A day full of highlights started with a trip to the top of the Empire State building. On Peter's wish list Since he saw King Kong as a kid. I was a trifle concerned as I am not good with heights but it was so high it felt like looking out of a plane window so no worries there. We took masses of photos also of the beautiful Art Deco interior.
We then spent the rest of the day on the open top buses running around the major sites. We also took in a cruise around the harbour where we were able to take some good pics of the statue of Liberty. this allowed us to get a better idea. Of the layout. Of the south side of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Ellis Island.
Arriving back at the hotel we were pleased to find that we had been moved to a better room, which was of a decent size and with a bigger bathroom and a shower that worked really well. A beer at one of the pavement tables outside the hotel resulted in us talking to members of a wedding party who had filled the hotel the night before - which maybe why we started with such a small room!
That evening we walked a couple of blocks and found an Italian restaurant that served the most splendid and huge lamb chops. After a walk back to the barn a brandy night cap saw us to bed.
We are having a problem with the wifi on the iPad that is probably to do with our inexperience so we will combine a couple of days & post when we get it sorted.
It is now Monday and we are sitting people watching in Central Park after having walked our socks off in the wrong direction and ending up taking a cab! We are sat listening to a woman playing difficult sums music on a violin accompanied by a smart sound system. In the background there is an oldish chap plugged into his iPod and dancing away like a good'un. We have also come across a Tibetan type with a stringy thingy that sounded like an out of tune set of bagpipes. Oh yes, it's all here in Central Park. Having walked through the middle of the Park ending up at the Bethesda Fountain where barely out of earshot of each other there was a super trad jazz band on the pathway and under the tunnel there were a group of eastern Asian young things were singing Italian arias. They were wonderful and the acoustics of the tunnel definitely helped. We then decided that a ride in a horse drawn carriage would be good. That was good but we drew a very taciturn Irish driver who obviously didn't like the sound of his own voice. Nice ride though with a horse called Elvis!
After leaving the Park we found an Apple shop where they let me in on the secret that the reason I was having a problem was because O2 don't operate in USA. Need to find a Tmobile shop. Bank holiday weekend just now so loads of places are closed. So will have to wait til we get to California or maybe the airport tomorrow.
However we did find the Harley shop and bought a little something and also some L'Occitane for Gill. The directions to the T Mobile shop turned out to be something. Of a red herring
We decided to travel down Lexington Avenue by bus and waiting at the stop got talking to a lovely old guy. When the bus arrived we found that this was a Metro Card Job and that the NY buses do not accept cash, our new friend insisted on paying our fares with his card - and it turned out that his name is Gabriel!