Monday 10th July – Leaving NYC

Si messing around with the Obamas...

Due to the confusion over entry to the 9/11 museum we had one of the five attractions left on our New York Pass to use up.  What to do? Prior to check-out, we headed to the closest tourist spot that vaguely appealed to us.  This happened to be Madame Tussauds in the next street.  In fact, it turned out to be quite good and we had a laugh!

Reunited with our American hero

Catching up with Tom Hiddleston in the jungle....

Returning just in time to pack and check out of our hotel, we left our luggage and walked to the nearest Hertz branch.  There, the moody saleswoman told us that we were late so our cheap manager’s special car had been given away! We didn’t know that within an hour of your allotted time they give your wheels away.  We ended up spending the $50 we’d saved on the NYC pass on an upgrade to a medium-sized Nissan!  I hate car rental companies.  You always end up forking out more money than you agreed. There’s always some small print or additional fees…

I had told Simon that I never intended to be driving around NYC, so that would be up to him!  Painfully slowly, Si drove us back to hotel to collect our bags and onwards through the horrendous NYC traffic.  Somehow, we managed to find the ‘Friends’ house and the original Ghostbusters fire station, despite the fact that it was camouflaged under scaffolding. 

The Friends building

Our final chance to geek off by searching for important TV and film locations.  It was then time to make our way out of the city and head back to Massachusetts.  Sad times.  We made ourselves feel better by stopping off at an amazing deli on the border of New York and Connecticut for tasty sandwiches and some New York cheesecake.

This stop, combined with some horrific traffic, delayed us from getting back to Massachsetts until 745pm, so we missed seeing the girls. It was supposed to be our turn to source dinner, but of course we had left it too late so Tash and David had made pasta and Bolognese. We chatted about the last few days and shared photos until bed.  We were too exhausted to start the mammoth task of packing for the return trip home, that could wait until tomorrow.