More Extraordinary Sights in NY

This rather imposing post office is just along the road from the hotel.  It has an inscription written over the top of the columns..

'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds'.

I thought that this may be the motto of the US Postal Service but in fact it is a translation from Herodotus in 500BC writing about a Persian mounted courier service.

The inside of this building, open 24 hours a day, was equally grand..

Another rather grand option for postcards was in the foyer of the hotel itself.

David was working this morning and for the first few hours it was snowing.  Once it had stopped, I noticed that despite the cold, work had resumed on an extraordinary advertisement being painted on the wall of a building opposite the hotel.  We had photographed it last night..

This morning from our window and afterwards from the pavement outside, I could see a gantry with two people working on it..

One of the many high rise and very cold jobs that we saw being done in New York where there seemed to be a great deal of building and renovation work being done.

Not to waste my last morning I took the metro to Grand Central station and 'grand' doesn't really do it justice.  It is immaculate, immense and very imposing indeed..

Beneath the main hall is a market selling fresh produce, as well as a dining concourse and access to other shops (and, if I understood correctly, more than one hundred railway tracks).

I walked back to the hotel via Times Square.

My last port of call this morning was back to where we started on Saturday evening with a trip to Macy's and a daylight view of the Empire State Building.

We left this afternoon feeling that we had learned a little about the city but that there is much more to hopefully explore on future visits.

Presidents' Day in New York

We started our day, a very cold but sunny one, with a brisk walk to the Hudson River for a boat trip.  Our craft was not the Intrepid, above, which is now a museum, but a suitably coloured NYC Water Taxi.

We had the choice of an indoor or upstairs, outside seat and decided the photos would be better from the top.  At -6C and with the additional wind chill we had some cause to regret that decision..

We travelled down the river with a number of stops, as far as the Brooklyn Bridge and then headed out past Governor's Island and Ellis Island to see the Statue of Liberty.

The view of Lower Manhattan from the water is such a well known sight it felt almost familiar even seeing it for the first time.

We were very cold leaving the boat and walked briskly to a restaurant near the Lincoln Centre for lunch.  The speciality was guacamole made at the table..

Some audience participation was also required..

After lunch we headed for Central Park.  As Presidents' Day is a holiday the park was free of cars and full of families, runners and others enjoying the sunshine and snow.

We had a little smile at the notice by the gate..

We completed our day with a bus tour of Uptown Manhattan - this time in a glass roofed bus rather than an open top, which was a relief even though it did not make for the best pictures.

We arrived back at the hotel as it was getting dark and realised that our view had become significantly more colourful in honour of Presidents past and present..

It is due to snow again tomorrow and we are due to fly back to Washington.  Fingers crossed..

Sightseeing in New York

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.