1st stop

Our 1st stop was New York. We stayed out of town in Long Island City where our hotel was everything we needed & not expensive like the Downtown places. It was hot hot hot & humid in Downtown Manhattan as there's nowhere for the heat to go. It's pumping out of the air-conditioned buildings & up through the grills in the pavements then it stays between the tall, tall buildings where everyone is in a hurry and traffic just keeps coming from every direction. However it was all wonderful & we had to pinch ourselves to be sure it was real. We woke up the first morning to discover that the New York 1/2 marathon was to go though Central Park so we were there by 9 am to watch, & that was after finding out how to get around on the underground system. It works really well & we bought 1-week tickets. We bought ourselves a City Visits ticket as we went into the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) & that took us past lots of entrance queues. MoMA was brilliant. One thing I had wanted to do for a long time was to visit NY art galleries. It's a good reason to go there. We ate there too & that was amazing. In NY I bought a camera in what looked like an ordinary camera shop. Thereby hangs a tale! It was a scam but they didn't get away with it. When we knew that it was too late to stop payment we went later in the week to the local office for Consumer Affairs where they were brilliant. They arranged for our money back & we got it. Put it down to experience.
The next day was a boat trip round Manhattan Island past the Statue of Liberty, an emotional visit to the World Trade Centre memorial exhibition at Ground Zero & then into City centre again & up to the top of the Empire State Building.
The next day - another gallery - surprise, surprise. The Guggenheim as on British TV quite recently & is something to behold. The building itself is amazing.& the art by Louise Bourgeois is strange but certainly worth seeing. Afterwards we walked round the Jackie Kennedy-Onasis reservoir in Central Park. We took a train & a FREE ferry past the Statue again then another train on Staten Island to a place called Great Kills where we found the very best restaurant ever. We were spoiled by the boss, the chef & the waiter. The food was glorious & some of it was complementary. When we returned after dark the views were quite stunning.
Next day, Museum of Natural History. Wow, it’s an enormous place. Needed a whole day in there & then more. Walked round another part of Central Park & found the Boathouse Restaurant, recommended by Rachel, so we knew we’d enjoy it. It was posh. She does have expensive taste!
The next day was our last in NY & the heat hit us as we walked out of the hotel. We took a train to a completely different part of NY, the Bronx, where there’s an amazing zoo. Perhaps the best we’ve seen.
That evening we had tickets for a show on Broadway & we went to see Mama Mia. It was wonderful. A great end to our first week.

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