New York - day 2

Day 2 and I decide to something very touristy - a 3 hour boat trip around the island of Manhattan. I love the way a city can look so different from the water - London takes on a different feel on a commuter boat and Liverpool is a truly beautiful city when viewed from the Mersey.

The trip is fascinating with the guide doing a commentary which combines history with humour, interesting fact with wonderful trivia. He handles very well what could have been an awkward moment as he talks about the World Trade Center; dignified but not going in to mawkishness nor unthinking patriotism.

At one point he comments that he majored in speech and theatre at college before moving to film school and NYC (to be honest the most surprising thing he said during the entire commentary was "my wife and I"...) and whilst his career may not gone how he intended, he is in effect giving a 3 hour one man show several times a week. A highly recommended way to spend a morning in NYC.

After lunch I head to the Museum of Modern Art - no doubt the first of many galleries I'll enjoy on this trip. What a lovely building and a fascinating collection. Modern art may not be for eveyone - but I like it and this is a beautiful haven of art just off the bustle of 5th Avenue.

This weekend is the start of the NFL season and with the New York Giants being the current Superbowl champions the honour of the opening game falls to them. To celebrate there is a free NFL Kickoff concert being held at Columbus Circle - quite why there so we have to watch it from a blocked off road when Central Park is next door and would make more sense I've no idea. Anyway, closing the road in the rush hour adds to the midtown traffic chaos and I wander over to take a look. All I will say is that it's a slighty strange line up - Natasha Bedingfield (I've come all this way to see a Brit artist....), Usher, and Keith Urban (probably best known in the UK for being married to Nicole Kidman) - and I leave pretty promptly.

I head back to the hotel but stop off at Top of the Rock and go to the observation deck. What a contrast to yesterday's Empire State Building. I'm there at a similar time but there are no queues and it's cheaper. It is better organised with more viewing space - on several levels - at the top and, of course, you get wonderful and breathtaking views of the skyline. Its location means you get see across Central Park as well as the beautiful Empire State Building and my undoubted tip so far - if you visit New York forget the Empire State Building, head straight to the Top of the Rock.

New York - day 1

So I made it - and they let me in the country! For a few years I've been wanting to do a trip to the USA and combine visiting New York City and Washington DC. Finally, this year I actually got around to doing something about it.

A few initial observations;

• Terminal 5 at Heathrow is nearly excellent. Check in and security were swiftly dealt with and there are numerous shops and restaurants. But it does seem to be a shopping centre which happens to offer flights, rather than a decent airport putting the passenger first. All that money spent, and still had to queue for the inadequate number of toilets!
• I really hope that the immigration officer's name on their badge is more an acquired name than their birth name - to be a woman called 'Mutt' would seem a tad cruel. And I'm not making that up - that really was her name on her badge
• JFK airport seems to have achieved the impossible and is actually more confusing and ugly than Heathrow
• they clearly don't have speed cameras in the USA. My transfer from the airport was by minivan. Having been driven around JFK airport and seeing it from all angles as the vehicle was filled, we headed off at breakneck speed. Speed limit = 50; we were going at 70 and once touched 80 as we undertook, tailgated and went right across all the lanes on the way to Manhattan, all whilst the driver seemed to be shuffling the paperwork to work out which hotel to stop at first! Good fun - but glad I arrived in one piece!
  

First impression - New York really is Gotham!

My hotel is right in midtown and just off 5th Avenue - room is smallish, but it's all location, location, location! I'm going to be such a tourist on this trip and I walk down to the Empire State Building. It's a beautiful building to look at, and the view from the top - well the 86th floor, to get to the 102nd is another $15 - is amazing, and slightly scary. However, the interior of the building the tourists see is tired and there is a long line to join to pay - though not as long as it could have been judging by the layout of the waiting area. Also, all the staff are dressed in ESB suits styled to allude to the 30s - but none of them seem to fit anyone. I've never seen such a large number of ill-fitting suits in one place. Makes you wonder whether is some deliberate and bizarre branding idea...

Anyway, the view is amazing and a good, though tiring start, to my stay.