Reasonably good night's sleep - street noise calmed
down considerably to a dull roar. Fairly muggy, so thankful for working
air-conditioner. Another early start to make the most of our limited time here.
Bathroom facilities excellent, if not a little dated in some areas (art deco
tiling etc. - but tastefully so). No power shower and towels clearly not brand
spanking new, so had to deduct a few points, but generally of a high standard.
Breakfast at Starbucks - O.K. if you know exactly what you want (and can
understand when the child serving behind the counter mumbles something incomprehensible
back to confirm the order), but something of a nightmare when you don't - no
surprises for guessing which camp I fall into.
Then went of for a bit of an explore, only to discover
with a pleasant surprise that our hotel is incredibly well placed for
relatively easy access to most touristy-type sights (Empire State building,
good views of Chrysler building and Flat-iron building, Broadway, 5th Avenue
(and attendant shops), Times Square - the list could go on if I had a better
memory).
Endless panoply of New York cliches - steam coming up
through man-hole covers, portable hot-dog stands on almost every street corner
(except of course when we wanted to have lunch - getting a bit late so thought
one would be easy to find, but to no avail - had awful Burger King (equivalent
of HJ's, but on a par with McD's for awfulness) instead, and the order wasn't
right - twice. I couldn't bear the thought of going back to complain (or
rather, get what we paid for) a second time, and then the hot-dog stands suddenly
reappeared again a few shops later - seems we were in the hot-dog vendor black
spot at just the wrong moment), seemingly endless tableau of art deco buildings,
joggers (especially at that mildly early time of the day on Saturday before a
lot of the stores opened), yellow taxi cabs really are everywhere (seem to make
up over half of the vehicles on the road) and traffic lights suspended over the
middle of the road.
Went up Empire State building - fantastic panoramic
view of New York (Manhattan, strictly speaking I think). A bit smoggy, but
mainly clearish skies, so a fairly good view - made us all realise just how big
this city is (8.2 million people - without tourists presumably), and also
clearly established that we really are in New York (obvious presence of cliches
notwithstanding). Bus down to the harbour for a cruise around the harbour,
under a couple of really big bridges, fantastic view of the New York sky-line
and a close-up of the Statute of Liberty without having to get off - turns out
is being refurbished, so in terms of climbing up it, we saved ourselves a trip
- not sure (given the limited time factor) that going over to Liberty Island
would have been a good use of resources.
Noticed the following catchy phrasing on the side of
all the NYPD police cars [yes, I know the 'police' is a needlessly redundant
repetition, but if I didn't add this sort of stuff, you wouldn't have anything
to complain about!!!] - Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect - all very well, but
turns out to be a bit of an unfortunate initialisation I would have thought.
Then went shopping, which basically meant that I stood
outside holding most of our bags while the others went in, and then I entered
the hallowed confines when a signature was needed in order to complete the
financial aspect of the transaction.
Tried to find an ATM which would accept my PIN, but
without any luck - will try again tomorrow, otherwise will have to sell one of
the kids' kidneys to raise a bit of cash.
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