New York, New York

We arrived in NYC on Saturday afternoon in 27 degree weather, which was great cause it was a bit colder when we left the UK! That evening, we walked around Central Park (which is near our hostel) and then went down to Times Square, which was very busy. The next day we took a sightseeing bus tour around the city which lasted until mid afternoon - we went through Downtown and Uptown Manhattan and Brooklyn. In the evening, we did the Night Tour which showed most of the tourist sights all lit up! It was a bit cold by then!

Monday was 9/11 so we headed down to Ground Zero. There were so many people around there and lots of police and fire people in full uniform. They were doing minute silences at the times that the towers were hit and when they fell and 200 family members of those who dies read the list of the 2749 people that died. It was very emotional there. We then went to Battery Park where they have placed the massive Globe from the World Trade Centre, with an eternal flame in front of it.

We headed up to Wall Street & the NY Stock Exchange and then over Brooklyn Bridge and back again (which is a 2 mile walk). That afternoon, we walked through China Town - the McDonald's there is written in Chinese under the big M! We had lunch at a place called Katsi's Diner, which is used in the film When Harry Met Sally. The sandwiches were so big that we couldn't finish them! That night, we took the Staten Island Ferry to get a view of the Statue of Liberty and of Downtown Manhattan. The sun was setting as we went across and there was a gorgeous sunset! On the way back, they had lit two beams to represent the Twin Towers which was an amazing sight.

On Tuesday, we went up the Empire State Building. It was a really sunny day and you could see for about 15 miles in all directions. We had an audio guide from Tony the Cabbie which was amusing! We then went into Macy's - its a shame we're on a limited budget or I could quite easily have spent a fortune there! That night we went to see The History Boys at the Broadhurst Theatre, which is off Broadway. It was really great - it comes out in film in the UK in October and I recommend watching it!

We went to Bloomingdales on Wednesday and we bought their trademark Little Brown Bags! We then did a tour of Grand Central Station which is massive and has over 100 train lines! We also had a piece of New York Cheesecake there which tasted great but got a little too sickly towards the end! We walked up 5th Avenue and looked in the designer shops. In Tiffanys, we went up to the engagement & wedding ring floor - oh how they sparkled!!!!

That night we went to see the Yankees play. We worked out (roughly) how to keep score - we saw 4 home runs and quite a few strike outs. We had a hot dog & giant pretzel there (to fit in - although most fans seemed to keep ordering from the walking stand vendors especially the 2 kids in front of us that ended up having a sugar rush!) The Yankees ended up winning 8-4! The game lasted 3 & a quarter hours and there were 52,279 people there (although the upper tier did look quite empty). We did a Mexican Wave that went round 6 times!

On Thursday, we went to see the Statue of Liberty (in the rain and fog!!!). The view wasn't so bad from the base of the statue - the fog had cleared a bit, although the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building were only half visible. We then went to Ellis Island and had a tour of what the immigrants went through when the first arrived. That afternoon, we went through Greenwich Village and tried to find the building that they used in Friends - we think we found it but we're not quite sure!!!

Today we plan to walk around Central Park a bit more (and drink a Manhattan!). Tomorrow morning, we're leaving at 7am to get the train to Niagara Falls.