On Top of the New York Icon

The muesli bought yesterday (some dispute why this and not granola was not purchased!) turned out to be a disappointment. Hardly any fruit and nuts - just fit for a nosebag. So after this frugal breakfast we set off in pouring rain to the Rockefeller Center, for which we had tickets. On the way we looked into the Trump Tower, which Les had visited 30 years ago. It looks almost identical today. At the Rockfeller Center we were told that there wasn't much to see from the top because of the weather, but that we could change the tickets for tomorrow. We leapt at the chance, as the forecast for tomorrow is good.

Down in the Center's concourse we had very nice coffee at Starbucks, and then crossed 5th Avenue to St Patrick's Cathedral. It's actually quite a good recreation of the Gothic style, but it's under extremely serious restoration. Both outside and inside are festooned with huge amounts of scaffolding. Many of the marble sheets in the ceiling are being replaced. As we emerged from the cathedral, across the avenue there was a demonstration, including a pipe band, opposing abortion and same sex marriage.

We returned to the Rockefeller Center concourse for lunch. In a cafe curiously named `Potbelly' we had very good sandwiches filled with humous, roasted peppers, artichokes, and salad. We then strolled around for a bit munching the crudités we had bought yesterday, and feeling we had scored some dietary brownie points, shared a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, followed by bananas.

Our tickets for the Empire State Building were not timed, and by 1 pm the rain was easing off. Stella was determined to visit Tiffany's (or rather to be seen there), and we eventually realised that we had previously walked past it at least 3 times. Inside, there seemed to be more security goons than sales staff, and we waited some time for any attention. No doubt our slightly bedraggled appearance didn't help. The pendant Stella fancied turned out to be priced at $1700.

So we continued to the Empire State Building, the weather by now looking a bit better. We stopped at the building from which Will Smith jumped in Men in Black III. It's not as high as the film suggested, and Smith would have hit the pavement in about 4 seconds.

The organisation at the Empire State Building isn't great. There was very little signage for visitors, and it eventually emerged that we had to do this in three stages; first stage to 80th floor, for the museum (quite interesting), second stage to 86th floor (observation deck), and third stage to 102nd floor (more observation space). There were as usual substantial queues, one for security checks, and another for ridiculous photographs which were to be Photoshopped onto a background. This seems to be obligatory and they charge $25 for each picture. We objected to queuing for a photo we didn't want, and the attendant was quite rude in preventing us from avoiding the queue.

The view from the 86th floor was quite good, as the cloud level had lifted. There were several mentions of `Sleepless in Seattle' of course, but how the characters got to that floor in less than half an hour is a mystery. They never went through security anyway. The 102nd floor view isn't dramatically better, but it's just such an experience to have done it.

As dusk began to fall, we walked up Broadway towards the hotel. Times Square was a riot of monster video screens, and crammed with people. Lots of streetside stalls offered many kinds of food, much of it very unfamiliar. This is Thanksgiving Weekend, and preparations were being made for what looked like a street concert - massive generators etc. Various street entertainers plied their trades, from Homer Simpson lounging in a chair to several versions of the Statue of Liberty.

When we returned to the hotel, we were surprised to find in our bathroom some shower gel that wasn't ours. Very odd - had someone else used our bathroom? We called housekeeping, who came to our room and said it was an error by the maid. They said they would check the electronic lock which logs all entries, but we heard nothing further.

Dinner tonight was at the Irish pub a couple of blocks along 57th St. Fish and chips, with Stella Artois and Newcastle Brown. Not bad.