Our plan, after visiting with friends in Virginia, was to fly to New York City on Monday, 27 May which would have given us 5 full days to explore NYC, but the Fates got in the way of our plans and a storm in New York closed La Guardia Airport.

Our second attempt on Tuesday, 28 May was more successful. Due to very fast action by MJ, we managed to score the same seats, on the same flight, just a day later. Also, as it was a weather-related cancellation, we weren’t eligible for any compensation from the airline, so we were very lucky that Matt & Polly were prepared to take us in & feed us for the night!

Tuesday afternoon, we arrived at La Guardia airport – no sign of Burt Lancaster anywhere (who else remembers the movie “Airport”?) and managed to navigate our way via an Express Bus and Subway to 42nd St and then a not-too-long walk to our AirBnB.

Years ago, or at least that is how it felt, we bought a couple of New York Passes. One of the things that was included with the pass was a One-Day ticket for the Hop On-Hop Off bus.  When we went to redeem the voucher, we were automatically upgraded to a two-day pass – Thank you very much! We did a full circuit of the Downtown Loop, just hopping off at the last stop to book our tickets for the Harbour Night Cruise, which was also included in the New York Pass. After a quick lunch in a Small Diner, it was up to the Empire State Building to go up to the 86th Floor.  Someone wasn’t prepared to go all the way to the top (102nd Floor)! We had time to head back to our digs for a small rest and to pack our rain jackets (just in case) before we walked down to Pier 83 for the Night Cruise, which went up (down?) the Hudson River and then down (up?) the East River, then it went back the other way, stopping for a bit around the Statue of Liberty, so we got some nice evening shots.

As we walked back to our digs, the heavens opened and we got drenched! We walked about 7 blocks in what seemed like torrential rain. The gutters were full of water, so my runners ended up getting soaked!! That night, we turned our accommodation into a Chinese laundry to try and dry everything out.

Thursday morning, we had a plan – catch the HO-HO bus up to Wall Street, then walk up to the ferries to catch one over to Liberty Island and have a look at Lady Liberty, hop over to Ellis Island for a look at the Emigration museum. I saw this museum back in 2018 but is was a first time visit for Nick. We both enjoyed it as the museum is well set out. Time for a ferry back to a Battery Park and walk down to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. A thought-provoking museum which made us glad that we live at the arse-end of the world and generally it is too far away for terrorists to be bothered about us!

Then it was back to the Half-Price Tickets Box Office on Time Square – we wanted to see something on Broadway.  Given Nick’s level of interest in Musicals, I knew that it would have to be something that he would enjoy. And as we are both fans of Neil Diamond, this made the choice of “A Beautiful Noise” a really easy decision. We had great seats, Row H, almost in the middle of the House. The show is coming to the end of its run – it will be finishing on 30 June. But then it will start touring – I will be looking for when this comes to Australia, as I’d be happy to see it again! Great music and the story of Neil Diamond was presented in an interesting way.

Friday, Day 3 in NYC, was also our last day with the New York Pass, so we arranged to pick up a couple of hire bicycles and rode around Central Park, and in the late afternoon, we did a walking tour of SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. The tour was very interesting with a real New Yorker (actually from Brooklyn – the accent was a dead give-away) as our Tour Guide. After walking MILES, we found an OLD Chinese café where we had dinner before taking our sore butts and our sore feet home for a good sleep!!

Our last day in New York meant that it was time to catch up on washing at a local laundromat before we headed out to Chelsea Markets and to walk along the High Line. If you don’t know what the High Line, it is a remnants of an elevated rail track that was built to move freight easily from the Meat Packers District and factories in the area, including Nabisco & birthplace of the Oreo Cookie. Originally, it was at street level but was deemed to be too dangerous – by 1910, 540 deaths caused by trains and 10th Avenue was called “Death Avenue”! By 1933, the Elevated Track was built and operational until about the 1960’s.  It was mooted for demolition, but the locals banded together and managed to save most of the track, and finally it was converted into an elevated park with lots of greenery and opened to the public in 2009. Today, it is a 1.45 mile long park which is extremely popular with both local residents and visitors alike.

What can we say about New York City? It is noisy! The constant tooting of horns goes almost 24/7. Even though bins are emptied, the windows of buildings are constantly being cleaned and there are people around constantly picking up rubbish from in front of stores, NYC projects a patina of dirt! It is expensive – $50 for a burger & salad! And sooooo many people, none of whom have worked out what side of the footpath to walk on!

Here’s a fun fact for trivia fans – there are over 9000 park benches in Central Park alone!!!