New York I

 So let's start with a pretty well known icon of New York to kick off this post. We flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey then got a taxi-bus thing into our apartment in the West Village, just off Christopher Street.  During the eight days we were in NYC we caught up with our friends Bill and Andrew from Newcastle as well as our friend Micke from Kansas City, Missouri, and his boyf, Bryce.  We did so much! Saw so much! We took the Staten Island Ferry (which is free) which passes by the Statue of Liberty and gives

 such a stunning view back towards the city on the return trip. That's Freedom Tower, the tallest sky-scraper on the left. Right near there of course is the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which we also visited. Much of the Museum is in the space of the footings of one of the World Trade Centre towers. I think they had done a very good job with both the memorial and museum.
We took open top double deckers around the city and tried to experience as much of the city as we could. Not once though did we need to catch a cab - we found the subway took us everywhere we went.

 This was our apartment building in West Village which we found through airbnb. It was perfectly located, very quirky as you can see a few pics below, and it was fantastic to stay in a residential neighbourhood as opposed to in the centre of the city. Our daily routine saw us leave the apartment around 9am and spend all day looking at things and head back by around 5.30/6.00pm.  Then we'd have a quick shower, get changed and head out, usually to a show on Broadway. This meant walking the 15 minutes to Christopher St subway and catching the red line into Broadway which was about 20 minutes.

 West Village, Greenwich Village and Chelsea are fabulous neighbourhoods with lots of small art galleries, cafes, restaurants and apartment buildings. This one was covered in this fabulous ivy.

 I have to now admit that I was taken with the beauty of the Empire State Building.  I had never considered it in any way, architecturally, only that it was once the tallest skyscraper in the world. But it is such a beautiful art deco building and looks so impressive inside and out. We climbed to the viewing platform and had the most amazing 360 degree views of the city.

 Freedom Tower is also very impressive, as is the Chrysler Building which was Steve's favourite.

 When i look back on the trip, some of the fondest memories were fairly simple things or little discoveries that we made. So after we had spent some time admiring Grand Central Station we spotted this cafe adjacent to the station and decided to have lunch there. At first we were a bit put off because they just had a brunch menu and no lunch menu, but our meals were fabulous. Nothing fancy, I had a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers while Steve had a chicken cob salad.  But so nice. I had a couple of glasses of sparkling rose which also helped make the meal even more delicious.

 Such a fabulous place.

 Other great memories were spending time walking on the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway line that has now been transformed into open space with benches and gardens and spaces for people to mingle and people watch and cafes and places for local artisans and crafts to sell their work; another fantastic memory was getting a hair cut and shave (with a cut throat razor) at a barber's on Christopher Street....

 One of the great things about staying in an airbnb place is that you stay in someone's place and not a hotel room. So we stayed at some wonderful, quirky places that were so interesting.  This is our bedroom in our NY apartment, which was owned by this wonderful Argentinian photographer named Diego.  The place was filled with his photos and art that had been created by his friend.

 Times Square was overwhelming at times.  So many people. Really - so many people.  It was chaos and I think we arrived in a slightly stressed disposition to each of the shows we saw because we would never know exactly where the theatre was and always arrive later than we had anticipated. But so much energy, so exciting.

 About 15 minutes from where we were staying was the Stonewall Inn, which is the symbolic heartland of gay liberation.  It was here that patrons (including a goodly number of drag queens) resisted the regular police raid on the premises and a series of riots ensued over the following days, marking a turning point in gay liberation politics. We had a drink here on our first night in the city with Bill and Andrew.

And here we all are: Bill, me, Steve, Andrew, Bryce and Mike, all enjoying ourselves.  What a fabulous time we had and created so many wonderful memories.