Day 18 was the only day of this trip where I had something firmly planned before I left the UK - in the form of tickets for the Broadway show, Phantom of the Opera. Aware that the show started at seven, and knowing it was at least a 40 minute walk & we wanted to eat beforehand, that actually took up a far larger chunk of the day than I realised! With this in mind it would probably have been wise to have a relaxing day beforehand - but I haven't been listening to wisdom so far on this trip so why on earth should I start?!
So I thought to try and visit the American Museum of Natural History during the day, and do a little tour round in the afternoon. It probably would've been fine had my cough not returned, most likely brought on by the air-conditioning, which considerably slowed progress. And also, anyone visiting New York soon should take note that the Museum of Natural History is huge! So all in all we didn't really get our money's worth, although we did get to see some cool dinosaur skeletons, the like of which I haven't seen since I was a kid. It's still enough to make you marvel at the wonders of nature, and just how chronologically insignificant man's presence on earth is. We also saw the Hall of Biodiversity, with a lot of information about environmental problems we are causing (nothing new to me but interesting to see how they present it to the general public). I did enjoy my brief time there (in between coughing fits!) but we had to cut it far shorter than I'd hoped in order to give myself time to recover for the evening’s festivities. Maybe I will return later on in the trip, particularly as the next few days are meant to be rainy.
Not yet braving the public transport system, we opted to walk down to Times Square, where we met up again with Tubb and Helen for food at Applebee's. The company was great although the food was largely uninspiring chain-restaurant fare - pretty much as expected but not as good as the two other restaurants we've already visited near our hotel on the Upper West Side, which have both been accessible yet cosy, offering an interesting menu and portions that are not grossly oversized! The point of eating near Times Square however was to put us in close proximity to our theatre for the evening’s entertainment.
We split up with Tubb & Helen who went off to try and get last-minute tickets for a show (Stomp in the end), and made our way to see Phantom. Supposedly the longest-running show on Broadway, I have to say although I found it watchable I wasn't left feeling culturally enriched! And to be honest, it doesn't take much for me to feel that way from a musical - a compelling story or a few very good musical numbers, neither of which I felt Phantom really delivers. My dad was even less appreciative, in terms ruder than I can say on here! That’s what he gets for leaving the choice entirely up to me I guess - although I do admit I could probably have made a better choice! Given the ease of getting tickets and the fact we are on Broadway means we might very well see another show this week anyway.
Not a particularly positive blog on reflection, but looking back on it even the less inspiring days here still feel exciting - yes maybe the show wasn't the best I've seen, but the whole experience of walking along Broadway seeing theatre after theatre is quite an experience in itself. And there's something really nice about walking out of the theatre at 9:30 at night in short sleeves and walking round in the open air quite comfortably. On our way back, we stopped at the huge Toys "R" Us store, dominated by a decent size Ferris wheel in the middle of the store four stories high. Me and dad had a look round like a couple of big kids, and will be back before we leave to buy presents! I was thinking my brother and sister-in-law would probably appreciate me buying my niece Millie a drum kit...
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