My Trip to New York.

Tuesday 6th January

On arrival at the airport, we were confronted with people going everywhere, not knowing where they were going. We found where we had to check in (Zone 8), so proceeded to get some food. We went to Burger King, and had a sit down, before the 7 hour flight was to commence. Heather is not a good flyer, and this was becoming more and more obvious, as time went on. We had never been to America before, so this was going to be such a fantastic trip. Time was getting nearer to our check in, and getting to the USA. We had read the weather reports, and the weather over there was due to be well under freezing for the entire week, so we had packed all our winter clothes, hats and scarves a plenty.

The flight was fine, and we had no problems with turbulence at all. The flight was 7 and a half hours long. We had left London at 1:15pm GMT and arrived in New York at 4pm ET. It was a very tiring journey, as it started at 7am our time, and ended around 9pm our time.. Anyway, we had arrived in JFK Airport. What were we to expect?.. Well security checks aplenty, which I think is a good thing, and something else... the weather. It was minus 5c when we arrived, but felt colder than that due to the chilling wind.

We got a taxi from the airport to our Hotel. We stayed in the Habitat Hotel (Click HERE for their website). It was situated on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 57th East Street. The fare was $35 + tips + the toll bridge. Getting from the airport to Manhattan, we had to cross Manhattan Bridge. We paid $45 in total, not too bad, the journey was around 45 minutes. Well, we were here, in New York! It was hard to believe it, but nevertheless, we had made it same and sound, something we were both glad about.

After check in - we headed across one block to McDonalds, as we were both starving hungry, and tired, so we did not want to travel that far, not did we want to get lost.

After enjoying our McDonalds and getting to know the familiar surroundings, it was around 930pm ET, and we decided to get a good nights sleep, as our first stop in the morning, was the Empire State Building.

Wednesday 7th January.

Our first trip was to the McDonalds that we had found last night. It was only a block away from us, so we ate there to get our strength up, for what turned out to be the start of a very cold week. We hailed a taxi (Something we thought was going to be harder than it actually was), and headed off to our first destination - The Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building was on 34th Street. Being on 57th Street, it was too far to walk, we headed off to hail a taxi. With-in 10 minutes we were at the heart of business Manhattan. The Taxi Driver pointed out where the Empire State was, we walked down 34th Street, saw a little door, with a little sign on it saying Empire State, not thinking this was it, we walked on by. Could not believe, one of the tallest buildings in the world, and we missed it!

Anyway, we found the ticket office, and purchased tickets for the New York Sky Ride combined with the elevator ride.. The Sky Ride was amazing. It was situated on the second floor. We all sat in rows of seats, simulating a helicopter. The ride lasted 20 minutes, and it gave us a good insight of Aerial New York. I recommend a visit to this, well worth it. The total cost of the sky ride and the trip to the top was $20, (£12) - what a bargain!.

Well, the time had come, we were about to elevate 80 floors in little over 45 seconds. I have heard stories from friends, that you leave your stomach on the bottom of the lift, something I was not looking forward to. But, to my surprise, never felt anything. Did not feel the speed of the lift at all. The scariest thing, was looking at the lift meter. First, 10 floors... then 20 floors... then 30 floors... We were rising at a huge speed.

We had made it to the 80th floor, we walked around the perimeter of the building (Inside), as we had not reached the top yet. The views were spectacular. What would it be like at the top?, not long until we found out. Around we went, had our photo taken together, and off went went to the 86th floor, the top of the building. The 86th floor is as far as the public can go these days, as the 102nd floor is closed to visitors.

Well, here we were 1400ft. The view was amazing. It was a very cold day, so the skies were clear (Well almost!).

 We had bought some nice souvenirs from the gift shops.

After our descent, it was nearly lunchtime. Next door to the Empire State Building was a Starbucks Coffee Shop. We stopped for a quick coffee, then headed across the road to Macy's. Click HERE for the official Macy's website. We had a look around one of the largest stores in the world.

Our next stop, was Ground Zero.

 This was one of the places that we were planning to visit, if only to pay our respects to what had happened to the Twin Towers on September 11th 2001. A Short taxi ride away - and we were there. There was a huge space where the towers used to be. It was hard to think, that we were standing where thousands of people had lost their lives. It was very moving, there were a few plaques on the perimeter, and even sadder, a list of the people who had list their lives.

