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Published: November 22nd 2010
The city that never sleeps has certainly had the opposite effect on us ... 7.00pm on day one of our RTW trip and we're exhausted. Time for bed soon, but must blog first!
The journey here was relatively stress-free but the queues at US immigration were quite long (and JFK was like an oven) ... it was quite surprising that William and Emily were exempt from the stringent new entry procedures of digital fingerprinting and 'retinal scanning' ...
Terminal 5 at LHR on the other hand was almost a pleasure. It really is a structurally-beautiful building and check-in and bag-drop were both very rapid. What more can you ask for from an airport?
The flight was pretty empty and we were able to share two rows of four seats, allowing us some room to spread out.
Our pre-booked transfer in rush-hour NY traffic was hair-raising (we did see one fender-bender on the freeway) although Emily slept through it ... I could feel Diana 'braking' behind me all the way to our apartment. Pretty soon after leaving the airport sprawl behind the skyline rose up before us as the towers of Manhattan loomed large. Our drive up 6th Ave was like something
out of a movie ... and I expected either a car-chase or gigantic creature to come around the next corner at any instant.
Our apartment in Midtown West is just off Broadway - halfway between Central Park and the main sights of Downtown. It is very comfortable, with W and E on a pulldown bed in the lounge, and gives fantastic views towards the Hudson River. There is a certain beauty to the skyline, although us country-people struggle to explain it to ourselves!
A relaxing first morning was interrupted by a search for a travel adaptor (oops!) and then we got on the road for a stroll through Central Park to the Nat Hist Museum, after a diner breakfast of bacon and pancakes. Central Park was beautiful in the sunshine, although the temperature had dropped overnight, and was full of all manner of recreational pedestrians. The museum was a bit dated in places but the biodiveristy exhibit and cosmology film made up for things somewhat! At least William managed to find all his favourite exhibits from a 'Night at the Museum', even if Dexter wasn't slapping!
A trip on the subway led us to Madison Square Garden to pick up
our tickets for Cirque de Soleil ... but no joy with tickets for tomorrow's hockey game :-(
We timed our trip up the Empire State Building to perfection as the sun dropped to the horizon and we managed to take some great photos. A longish walk back through the sights of Broadway and Times Square got us home in time to eat a takeout pizza before bed.
Although it is a Sunday, there is no let-up in the traffic noise reaching us on the 31st floor. The rumble of thousands of cars, buses, trains, planes ... the 'whup-whup-whup' of sirens sorting out problems all over the city ... the frantic horn of another impatient taxi-driver - these are the sounds that send us to sleep this evening as they woke us this morning.
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Benny
non-member comment
Wow!
My favourite building! I love this photo. What a view! x