New York

Arrival. We spent five days in the Big Apple, arriving on 3rd Sep to a comfortably balmy Saturday early evening and proceeded to our first hotel via public transport – to assuage my inveterate interest in trains and buses I’m afraid (in hindsight we should have taken a taxi). There was supposed to be a courtesy bus from Woodside Metro Station but it transpired they don’t run it on a weekend.

First Night. Finally arrived at the hotel after the train, metro and taxi (that I’d been trying to avoid) through Brooklyn from JFK. We’d booked a pricier room for our first night of the trip (at the Sumner Hotel). Prior to our arrival however they’d then apologised by email for being over-booked and organised another (more expensive) room in a different hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Maspeth (HIEX), but for the same price as our original booking. We duly turned up at the HIEX to discover that someone had, rather mysteriously, cancelled our booking!?! The receptionist however was kind enough to resurrect the booking, and the huge room turned out to be rather nice, having a Jacuzzi in the corner, which naturally Emily dived straight into and luxuriated whilst I went off to buy her a healthy midnight (UK time) snack from McD next door. It was a little dismaying to receive an email from the Sumner Hotel a few days later informing us that they were charging us for not turning up to their hotel for that night! This necessitated our visiting them for a couple of hours on the Wednesday afternoon to sort the problem out – they finally accepted that it was their fault not ours and repaid the money, but the whole process was rather frustrating – not helped by the booking middlemen, Booking.com, singularly failing to offer any assistance, and washing their hands of the whole matter (I sent them a snot-o-gram by way of follow-up feedback).

Portents. Our arrival had been heralded by relatively portentous events - an earthquake the week before, as well as Hurricane Irene, both of which, very unusually, having affected the East Coast. We experienced a couple of fine sunny days on Sunday and Monday, during which we went to Mass at St Patricks Cathedral, caught the Labor Day (US spelling) Caribbean carnival parade in Brooklyn (a great deal of bare flesh but rather too much of it (in excess on singular instances) for my liking), a Brazilian festival in central Manhattan, had dinner in the middle of Time Square (literally) and walked through Central Park, all of which were excellent. The Gospel Choir performance however was dire in the extreme, a lot of gospel and no choir at all - really awful.

GWB. We transferred to an other hotel on Sunday where we stayed for our remaining 4 nights in NY. Across the George Washington Bridge (GWB), it was actually in Fort Lee, New Jersey, necessitating a walk, or occasional bus, across the bridge to get to and from the Manhattan metro station (175th on the A line). The weather closed in on the Tuesday – the last vestiges of Irene dumping its water on already-soaked East Coast states; they have since announced a state of emergency for the region as houses across the area have been flooded out and road and bridges washed away - I met a housing surveyor in the lobby of our hotel on the final day; he’d been drafted in to start inspecting flood damaged houses. The hotel selection turned out to be inspired, as we were afforded an excellent view of the city at both ends of the day during the bridge crossing (though having to dodge high speed cyclists, intent on getting their exercise, kept us on our toes). We only caught a bus across the bridge once to avoid the weather - it was particularly inclement on the Tuesday evening, but there is a small local bus service across the GWB between Manhattan and New Jersey, run by a bunch of Peruvians of dubious status. On the final day, en route across the bridge, we came across Lourdés, a stricken old Cuban lady, stuck in a lay-by with a traffic cone lodged in the front wheel arch of her pickup. After helping her to remove it, she was thankful enough to take us across the bridge to the Metro station, though in hindsight this is somewhat regrettable since the crossing was so enjoyable on foot.

Directions. Since Emily has the directional awareness of a chocolate fudge cake (and I love her for it), it’s been up to me to find our way around the uptown-downtown Metro and the Manhattan street numbering system – which is quite logical once you get the hang of it, but always requires one to walk a block to determine which direction one is going in (before inevitably turning around to walk the correct way). Subway trains are similarly confusing due in part to the fact that one can catch an express or a local train for the same end location, one of which clearly takes a lot longer, but it never appears to be clear which one you’re on. I was only partly conversant by the time we left.

Bus Tour. On Tuesday (6th Sep) we joined 71 year old Erwin on his ‘OnBoard’ bus tour round NY. It rained during the day so we were a little thankful of some cover whilst touring around – and it is a highly commendable way of seeing a lot of the sites in a short time. From Time Square we visited, amongst other places, the location of John Lennon’s demise, outside his apartment next to Central Park (Yoko owns the whole of the 7th floor of the building), and the small area in the Park now dedicated to him (called Strawberry Fields), followed by the ‘Ghostbusters building’, Rockefeller Centre, Chrysler, Empire State, and the famous ‘wedge’ Buildings. Thereafter we passed by Madison Sq Gardens, Greenwich Village, China Town, Wall St and Broadway before embarking on a boat to skirt around the Statue of Liberty (though not on to Ellis Island itself). We finished at Ground Zero, where they’re rebuilding the World Trade Centre buildings in their new guise. Preparations were being made for the tenth anniversary of 9/11 five days hence so we weren’t allowed near the site itself but the memorial had all the makings of being impressive – there are by all accounts two 70 ft deep holes with cascading waterfalls where the twin towers used to be. All in all a great trip, even if we did get a bit wet in the torrential rain!

On the Wednesday we had a museum day visiting the American Museum of Natural History, next to Central Park, made famous by the movie Night at the Museum, as well as USS Intrepid, a WWII aircraft carrier parked on NY west docks. The T Rex didn't come alive for us but Emily was suitably scared nontheless. Having calmed down, she was forebearing enough to visit USS Intrepid with me - I got in free with my Army ID Card which was great. Lots of historical aircraft on deck including a Blackbird Spyplane. We wandered around the expansive lower decks - huge, and interesting for me to compare with my experience on HMS Fearless in a previous life, tiny by comparison, though the claustraphobic nature of the passageways was similar.

Train departure. We sidled out of New York at 1405hrs on the Amtrak 93 bound for Washington and some Civil War sites, our immediate destination being Baltimore, having had an excellent five days, and wanting more. Two cautionary tales – buying stamps at non post office venues results in the vendor putting a 50% mark up on their cost, we noticed this in time to retrieve our money; and watch out for being short changed – the baggage man at Amtrak tried to give us two dollar bills rather than a ten and a one, for change out of a twenty, he claimed he had been working long ours and was tired – yer right!