New York - day four
We had left our shopping day until the last. We had heard so much about Woodbury Common premium outlet 'the place for designer wear at bargain prices' and thought we would check it out. We walked down to Times Square and across to the Gray Line booking office and parted with US$42 each for the trip there and back - and that's before you shop! However it was an interesting trip taking just over an hour, it took us out of N Y and we saw some other parts of the conurbation that we hadn't seen before. I guess this is where the 'normal' people live. Just like any other big city, it took about half an hour to get through the 4 lane highways packed with traffic, through the industrialised areas and graffiti strewn parking lots and downmarket garages and little businesses. The roads narrowed and the countryside took over, there were no recognisable crops or farms outlined, but there were some lovely housing areas, and Woodbury Common itself was obviously a new suburb which was growing quickly.
The bus was packed and quite comfortable, so as we got down from the bus it was a bit of a heat wave that took us by surprise. The shopping area was not like a covered mall, aka 'Westfield', but a little village with individual shops set out with streets in between. We headed for the information centre to get a map, then we sat in the food hall and had a coffee and mapped our route.
We didn't really want much, just a few thank you gifts for our hosts and maybe a little something for ourselves. Feeling a little braver about going out in the heat, we had our map planned and started out at the Puma shop which was the first sports shop as we came out (it wasn't on our chosen route of course), David was looking for walking shoes, so we looked at the shoes, nothing we liked, the tee shirts, the shorts, in fact everything and came out with a $10 top for David to wear with his pj's. And that kind of set the pattern for the rest of our shopping! We went in and out of the children's wear shops, checked out the Disneyland shop, more sports shops, the only places we bought things from were those shops where the assistants had gone out of their way to help us. I'd have thought two bewildered 'olds' would have been fair game for anyone wanting to sell something, but so many times we walked out of these shops with nothing because it's a little confusing with so much to choose from. All the designer shops were there, but they were still very expensive even with 20 or 30% off! Our best buys were 'Columbia' walking shoes, a few years back David had bought some in Wellington and they cost about $160. The same make of shoe in this shop was US$49.00. David is particular about the fit of his shoes, and these were perfect, so he bought two pairs - each a slightly different design, so I thought I'd buy a pair too! So we were happy to think we got 3 pairs for the price of one back home!
By this time we had had a late lunch and were ready to get the bus back. We queued up at the bus stop (of course) and just made it onto the bus. I thought it was pretty amazing that the demand to pay for an hours journey out of town to come shopping was so popular that buses were virtually running non stop.
We arrived back at the Gray Line bus depot and began our long walk back to the hotel. New York is so noisy, there is the constant buzz of people - usually talking on their cellphones and they are all around you, walking in front, behind, waiting to cross the road talk, talk talk in many languages and always in loud voices.
The sound of car or taxi horns is never ending, they don't seem to have 'road rage' like someone gets out of the car to have a bit of 'biffo', but it's just leaning on the horn if anyone dares to get in your way or doesn't move off quickly enough at the lights even if it means mowing down a few pedestrians.
There's also the emergency vehicles, ambulances, police, always in demand somewhere with their sirens going full blast. Not a gentle city! But having said that I never felt in danger or threatened in any way.
It took about half an hour to get back with all our parcels, we piled in the lift with several others and got off last and walked around the horseshoe corridor to our room. Oh no, our cards were not recognised, we couldn't open the door, we tried my card, David's card again, but the door wouldn't budge. That's all we needed, so David left me with the bags and returned to reception on the ground floor to see what's up.
I knew that reception would be busy at this time of day, so I sat on the floor to wait. Ten mins, 15 mins, I got out my iPhone and started to check out emails, etc. then I heard a voice from inside our room, a guy on the phone, so I thought I'd better get up save any embarrassment should he come out and try to get past! What could have happened? Maybe they had the date wrong and had let the room, what have they done with our things? Half an hour goes by, I'm well into my blog by now! David must have got talking to someone..........
Suddenly around the corner comes a breathless and somewhat relieved David - "Sue thank god I found you "........ err.....hello! "Look at the number on the door."..... OMG, we were on the wrong floor, floor 21 instead of floor 23!! (Is it only us that does these crazy things?). Poor David had checked the card with reception in a matter of minutes, then returned to floor 23 and when I wasn't waiting there he thought maybe the chambermaid must have let me in, so he went in expecting to find me there, and when I wasn't a bit of panic set in. He got the lift back down to 19, then 20, then 21 (he can't have looked very hard?), then 22, then 23 and so on. I was not to be found.. Someone must have abducted me ? Maybe I was going to be drugged and used as a carrier....? So he goes back down and alerts security that his wife is missing - awkward??
He comes back up all of lather and does the floors again, only using the stairs this time, and yes, this time he found me!!
Hard to believe isn't it?
Still, a few g & t's later we can see the funny side.
Just a light meal and our last night in New York.
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