NEW YORK HONEYMOON: DAY ONE

For our New Year's Eve, art deco-inspired wedding we thought there was no better place to have our honeymoon than The Big Apple, New York! We flew from Gatwick on 4th January, giving us a couple of much-needed days to recover from the wedding and pack! We'd both never been before so were excited to finally be going, and the fact it was our honeymoon made it even more special and memorable. I wanted to share with you some pictures from our trip and give you any recommendations/tips we picked up whilst out there. We went for 6 nights/7 days and I'm pretty sure we'll be going back in the future as there were a few things we didn't get the chance to do, but after what was effectively a week, we were pretty knackered and ready to come home.

New York Day One

We wanted to get our bearings and wander round on our first day rather than stick to major plans or schedules. After having breakfast at Applebees (pancakes, of course) which was a very short walk from our hotel, The Paramount Times Square, we made our way towards Central Park and headed across to the Upper East Side. Walking through Central Park was lovely; what I found amazing about being in New York was that everywhere you turn you see things you've seen before, be it in films, tv programmes or adverts, you feel like you know everything before you've ever been (in the best way!). This is what it felt like walking through Central Park, we went to the fountain where Chuck and Blair got married (of course!) we saw the friend's fountain, we saw the big rocks that everyone seems to take pictures on when they're there - it was great! We also had lunch at The Boathouse which you will doubtless have seen in films and on tv before, I opted for the very New York-ish smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel which was yum and the (now) husband sadly selected wrong and ended up with fruit in his bread which he wasn't overly pleased with (it looked good to me, cranberries in the bread with turkey and bacon filling)!

One thing to note about Nick is he detests tea and coffee, so being a coffee lover myself this can make things difficult when, for example, I need to take my gloves off and get my camera out of my bag. Let's just say he makes for a reluctant helper...

Making our way through Central Park we eventually meandered out to the East Side with me being on my own personal mission to find the nearest Barnes and Noble; bookshops are something of a weakness for me. We found one on East 86th Street (150) and spent some time browsing the shelves (they had a fabulous stationery/gifts section - lots of Kate Spade) before heading back out into the cold and wandering until we reached the river, where we spent some time just being, people watching, trying to figure out which bridge was which.

Following this we made our way back through Central Park and towards the American Museum of Natural History. We had a lovely time here looking round the exhibitions, most notably enjoying (mostly Nick, did I mention he's a geologist?) the rock and gem rooms and making sure to capture lots of GoPro footage to take back and show his brother who, you guessed it, is also a geologist. After looking around for about an hour and a half we were both flagging a bit and ready to have a break so we headed back to the hotel (picking up a couple of beers on the way) to chill, watch some CNN talking about Donald Trump (what else?) and slowly get ready to go out for dinner.

We decided to be totally basic and go to Dallas BBQ because, well, ribs. And coleslaw. And strawberry margaritas. It wasn't the most romantic setting being seated in what was effectively a lobby, but still we had fun and good solid American food, we tried cornbread for the first time, and we left suitably happy and full. After having a walk around Times Square this is where we shall end day one, ready to catch some zzz's for day two.

#lifestyle #wedding #travel