NYC Day 4: Central Park Tour

Another tour arranged by the hotel, this time of Central Park. Tina, current tour guide and former mounted park ranger, was on hand to take us round and show us the sites. She was full of fascinating stories about the park and its heritage, taking us on a big loop which included the lake and Shakespeare's garden.



We came back via the Alice in Wonderland Statue:



And, once the tour was over, walked our way back to the hotel, passing through Bloomingdales and Tiffany's on the way, to get ready for our night at the theatre.

NYC Day 4: Hello Dolly

Having checked the route to the theatre in the morning before the tour of Central Park, we knew exactly where we had to be and how long it was going to take. Despite this, A and I still managed to cut things down to the wire, arriving in the hotel lobby just as the clock was striking quarter-past.



We arrived in the queue for the theatre with time to spare and, standing in Shubert Alley, I was struck by an odd feeling: everyone in the queue was quite a bit shorter than me and I was able to see clear over their heads to the doors and across the street. Given that I am of average height, it's not something that happens very often. Clearly, the majority of the people waiting to go in must have been on the short side!

When we got in, we found ourselves with excellent seats — in the middle of the dress circle — and the temperature was truly civilised, given the New York weather.

Having gone in completely cold, knowing nothing of the story and having not seen the film version, I didn't quite know what to expect, but it was completely delightful: very funny, excellent singing and dancing throughout — the chorus, expecially, were absolutely superb — and I enjoyed the whole thing from start to finish. Bette Midler was, of course, first rate, and her back-and-forth with David Hyde Pierce was excellent — he managed to corpse her in middle of the scene where Horace and Dolly have dinner at the Harmonia Gardens — and everyone really looked like they were really enjoying themselves, as might be expected with the end of the run in sight.

After the theatre, walking on air, we stopped at a Brazilian bar and, around half-past eleven, decided that we were hungry and headed back to a pizza place that promised gluten-free pies. After ascertaining that they didn't do GF by the slice, J and I ordered a couple of slices for ourselves and a whole pizza for C and A. While we were waiting A and her dad had a bet with each other: C reckoned the pizza was only going to be the size of a dinner plate; A thought it was going to be larger. I, having been to a New York pizza place with RCP back in 1999 where the waiter advised us not to order two but to get two toppings on one, was absolutely confident it was going to be large, and so it proved!