Soon it was time to return back to San Francisco driving through the night, hence more sleeping on a moving coach. Except this time I was so tired that somehow I managed to get to sleep before the coach even started moving, so I was OK and only awoke once we were back at the bus terminal! After the goodbyes we headed to the BART train to get to the airport. It being 7am in the morning we were really quite early for our 3.45pm flight and asked to change on to an earlier one. Which we did (joy of joys!) but this meant we had to go through a secondary screening procedure where they put you in a chamber and blew puffs of air at you (very odd) and take clothes samples, check through all your stuff and make you wait. We ended up being nearly late for our 11am flight! Thank goodness for delays!
After watching "Evan Almighty" on the plane we arrived in New York. It was already dark, it was raining and the information guy at the airport was not at all helpful. We eventually got a shuttle to the hotel (but the driver was a mean guy). Our first impressions of New York weren't great. But then we arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel and collapsed in our suite complete with TVs, soft double beds (no more sleeping bags), white fluffy towels (no more " travel microtowel"), dressing gowns, shampoo, free stuff and a bathroom with a shower and a toilet that flushes(no more holes in the ground)! Heaven!
It was a lot of queueing to get up the Empire State, then 80 floors up by elevator before walking the last 6 flights to the 86th floor observatory for spectacular views over New York City. Downtown Manhattan, Uptown, Liberty Island, Brooklyn, Macy's - It was all there!
I watched, along with the hundreds of other people cramped up there as the sun finally melted below the city's skyline to set on our last day of travelling. It was a weird moment for me, it was like saying goodbye to my travels already and I could feel a tear forming in the corner of my right eye. But the moment soon passed since it was really windy up there and got a lot cooler, fast. So I made a hasty retreat back inside to pick up a sweet little glittering snow dome with the Empire State seated inside at the souvenirs desk before making my way back down. It had been a gorgeous view though; from below the city may be hot, smoky, busy and dirty but from up above it's rather quite pretty. It was a good way to spend the last evening.
Soon it was time to return back to San Francisco driving through the night, hence more sleeping on a moving coach. Except this time I was so tired that somehow I managed to get to sleep before the coach even started moving, so I was OK and only awoke once we were back at the bus terminal! After the goodbyes we headed to the BART train to get to the airport. It being 7am in the morning we were really quite early for our 3.45pm flight and asked to change on to an earlier one. Which we did (joy of joys!) but this meant we had to go through a secondary screening procedure where they put you in a chamber and blew puffs of air at you (very odd) and take clothes samples, check through all your stuff and make you wait. We ended up being nearly late for our 11am flight! Thank goodness for delays!
After watching "Evan Almighty" on the plane we arrived in New York. It was already dark, it was raining and the information guy at the airport was not at all helpful. We eventually got a shuttle to the hotel (but the driver was a mean guy). Our first impressions of New York weren't great. But then we arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel and collapsed in our suite complete with TVs, soft double beds (no more sleeping bags), white fluffy towels (no more " travel microtowel"), dressing gowns, shampoo, free stuff and a bathroom with a shower and a toilet that flushes(no more holes in the ground)! Heaven!
The next day we headed out after a lazy breakfast and followed by a lazier morning, to look around. The hotel is in downtown Manhattan near Ground Zero so we had a look over at the construction site. The next couple of days were spent seeing all the usual places you see in films and on TV: the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Broadway, Time Square (went to M & M's World - massive and with M & M's of every colour imaginable!), Central park (where I walked around in the rain with my soft pretzel), Madison Square Garden, Grand Central Station, NYC Public Library, The Chrysler Building and on the Friday (our last full day) we went up The Empire State Building!
It was a lot of queueing to get up the Empire State, then 80 floors up by elevator before walking the last 6 flights to the 86th floor observatory for spectacular views over New York City. Downtown Manhattan, Uptown, Liberty Island, Brooklyn, Macy's - It was all there!
I watched, along with the hundreds of other people cramped up there as the sun finally melted below the city's skyline to set on our last day of travelling. It was a weird moment for me, it was like saying goodbye to my travels already and I could feel a tear forming in the corner of my right eye. But the moment soon passed since it was really windy up there and got a lot cooler, fast. So I made a hasty retreat back inside to pick up a sweet little glittering snow dome with the Empire State seated inside at the souvenirs desk before making my way back down. It had been a gorgeous view though; from below the city may be hot, smoky, busy and dirty but from up above it's rather quite pretty. It was a good way to spend the last evening.
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