NYC- Empire State Building

Well, you'll never believe this but we actually made it out of the hotel in time to have breakfast today. We went for some bagels with cream cheese and then got on a bus for midtown.
We discovered that the bus we took everyday to get to midtown actually had quite a few well known sights on it's route so we thought we might as well just stay on the bus and have a look at those sights.
First stop was the New York public library, as seen in "The Day after Tomorrow" and unfortunately for us, it seemed to be shut for some kind of private function. There didn't seem to be any people going in and out apart from people wearing uniforms for the function so we made do with just getting a photo from the outside and then walked on to Grand Central Station. Mainly, we wanted to see that view from those posters where the sun is streaming in through the massive windows. Our plan was kind of foxed from the beginning though because the weather had reverted back to its normal self and it was dark and drizzling outside so no sun. The room is also a lot smaller than it looks on the posters. When we got there, we spent ages trying to figure out how they even managed to get that shot because it just seemed impossible at the time. Probably some kind of camera trick that we haven't figured out yet! We didn't spend too much time there though so we went on to the final stop on the bus route- the United Nations buildings. Again, the building was fenced off so no close ups or anything but the building itself looked quite impressive. Not because of the architecture but the sheer size of it. We had to walk up some stairs across the road from the building up to UN Way in order to fit the whole thing on to a photo.
It started to rain by then again so we went to Starbucks (yes, our favourite in the rainy weather). Starbucks is really an education or an insight in to the lives of New Yorkers you know. The things you hear while you are just innocently sitting there sipping at your latte are unbelievable. Its like something out of Sex and the City. Much to Svens consternation, I spent ages listening to a woman telling her friend about her weekend though had to leave before she got to the conclusion because Sven got so annoyed.
So by then it had stopped raining again and we took our little selves to the Empire State Building. The queue was absolutely massive though and seeing as neither of us really wanted to stand around for hours, we decided on a detour to the flat iron building, so called because of its resemblance to one of the old fashioned flat irons used way back when (before we were born anyway!). This is apparently the most-photographed building in New York for that reason. When it was built, it was one of the tallest buildings in New York but nowadays, it is absolutely dwarfed by all the other skyscrapers surrounding it.
A quick walk took us across the road from the flatiron building into Madison Square Park for a brief stroll and a few minutes watching the antics of the squirrels chasing each other up and down the trees. Seeing as we were so close by, we had to go and have a quick look at the Madison Square Garden, probably best known for being home to the New York Knicks. Outside, there is a massive basketball mounted on top of the building so you can't really miss it. There seemed to have been some kind of graduation ceremony going on in there because there were loads of people streaming out of the building wearing graduation gowns and hats which was quite interesting. We didn't hang around for long though before we headed back in the direction of the Empire State Building again. Fortunately, the queue was much shorter this time around so we decided to go for it. It only took about an hour in the end!! It bloody didn't look that long when we went in the front entrance but its really deceiving. Its not like in Sleepless in Seattle at all- there's no way you'd be able to nip up for a quick look. Again, there was also airport style security for everybody.
It took ages to get up to the observation deck and we didn't even opt to go to the upper deck either. It was definitely worth it when we eventually got there. Luckily, the weather had improved a little and we had a few specks of blue sky. The views over New York are so impressive with all the huge buildings downtown and some of the smaller ones in the area around the ESB in midtown. We spent ages up there taking photos but we couldn't spend forever up there and it was difficult geting good shots because of the sheer amount of people up there (again, not like in Sleepless in Seattle when nobody is really up there except for her and Tom Hanks and the annoying little kid).
It was getting on by then so we re-traced our steps towards Times Square with a detour through Macy's and then had dinner at one of our beloved salad bars bfore catching a bus back to the hotel.

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