The New York Knicks on fire

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We spent another colourful morning wandering through Central Park today and this time we started at the wilder Northern end. There were beautiful creeks and waterfalls, lakes surrounded by golden trees, stone bridges and arches. The sun was shining, the air crisp and the paths full of dog walkers and nannies pushing kids in prams. It was so typically New York and we even saw a class of school kids, only about 4 years old walking with their teachers all attached to a long piece if rope! We made our way across central park west and over to Broadway where we found the Diner used as the exterior in Seinfeld then headed back to Madam Tussuards wax museum and spent a few hours there hanging out with Brad and Jen, Britney, George, Tiger and Babe Ruth. The museum is set up in different themed rooms, a celebrity party, a nightclub scene for the Paris Hiltons and Lindsey Lohans, there were baseball dug outs for the New York Mets and Yankees and even the white house full of politicians, kings and princesses past and present.

At a nightclub with Beyonce
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At 3.30 we headed over to the Rockerfellar centre and went up to the Observation deck on level 71. We took in an uninterrupted 360 degree view of the midtown skyline including the huge expanse that is central park and the famous Empire state building. We stayed up there and watched the sun slowly set over the Hudson river and the lights of New York begin to light up as the sky turned orange then purple before finally settling into a kind of darkness with a hazey glow from all the lights.

We stayed and watched the sun slowly set over the Hudson River and the lights

Inside Madison Square Gardens
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We left for the hotel briefly then across the road to Madison Square Gardens where Justin had tickets for us to see the New York Knicks vs Utah jazz (an NBL basketball game). We started the experience with a traditional New York hot dog, Justin had the pop corn and beer and later on in the evening I made the mistake of buying some fairyfloss off a vendor who walks around the stadium, $10 for the bag! The game was fast and exciting. The knicks haven't really been in form of late but nothing was going to stop them tonight and even with a close and exciting last few minutes that brought the crowd to it's feet the Knicks never gave up the lead. The Knicks city dancers added to the entertainment, performing in different outfits during breaks and time outs. We also saw the Knicks Acrobatic team who were amazing, doing all sorts of crazy back flips, no handed cartwheels and other flips, jumps and spins.

The stadium emptied out remarkably quickly and in the freezing cold we bypassed the huge queues for the subway and taxis and crossed the road for another warm bath (for me!) then packing our bags as we leave this awesome city to continue our adventures in Alberta Canada.