Day 1 in NYC: Ambitious plan re-do

One can't start an ambitious walking tour of NYC without good food, so our first stop was Mario Batali's Eataly. I had read about it in Rachael Ray's magazine and wanted to check it out since it is rumored that downtown Frederick may soon be home to a very similar Eataly-esque food emporium courtesy of one Bryan Voltaggio. Rachael talked about the rooftop beer garden at Eataly - Birreria - and we got on the elevator and headed up top.

Birreria (took this with my phone)

Our helpful waiter helped us pick two great beers - the Victory Otto that I had was amazing. We didn't know what to expect from the food (it was a beer place after all) but oh my word we had a ridiculously tasty and fresh lunch.

Yum!

Once our stomachs were full we got on the metro and got off at the Wall Street stop and commenced our 3-hour tour. The last time Bogdan and I were in NYC we rented bikes and covered a lot of ground. The goings on foot was much much slower. We walked to the tip of Manhattan, checked out the Statue of Liberty and walked through Battery Park. When Bogdan told me it was already 3, I could not believe it.

The plan had been to finish our walk at 4 and head to midtown for MOMA, but we had only really started my tour. We pressed on and finished a third of my turn-by-turn tour (thanks to my smartphone we were able to make some quick changes).

We finished the tour in front of a Ukrainian Orthodox church smack dab in the middle of a little Ukrainian enclave near Little Italy. (I totally planned that).

When we arrived at MOMA that evening (much later than expected) we unfortunately found that every.other.person.in.Manhattan. was at MOMA for the free Friday night. The line for free tickets was literally out the door and around the block.

We made the executive (and smart!) decision to hail a cab, head to our Kimpton hotel for their free wine hour, and get ready for our dinner at Hundred Acres. That night as we ate a delicious dinner in an uber-romantic soho restaurant, we reminisced about our long day and prepared ourselves for the next (and last) day.