New York

An early start this morning after a full round of goodbyes to Mark, Joelle and Grace. Off to New York via Hoboken New Jersey to visit Carlo’s Bake Shop of Cake Boss fame. Cake Boss is a TV show on one of the TV channels that you might accidentally flick through while trying to find something to watch when there is no football or cricket coverage. It’s one of Anne’s favourite shows so we had to stop off and say hello to Carlos. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there but that didn’t stop Anne leaving a tin of English biscuits and a card for Carlos and the team. I’m sure Carlos will be in touch soon.

It was lunchtime in Hoboken and just up the road from Carlo’s Bake Shop is The Mad Hatter Bar and Grill. The owner is Rocko, not to be confused with Rocky but believe me you will be confused. Rocko, who served us personally, is the spitting image of Rocky Balboa complete with his voice, “hey wut can’a get ya guys?” I had the Hatter Burger and Fries. I’m going back tomorrow for more fries. I have never had fries so good. I’ve already started a savings plan to come back in October for more hatter fries, I’m going to set up a Mad Hatter fries shop in Winchester. Rocko thinks its a great idea.

The car is amazing, great to drive and full of all sorts of electronic wizardry. But even the car couldn’t make sense of the New York road system. It should be easy, New York is a grid system with numbers for Streets going east to west and Avenues going north to south. So we headed for 42nd Street and 10th Avenue. And ended up in Brooklyn. It seems Brooklyn (just south of Manhatten) has exactly the same road system. Oh well, the good news is I ended up driving the car twice through New York City.

The hotel is on 42nd street 5 minutes walk from Times Square and Broadway. This afternoon we walked around the area taking in the New York ambience which is a sort of hamburger and onions. We were looking at all the shows to see what we should see tomorrow night, no decision so far.

[Show slideshow]