Birthday week for Franzi! She spent the week in Madison. Alex could stay in the city. First stop before going to the office: Everyman café for a nice Croissant and a Cappuccino. On Tuesday, Franzi was surprised with an early birthday cake by her colleagues, which was super thoughtful and tasty!
Franzi got back to New York Wednesday morning since her family was coming to visit. Her parents, aunt and uncle came from Germany. We surprised them at their Hotel on Wednesday night and had a welcome drink on the rooftop bar. Thursday and Friday were still usual working days for the two of us. So we met back Thursday evening. We met at our place for an Aperitivo and to show our apartment to Franzi’s family. This can be done by standing in the kitchen/living room and turning around 360 degrees. It’s small, but cozy! For dinner we went to Cacio e Pepe. It is an Italian restaurant which we can see from our living room window. We have never been there before, but the fresh pasta was worth the visit.
On Friday it was Franziska’s birthday! Alex’s presents were unpacked first and then the family came around for a birthday song, fresh donuts and some more presents, including German sweets! We had a birthday breakfast at Mud and then it was back to work for Alex and Franzi.
In the evening, we had booked tickets for Top of the Rock (the rooftop of Rockefeller Center). We went up, the weather was gorgeous, the view was breathtaking, and the sun started setting. We finished the night with a dinner at Root & Bone, which was the restaurant we went to on our very first night in New York.
Saturday, we started of the day with a breakfast at Veselka, a famous Ukrainian restaurant which is open 24/7 and open since the 1950s. We then strolled around the East Village, Little Italy, China Town, Soho and finally walked along the High Line.
In the evening, we had a small snack at the hotel and then went to The Carnegie Club. We watched the same Frank Sinatra Show Alex and Franzi had seen before, but it was a great experience again and everyone really enjoyed it! Afterwards, we moved on to Tanner Smith’s and danced the rest of the night away.
Now it was already the last day and we started it with a breakfast at The Bluebell Café. Next, we took the Subway down to the 9/11 memorial – even though we’ve been here before, it is a special moment every time. The architecture is so meaningful and makes you reflect automatically. We then decided to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and ended up in Dumbo for a light snack at Cecconi’s.
The family moved on to the MET and Alex and Franzi used the time to get prepared for the next week. For the last evening, we had dinner at Simon & the Whale. In the meantime, in Germany Alex’s family had a meet-up in Weimar, so this was truly a family weekend.
