New York

I'm back. We had an amazing time, it was just the two of us wandering around New York for 3 whole days, I would most definitely go back again.

Below are some of the photos I took, I was quite conservative I only took 160 photos.

These are called Brownstones, like in Sex & The City. Apparently a Brownstone is a house with a stoop (steps) at the front and they are not all brown. They lie mainly in the southside of Manhattan, in the village 'Greenwich' or 'East' I can't remember which.
We bought a pass to the open top bus tours which are hop on hop off so we could get off and wander around different neighbourhoods.

This is one of the views from the Empire State Building. We hired one of the audio tours which was very informative and told us about all the different buildings, although we couldn't see everything as we choose to go at night. The queue was relatively short at only 90 minutes to get in but well worth it for the view from the 86th floor.
It was a little bit windy all the way up there but if we get the chance to go back to New York we will have to go up there during daylight.


This is Grand Central Station - why don't we have train stations that look like this?
It was enormous and beautiful. There was even a food concourse with about a dozen different eateries. The majority of the place looks like it is constructed from marble. We couldn't see the building from the outside as it is hidden under the skyscrapers.

On our first day our first stop was Times Square, it was a bit misty to start with but the sun soon came burning through. We had temperatures in the 90s which is unusual for New York at this time of year. The thunderstorms were due to start yesterday after we left. Whilst we were in Times Square so was JLo, we could hear her singing but couldn't see her through the crowds. We also saw the Pussycat Dolls down a side street early one morning - I say early but can you believe the shops do not open before 10am on a Saturday! We were wandering around for ages waiting for everything to open, but then they are open until 10pm.
It is nice to see they have a sense of humour amidst all the chaos that is New York.

I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit but without children under the age of 10. I know there is too much walking involved for my kids, lots of sightseeing, shopping and people watching - not favourite activities for my kids.