Life is pretty good right now. i'm sitting outside in a very lovely restaurant called Brasserie in 25 degree+ heat, a stones throw away from the Rockefeller Centre sipping on a cold glass of pinot grigio. The man in front of me is amusing me by speaking loudly on his mobile phone about a diamond bracelette. I thought for moment that he was a mafioso but decided against this when i saw his phone was bright pink.
In two hours, when it gets dark, im going to go to 'the Top of the Rock' for a bit of night photography of the New York lights but for the moment i shall enjoy the roast chicken with rosemary i just ordered for $23.
Today was truely knackering. I went to catch the tour bus at an uber keen 0830, but found the stop unusually fast for me, so hung around for an hour until we boaded. Firstly we drove through Times Square... Wow! Glad i'm not epileptic. I don't feel remotely guilty leaving my tv on standby now i've seen that craziness! We stopped off at the lennon memorial in Central Park and had a look at the Dakota building, ouside which he was killed. All rather sad actually! To cheer us up we had a drive past the Ghost Busters building (gotta be done). We stopped off outside the Rockefeller Plaza and Empire State Building (the latter not being quite as tall as i had imagined) but still cool imagining king kong at the top of it.
We soon arrived at the harbour and got a boat called 'Zephyr' down the Hudson river passing the winter garden building destroyed on 9/11 but re-built, New Jersey, Brooklyn Heights, and an amazing view of the New York City sky line. we passed under the Brooklyn Bridge, which ill have a walk over before i go, and finally paused at Liberty Island to take stupid numbers of pictures of the Statue of Liberty In all her green coppery glory.
We ventured on, to a walk down Wall Street and finally took a brief moment to take in the atmosphere of Ground Zero (which they dont like to call it these days, 'the world trade centre' is back!) unfortunately, to me it was just a building site. Some trees now sitting where the towers once stood, and the construction of the memorial museum going on to their left. Although standing feet away from where it all happened it was impossible to imagine the scale of carnage that went on that day and the emotional impact it had on thousands of americans ten years ago. I therefore felt rather emotionless at the site, and rather like i didn't belong. I was more struck by the description of our tour giude of the events. He witnessed both planes hit the twin towers and his recolection of events gave me goose bumps. He also talked about the smell that lingered in Manhatten for months after the towers collapsed, describing an odor of burnt rubber and soot.
A cheery way to end the tour i thought! But what a good tour it was! So much more to see and 1.5 days left.......

Two hours later... Oh wow! 76 floors up in a lift with a see-through ceiling! Mental!! Looking at the view in every direction over new york. Its quite possibly the most impressive view i've ever seen!