The Big Apple

Well we finally made it to the big apple and what a great time we had. Doubley good because we were able to spend the week with Anita and Sam who had already been in the US travelling around.

We all arrived in New York at pretty much the same time which worked well. Anita had organised for us to stay at her cousins unit in Tribeca; that's TRIangle BElow CAnal !!! on Manhattan Island. It was good to have the unit to ourselves in a great position just north of the financial district, about 5 minutes walk from Ground Zero. The weather in New York was about the only downside; I think the temperature hovered around 35C every day and the humidity was about 95%. It was really oppressive and down in the subway it was worse.




Day 1 was spent walking around the financial district, Wall St and everything and visiting where the World Trade Centre used to be. Not a lot to see at ground zero except for a lot of construction going on. They have already built the first replacement building and there is still one damaged one in the process of being torn down.




Day 1 was also the day we managed to catch up with some friends. One of the guys who was on the project here, but has now moved home to New York, and his wife, met us for lunch at Robert Deniro's restaurant. Then that night we caught up with friends from Brisbane who have been living in Salt Lake City who were also in NY for a holiday. We took a ride to the 'Top of the Rock' with them. That's the Rockefeller centre tower.




In between catching up with friends we also took the time to visit the restaurant made famous in the Seinfield series.



On days 2 and 3 we went on an open top bus tour of the sites. It was a hop on hop off thing that worked well as it was too hot to do a lot of walking but went to all the main attractions; Times Square, The Empire State Building, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Broadway etc etc. Great view from the top of the Empire State Building although there was a fair bit of smog about. In the brochures it's called a haze!

Times Square at night was sensory overload with all the electronic billboards, cars, people and the like. It was also really hard to believe all the rubbish that was about as well; it looks like New York has outgrown some of the infrastructure required to support it.




We also managed to take a bus tour across the Brooklyn bridge to Brooklyn. Everyone we met who comes from there is very passionate about the place and they hate going to the 'evil island' of Manhattan. We had to agree that it looked like a nice place to live if you weren't a rock or movie star and could not afford the penthouses in Manhattan.
A boat tour out to the Statue of Liberty was another trip. Our trip didn't include getting off the boat and Sam had wanted to do another trip but unfortunately since 9/11 you haven't been able to get up into the crown so we didn't bother.




After 5 nights in New York we caught a plane up to Niagara Falls and crossed into Canada for couple of nights.
The falls were spectacular and it was nice to see some greenery and open spaces. The weather was also a lot more bearable up there. We managed to fit in quite a few of the sites; Maid of the Mist, Walk behind the Falls, Cable Car across the Rapids; all of which were good fun.
At night they light up the falls with coloured lights which was also good to see.



After Niagara it was back to New York for a night before we said our goodbyes and Anita and Sam took off back to London and we headed west to Gillette.

I've added another album of photo's to look at so click on the M&M below for more pics.

I have to work in Salt Lake City next week so we'll be using the weekend to vist Moab and The Canyons National Parks. Should be great fun.

NY Blog