Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
New York is wet. And windy. Not as windy as Carolina has been, but this is the last gusts of those crazy winds. It's also not as big as I was expecting, even vertically.
I took the airtrain from JFK to Jamaica Station, then on to Penn station and walked past Macy's to my hotel, which nests in the shadows of the Empire State building. I was hoping to go straight up the Empire State that afternoon but couldn't see the top of it in the mists, so changed my plans.
As always, the hotel disappointed when compared to the brochure, but it's nice enough, and really perfectly located. I got out of the hotel, pretty sharpish making straight for Broadway and heading North. Along the route I passed through Times Square which is big and brash but lacking any real focus during daylight. There's certainly some extra wattage and yardage over Leicester Square.
Broadway to the edge of Central Park got gradually less salubrious, until you hit Columbus Circle, the frankly dull Trump Tower and the Warner Building. Were I not soaked through at this point I'd have loitered a little longer and ducked into the park.
It was getting darker, so skirted the south of the park and headed through mid town down the Avenue of the Americas, past the Rockefeller Centre (missing the Top of The Rock). At this point the sky tore asunder and my cheap umbrella turned inside out, so I sheltered in the NBC gift shop. There's a fine range of incomprehensible tat in there.
Once the rain had settled back to a horizontal drizzle I detoured back to Times Square to take photos of the lights against the dark. I love that the NYPD and Army recruitment centre have got on board with the neon.
To finish off, I doubled back to Bryant Park and skulked around the fountain before heading back to the dry of the hotel, and an early night. Sort of. It being 2am in Imperial time.
- comments
Sam Sounds awesome Damian. I agree hotels never are the same as promised! Think we stay in too many hotels with work to appreciate the excitement. Would you recommend New York then? Sounds like a larger and brighter London!
Mike So that explains the neon Stars & Stripes photos!