Day Six ... What a way to celebrate a birthday

Today is Ian's birthday ... and what a way to celebrate!

After lots of walking yesterday, and out of respect for my blisters, Ian made a few changes to our itinerary so that there was less walking involved. (Ian .. And she did do less, but still topped 20,000 steps. However that was not my fault). We were up early and away with the plan to head back to the Rockefeller Center so that we could go up to the observation deck that we had been unable to do yesterday. As it was tickets were all booked out until 8.30 pm ... so we booked those and headed off for our next stop. 

We headed to St Patrick’s Cathedral  ... negotiating the streets blocked off for the Columbus Day Parade (always check to see if there is a public holiday BEFORE you book your holiday!) ... however due to the holiday their tours we're not beginning until 10.30 ... so off for our second detour for the day ... back to Radio City Music Hall where we organised tickets for 11.30.

We then wandered back to the Cathedral with the plan of just waiting outside until they opened for tours ... HOWEVER ... we were allowed in and this is where our day began to bloom.

In going inside we were able to sit and watch the end of the Columbus Day service.  There were probably 1,500 people there, at least 20 priests, a full choir, organist and the service was led by the Archbishop of New York. What an experience. It had been a really long time since I attended a Catholic service that was a sung liturgical mass.

Whilst I am not overly religious this experience was incredible.  The sung mass, the beautiful church, the singing of the National Anthem that ended in applause ... everything gave you shivers.

After the mass we were able to get our free self guided audio tour which allowed us to wander at our own pace and learn more about the Cathedral. The building is exceptional  ... full of incredible architecture, iconography,  mosaics, devout followers and curious onlookers. We loved it, and it was made even more special having attended the mass.

From the Cathedral we headed back to Radio City Music Hall for our guided tour. Our guide Gary took us from the stage (yes we stood on the massive stage), to the Grand Foyer, back stage, down to the hydraulics that make the stage work, to the toilets ...yes we did visit under the instructions of Gary and boy were they worth it.  Beautiful art deco fittings, a ladies lounge and a place to reapply your makeup (seated of course). We were taken to meet a Rockette … Theresa … who has been a part of the team for two years. There are only 84 Rockettes … 2 groups of 36 with 6 swings in each. Every year they have to re-apply to hold their spot. Some leave, some don’t make the standard. And then, this year they had 1300 ladies try out and only 7 new members joined the team. We ended our tour sitting in the highest level of seating looking down on the stage - at one of 5,900 seats, all with an unobstructed view. A truly magical experience - and for an Art Deco lover … an absolute treat.

Our next destination was to head to Pier 83 with the hope of catching a Landmarks Cruise along the Hudson River. We had to get from the corner of 6th Avenue/49th St to 12th Avenue/42nd St. We originally planned on catching a bus that would drive us all the way there HOWEVER Columbus Day strikes again and there were no buses running on the route we needed … so … we walked it! Thankfully I had purchased blister bandaids yesterday so my blisters were well protected. Even though it was a fair hike … it was actually worth every step as we wandered through Hells Kitchen, then along the river passed the cruise ships and the Intrepid (an aircraft carrier).

We arrived, purchased our tickets and boarded our cruise boat and with Dave as our guide we enjoyed a fabulous 90 minute cruise that took us along the river with Dave providing detailed commentary (with a quirky tone). The highlights of our cruise were going close to the Statue of Liberty and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. We marvelled at the tall buildings (especially One World), enjoyed having some of the history of NY explained and watching the passing skyline. It was a true highlight today … one we had actually had on the “back up” list and not the original itinerary.

We said goodbye to the cruise (and Dave and all our fellow cruisers) and caught a bus (yeah … they were running again by now) and went cross town to sign ourselves in for an Escape Room. We booked in to complete The Heist but we had 80 minutes to kill before our allocated time so we decided to take a chance and charge down 7 city blocks to see if we might have a chance to get to go up the Empire State Building before that.

And yes … we did it! We arrived and a lovely gentleman let us go up to redeem our tickets (our NYC Sightseeing Pass is proving to be value for money) and so we were able to head up to the 80th and 86th floors of another beautiful Art Deco building and view NY from high above. The views were stunning and coming off the back of the cruise we were able to pick out places we had seen from the river as well as places we had seen over the last 2 days.

Then 7 blocks back … we walked back to undertake our escape room. We have never done one before but had always had it on our bucket list of things to do. Ours was called The Heist (difficulty 8/10) and we (along with our fellow team mates Sofia and Jaden) had to attempt to uncover an art forger by uncovering clues to solve the puzzles in the room. We had 60 minutes and sadly … we failed 😞. We came so close, with the forgery in our sight, but our time ran out and we did not achieve our mission. But we had a ball! 

With about 90 minutes to fill before we could go to the “Top of the Rock” we headed to the Rockefeller Center and enjoyed a delicious birthday meal/dinner at Bills Burgers and then we headed to the observation levels at The Rock. In less than 5 hrs we had seen the NY skyline in daylight and then at night. We could see all of NY lit up … bright, flashing, some buildings with red, white and green lighting for Columbus Day and others in blue (solidarity and support for Israel). We could also see the large dark rectangle amidst the lights that defines the size of Central Park amidst the glittering city.

Walking back to our hotel we came across this street vendor … which had a queue that took up an entire city block!

And so ends our day. We have had an absolute ripper of a day! Beyond all that we had imagined.

Today’s tally …

Photos - 737

Steps - 20,360

Kms walked - 15.59 kms

Ad Labs - 0

Observation Decks - 2

Cruise - 1