter the Screening Facility. Battery Park is just a short walk from our apartment, so we set out around 9.30 am and found our way to the screening facility well ahead of schedule.
The screening facility is airport-style which means travelling right and light is recommended. We carried only bare essentials knowing that we could buy water on the island. The process went smoothly and we then queued in a completely unorderly fashion for the next ferry to take us to Liberty Island.
We picked the upper deck to get a seat and an open view of the water as well as the Manhattan skyline which was fully covered in fog. The upper deck also tends to be quite full with eager standing tourists during the short ride to Liberty Island. The best way to get your first photographs of The Statue of Liberty.
The Manhattan skyline covered in fog
The Statue of Liberty
Wandering around Times Square and Wall Street
Sunday, our 2nd day in New York was spent with Ashwina’s cousin and his wife in New Jersey. On Monday, we set out to explore the… Read More »Wandering around Times Square and Wall Street
New York calling!
This year has been a relatively eventful one when it comes to holidays… also expensive! I know I haven’t blogged much about personal life, but… Read More »New York calling!
Happy New Year 2018!
As most good things come to an end, so must 2017. Browsing through my list of posts for the past two years, I realised that I completely missed out a Happy New Year post for 2017. Can’t miss that two years in a row now, can we?
2017 – A Year in Review
Life…
I began 2017 in India, more specifically being ill in Bangalore where I (as did Ashwina) spent a good portion of the holiday in bed recovering from bad allergy attacks. Apparently I can’t handle the pollen and pollution anymore!
At least it got better when I got back to Mumbai where we were soon well enough to attend a small extended family wedding before heading back to London. Life continued to be fun in February 2017 when Ashwina and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by visiting a lovely National Trust cottage near Wadebridge, Cornwall called Overhaven.
Overhaven National Trust Cottage
The cottage turned out to be beautiful located in a place that was equally pristine. We managed to go for a nice long hike around the countryside in glorious sunshine despite being February.
2017 was also the first year when we (and by we, I mean Ashwina) decided to go watch something that wasn’t a movie. So, we went to the Royal Albert Hall to watch The Piano Guys. Most people I know haven’t heard of the Piano Guys, but I’d seen their videos on Facebook and completely enjoyed watching them perform.
Journey to the Isle of Skye – 5 years later
A long long time ago or five years (if you consider that long), a much younger version of Ajay and Ashwina went down to the Isle of Skye. This was pretty much our first big holiday as husband and wife which sparked a whole set of adventures that we have had over the past several years. I’ve usually been reluctant to do the same trip again because there are so many other places to visit and it’s hard to relive the magical experience you have the first time around. However, as her parents were in town and Skye remains one of the most beautiful places in the UK, we decided we’d venture back to the Isle of Skye. We decided to stick with Timberbush who we had booked the tour the first time around instead of Rabbies who we normally book our tours with. I must admit I was really looking forward to visiting the Talisker distillery and picking up a good bottle of whiskey to add to my ever increasing collection. However, that was not to be. What follows is a slow account of our journey to the Isle of Skye…