Our hotel (above) is at the corner of 34th Street and Eighth Avenue and only a few blocks from the Empire State Building, so that was our first port of call this morning.
The impressive Art Deco marble foyer led up to the first floor and the beginning of a very impressive queue which eventually took us to lifts and up 80 floors to the exhibition area. From there we caught another lift to go to floor 86 and the Observation Gallery. Stepping out onto the gallery we initially thought it was surprisingly warm, given the sub- zero temperatures but this did not last when we rounded the corner, realising that the building was sheltering us from the freezing wind..
One advantage of the very cold and clear day was that we could see for miles - even though on this our first look at New York we weren't always entirely clear what we were looking at. The views were breathtaking.
Later we took an open-top bus tour to explore Downtown Manhattan and made several stops to walk along Broadway and see City Hall, Wall Street and the new One World Trade Centre.
At Central Park it is still very snowy..
Back at the hotel this evening the sky was very clear and the view from our room, despite scaffolding, is stunning..
Tomorrow it is due to be sunny, even though still very cold and we are planning to take a trip to see the sights from the water.
Super photos. Is the triangular building in the 7th photo what they call the 'Flat Iron Building'? I read about it only last week on another blog.
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