Week 15-2009
From California, we flew to New York! The most wonderful city! Vibrant! Alive! And not at all scary once one gets in from the airport!!! We landed at JFK Airport at 8.30pm and I carefully followed the signs to the Hotel Shuttles, not realising that they were to the hotels around the airport, not the Manhattan Island hotels. We ended up in a rather seedy taxi with a driver who eventually dropped us at the correct hotel, but not before I thought that I should perhaps text someone and tell them where we were! We certainly saw some of the industrial areas of New York. But all’s well that ends well! We were in New York over Easter.
One thing that we really wanted to do was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. So, we purchased our subway ticket, planned the station we would have to get out, and off we went! Whoops! We missed the station. After discussing the situation with two police, we worked out that we were over the river in Brooklyn, so, following their directions, we walked across the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. A great thing to do and the best direction to do the walk! We went to Ground Zero as well. Just as well we did that on the first day, because the weather got a bit chilly.
We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but the costume collection was closed and we also visited Strawberry Fields in Central park. Central Park was beautiful with its spring flowers. Our hotel was on 57th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, which was a great location. The subway is great and the street numbering system means that you always know the right direction to go when you come out of the subway. We visited Times Square and the Chrysler Building. We mainly ate at a local diner which was convenient and cheap.
Tulips at Strawberry Fields