A Dream Honeymoon: Arthritically Navigating New York & Canada | PART 5

Day 11: New Years Day

What a way to enter 2025. In New York F*ing City!!

We had a lovely morning stroll across to Grand Central Station. But first things first – breakfast! We went to The Pershing Square which is located under the bridge across from Grand Central. I had a scrummy Eggs Royale and an iced latte and Dan had a breakfast panini. Such a good breakfast and set us up well for the day. Such a gorgeous place inside too! Would definitely recommend.

We then wandering across the street to go inside Grand Central Station. It’s grand and it’s central – to quote Marty the Zebra. But it really is grand. The iconic clock, the high ceilings, the décor … incredible!! We then had a lovely stroll past the library and into Bryant Park. Still too full from breakfast, we didn’t delve into any of the delicious looking treats. We sat around, people watching, soaking it all in, just relaxing.

Heading back to the hotel for a rest, we stopped off at many NY GIFT shops to buy some souvenirs. You have to be very tactful and make sure you don’t just go for the first one as you can almost certainly find cheaper!!  

Dying to try another taco before we left, we found Los Tacos Hermanos not far from the hotel – very yummy, I should’ve got two!! Dan’s burrito was massive though so I had some of that as well. Very good grub.

After doing some googling of free things to do in New York, we found a free light show which turned out to be in the Genesis Car Salesroom. A very long queue, but I guess it was free so no one was complaining! It was cool to see and something to do that night that didn’t cost us anything. I don’t think it was something wroth paying for but a cool experience nonetheless.

We wandered back up to near our hotel, up some streets that I’m glad I wasn’t alone and had Dan to cling on to and my walking stick just in case!! But other than that we felt completely safe the whole of our trip.

Our last night in NYC, we had loved every minute. It had been so special. No surprise, we landed ourselves in the Tailor Pub, creatures of habit and lovers of an Irish bar. We celebrated our last night quite well I feel. We then went for a drunk cheesecake as we realised we didn’t have enough cheesecakes whilst in New York. I say drunk cheesecake as I didn’t realise until we got back to the hotel room that the cheesecake I got off the shelf was just a regular Red Velvet cake and not a Red Velvet Cheesecake I was raving about the whole walk home!!! Anyway, still just as yummy!

Talking about News Years Day seems so long ago now - well it was over 2 months ago. 2025 is going so fast already!!

Day 12: NYC to Niagara Falls

Woke up nice and fresh ready for our big drive up to Niagara Falls. Obviously had Liberty Bagels for breakfast – we couldn’t not on our last day. We would have to savour the taste forever – or until we could ever afford to come back … forever sounds more likely!

We checked out of the New Yorker Hotel and jumped in a cab to JFK Airport where we were going to pick up the car. The taxi driver was very helpful with different tips for driving through New York. I couldn’t take everything that he said in but got the jist of if you’re going to drive in Manhattan you have to be a dickhead.

So, we get to the car rental desk – it looked a little sketchy compared to all the other car rentals lined up next to it but hey ho. I gave my driving licence to the woman and asked her if we could add Dan on to drive as well as we couldn’t when originally booked but our travel agent said to ask at the time. The woman replied “Possibly but you can’t drive because your license is expired”. … Our jaws dropped. Oh, sh*t.

Dan’s face looked white thinking about driving through Manhattan (as I was going to do the city bits and he would do the other bits). We then looked at Dan’s license and that was even more out of date than mine. Oh, f**k.

So, we were in JFK with the plan to drive to Niagara with both our licenses expired and no idea what the F to do.

We looked online quickly and there were 2 flights to Toronto that afternoon luckily. We walked across to the main airport and asked the woman at the desk if we could buy 2 tickets for the next flight to Toronto (it felt like we were in some sort of movie!). Anyway, unlike in the movies she said no we have to do it online … as if this is even a thing. So, with dodgy wifi, dodgy data, flight prices constantly going up and the Air Canada helpline not answering for 45 minutes … we eventually got two very expensive tickets to Toronto. I think it nearly took about an hour and a half to actually have confirmation of these tickets. What a f*ing palaver.

We got up to the gate and I rang my Mum, burst into tears with the shock of it all. But we did it. We got on the plane and arrived into Toronto absolutely fine! After waiting for the plane, an hour and a half flight and an hour and a half taxi ride, we probably arrived to the hotel in Niagara about the same time as if we did drive.

We checked into the Sheraton Hotel and wow, we felt it had all been worth it. It was stunning. After a quick shower to get rid of the flight smell, we headed upstairs for some food at the hotel’s Italian restaurant Massimo’s. We had a lovely welcome and they were very excited it was our honeymoon. And they told us over the five days at the New Year there was a firework display every night over the falls. It was gorgeous food and a well-deserved lovely glass of wine.

Day 13:

We woke up to the lovely sound of the falls and the gorgeous view of the outside our window. It truly was magical. We headed upstairs to the hotel buffet for breakfast. Had a massive plate of literally everything.

We walked down to the water and walked along to the horseshoe falls. We booked on to do the Walk Behind the Falls. The sound of the water crashing down was just incredible. The power behind it is just amazing. You could’ve stayed there for ages. And then the bits that you get to be right behind the falls too. Obviously, you can’t see much as it’s just the constant pure force of water belting down. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a spare penny or cent to throw in. It was such a fantastic experience.

We then walked around up to the different shopping centres and arcades. We stopped off at Boston’s Pizza and shared a good pizza and had a couple of beers. We thought we were a bit old for the arcades as everyone in there was either under 13 or a parent!!

That evening, we walked down to the waterside to watch the fireworks. It was an amazing display. And the colours that they show on a night behind the American and Niagara Falls is also amazing. It was like some sort of movie!

We then walked up to the top of the hill to Remington’s Steakhouse. I had myself a lovely glass of wine and Dan was on the beers. We ordered what we’d both had in the previous steakhouses, just to compare – Dan had the New York and I had the filet. I think that one was the best steak of the trip for me. It was cooked to perfection. They then brought us out a candle with our cheesecake to celebrate! Such a lovely restaurant and had lots of character with all the different decorations.  

A gorgeous day and night!

I can't believe theres only 1 and a half days left to write about our amazing trip!

Thanks for reading and the following (and final!) days will be uploaded shortly,

Ali x

[Instagram reel Day 11-13: instagram.com/alidaggett]