NEW YORK - 21 MARCH

CHINA TOWN SHOPPING

ENJOYING THE FAMOUS CHICKEN CORN SOUP

MEETING SPONGEBOB LEGO

ROCKERFELLER CENTRE

CHINA TOWN

PICASSO

FREEZING IN CENTRAL PARK

THE KNIGHTS

THE GREEKS!

MORE TOY SHOPPING!

We sleep in and take a long stroll through Central Park to the Metropolitian Museum. Luckily it is not that busy when we get there. We start off in the Greek section and Luc takes photos of each and every display. It takes hours to get him out of there. We see a stunning Dali and also stunning Picassos in the modern art section. I get Luc to take photos of two of the stunning Picassos and tell him that he can buy a plane with one of the paintings! Monique falls in love with the French rooms - decorated so beautifully - think she can live there! The boys are in awe with the knights and their armour - especially all the weapons. The Egyptian section is also great and we struggle to get Luc out of there.
Meet Uri and Danny at the Nueve Restaurant. Greeted by a Gustav Klimt print - great day of seeing all the masters! Austrian restaurant and the waiting lines are very long. But finally gets a table. Very expensive, but guess it is the experience that counts. To end the meal Monique decides to order one of the decadent cakes - lots of cakes with cream and chocolate! But the poppyseed marble cake turns out to be a dissappointment - with a lot of comments from the men about the choice!
We decide to walk down to Uri's office - far walk from 96 to 37 avenue. Cold but nice as we get to see a lot of designer shops, stunning buildings and interesting people. Luc decides that Danny is his new best friend, much to this dismay of his mother, who struggles with the rejection!
We make a very long stop at T J Swartz (the massive toy shop!). Luc goes straight off to Lego. Callie gets him a small Lego and Monique secretly buys one for this birthday, which Uri hides away. We also stop at the Rockefeller Building, where we see the beginning of the blooming flowers (for which NY is wellknown) as well as the last of the icescating rink.
After popping into Uri's office, we take the subway to Chinatown for Luc to have his chicken corn soup. Danny spots decent looking restaurant, and whilst they order, Monique runs off to the pastry shop next door - the Chinese make great pastries! After being ignored for some time (which made us wonder if we are invincible to the Chinese!) we order soup and fried rice. We are all straving and dig deep into the food. Luc is now very happy!!!!! Chicken corn coup is his NY favourite.
It is very late and Callie wants to get to a church. We take the underground to 94th - which is close to Uri and where we have seen a big church. It is 7.30 when we get there to see that the church is closed. Then Danny sees the Pres. church on the other side of the street. People are still going in and we run to see if we can join. When we get there we see that all of the people are Chinese. The man at the door is really nice and tells us that the service is in English and Mandarin. Callie decides to go in!
Turns out to be a very long, Easter Friday church service. Stunning singing, but all in Mandrin - thank goodness we had a flyer with English translation. The sermon also in Mandarin, and some of the members of the congregation tries to find someone who can translate for us (we are the only Europeans here!). THey are very sweet and then tell us that the reverant will do some of the sermon in English! After 45 mintutes of Mandrin, we finally understand the English (at this stage I was wondering if I could pray and ask God to help us understand Mandrin!). His 10 minutes of English is great and very interesting - by this time Luc is now fast asleep. It is now 9 already and we are very late for our dinner at Ted, so we ask our hosts to excuse us. They are very kind and seems that our visit was a great honour to them. They ask where we are from and say they will pray for us!
Uri and Danny is waiting outside and we grab a taxi. Ted is on 3rd floor and Luc very unhappy when he wakes up - Callie had to carry him up! Great to see Ted again. He has got nice flat with some big cats, whom has never been outside!!!!! Turns out to be great evening with good food and company.
We leave very late! Hope we will be up in time for our fligth the next day!
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY : Luc asking Uri and Danny which of them is the wife?