We were now in the heart of business Manhattan. Owing to the cold weather, only had a short look around outside, then went around some shops, before getting a taxi back to our hotel.

In the evening, we went to Planet Hollywood for a meal. This was located on Broadway. As our taxi neared to our destination, you could sense the party atmosphere and great night life. The bright advertising was amazing. Seeing Broadway on the TV, and seeing it in the flesh, are two totally different things.

Thursday 8th January.

Today, we visited the Statue of Liberty... This was one of the best days we had.. I was looking forward to visiting the Great Lady. I had seen it on films, but know was the chance to see it in real life. We had our usual McDonalds to fuel ourselves, for what was a very cold day..

We arrive in Battery Park about 11am, and it was buzzing with tourists. We had to go through a lot of security checks, before getting on the Staten Island Ferry. I don't travel very well on boats, but as this was New York, I did not care.. After about an hour of checks, we were off.. It only takes about 10 minutes to get to the Island, but it was a long 10 minutes. The weather was freezing cold inland, but on that boat, was a lot colder..  Well, the time was nearing, that I would step off on to Staten Island, to be with-in a stones' throw of the Great Lady herself...

As we approached, everyone on the Ferry was snapping away, getting some keepsake pictures to take home with them. We all looked back on downtown Manhattan, WOW, what a sight!. It was amazing!! .. I know I have maybe over-done the praise on New York, but if you have never visited it, my advice is to go.. I only wished I was there when the Twin Towers were there.. Such a shame they will never ever be visible again Well, this was it.. Out next steps, would be on the Island with the Statue of Liberty on.. It just was not believable, here we were... We took our snaps, and had a good look around the statue... The view was out of this world. Shame it was so cold. In the summer, I can imagine people picnicking on the grass there, something that one day I would like to go back and do..

That was it!. Out visit to the Statue was over and we were back on dry land, but what an afternoon!, amazing! We walked around the shops for a while, mainly to get warm. We then got a cab back to the Hotel, to get ready and got out for a meal. This time we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe.

The Hard Rock Cafe was exactly how I would of expected it to me. Full of bikers memorabilia everywhere. The food was lovely there. I even stole a table mat to remind me of going there. After our meal, I bought a guitar bottle opener, just a little keepsake to remind me of New York.

Friday 9th January.

Well, this was our last day in New York. We had to be out of our Hotel by 12pm, and our flight was not until 6:45pm. We packed our bags, left them with the concierge and proceeded to pay our last visit to our local McDonalds. Fuelling ourselves, we headed for a very very cold, Central Park. Central Park spans for around 800 acres right in the centre of Manhattan, (Hence the name I guess!). The southern point of the park was only about 1 mile from our hotel, so we decided to walk. We battled against a furious headwind. It has been cold all week, but today, it seemed to be extra cold. We walked around Central Park, spent time taking some photos. We visited the local tourist centre in the park and located a map. We noticed that there was a Zoo with-in the park. (I never knew this). We thought it was a nice idea to go and visit the zoo, just to compare with British Zoos really. There were two parts to it, a kids section and the main part. We had a slow tour around the zoo, parts of it was inside, so it was nice and warm. There was a tunnel that you could go in and watch the penguins both in the out of the water, which was very interesting. We toured the tropical bird section and the monkeys. I can remember the last animal we saw as we left was a seal called Breezy.

The Zoo was something that we had not expected and when we were in there, it did not feel as if we were in New York at all. Manhattan has two sides to it and we had experienced them both. The hustle and bustle of the city streets and the quite calmness of the Park.

With time getting on, we thought it best to have something to eat before our long trip back to London. We called back into TGI Fridays. I had one of the biggest burgers ever, well I might not eat properly again for a while! We sat and ate our meal and chatted about the previous few days, and how we were going to miss New York. We did not want to leave - but had too!

We walked back to the Hotel and were driven to JFK Airport by one of the hotels' drivers. We had booked a nice car to take us back to the airport. It was about the same price as a taxi, but with the car, we KNEW the price we had to pay before getting in. I have read things about taxi drivers charging the passengers extraordinary amount to get back to the airport.

We arrived at the airport, tipped the driver and went in. The next time we would be outside, would be in London. (Sob!). We were early for our flight, but early enough to check in!  We checked in and took a look around the duty free. I bought some aftershave, bargain at about $45.

We queue up and got on the plane, and took off. A great holiday, one I want to do again.