Back in the New York Groove

Someone amped up the frantic pace and crowds in New York since we've been away. Or else we've just been in the country waaaay too long!  It was a shock to come back to the pace, after the laid-back countryside and laid-back people and open sky.  We are back in the same wonderful hotel, the Affinia Manhatten, but we are skywards by a long shot this time, up on the 23rd floor.  It's amazing how loud the sirens are up here, however; Tony says it's because they are echoing up the canyons of buildings.

Tony at Grand Central station

Art Deco entrance, Chrysler building

Now we have just a few days to do everything we didn't do last time, including using up our New York City Pass 'doing' all the main attractions.  But what to do?  We are past rushing around at 90mph doing 10 things in a day - we've been on holiday too long and are getting a bit worn down after all the miles, hotels and calorie-laden meals. So yesterday we went on the 2-hour Circle Cruise around the bottom half of Manhatten Island, packed in like sardines with hundreds of other tourists in a hot boat (but we nabbed the very front of the bow position, which was great for photos...until my camera's battery ran out.....nuts!). We also got to Grand Central Station, which is such a beautiful building, and the lobby of the magnificent Art-Deco masterpiece, the Chrysler building, but that was it for the day.

Today we started off bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but that only lasted until we got galleried out!  First stop was the final Frank Lloyd-Wright building in our tour - the famous Guggenheim museum.  The spiral part of the museum was filled with distinctly uninteresting works consisting of a few lack-lustre dobs of paint placed strategically around the walls (but I'm sure they could wax lyrical about it if they wanted). The annex wing had the old masters, which were much more interesting; Picassos, Degas, Gaugin etc, and there was also a fascinating work of $100,000 of $1 bills (real ones), stapled to an entire room's walls.  Aim was to bring an abstract number like 100,000 to life.  It sure did that!  Actually, all I could think of was how to steal it...but that's just me...then it was back to the Met - first time for Tony - and yet again it was overwhelming. This time we only got to the Greek, Roman, Asia/Pacific and a bit of the Medieval areas. I saw a kid's book in the Met shop (oh god give me that $100,000 art exhibit and an hour in the Met shop and I'd be a really happy camper!) that points out all the good bits in the Met. I should buy it for next time, so I can get to the good bits fast and make a bit more sense of the place.

So, only two days remaining before we head for the UK. There is still the Empire State Building, the MOMA, the Rockafeller Plaza, the Flatiron building, the Trump Tower, all the little neighbourhoods in Manhatten like Soho and Greenwich village, shopping, dining, Ellis Island, Staten Island, Coney Island, Broadway, more art galleries, architecture.....argh!! Stop the clock!!

Statue of Liberty, from the Circle Cruise boat.