New York, New York !!

We have been busy! We have been riding the City Sight bus tours: Uptown, Manhattan, Down town, over the Hudson River to Brooklyn and the Night Time Tour. The weather is still very cold - thank goodness for warm hats!


This is the cathedral of St John, the largest Gothic Revival church in the world. The Statue of Liberty could be laid down in the nave. An amazing place. Some of the sculptures at the front were coloured and some were new with modern based themes. The second picture shows what a muddle the place is with Gothic, Georgian and a modern part where there was a recent fire. The fountain is next to the cathedral in the children's garden with lots of small sculptures made by local children.


This is the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright of whom we are ardent fans. Not popular when it was first built (as were many of the huge structures!) but now a busy modern art gallery. We went to a Viennese Gallery where we were excited to see the original of a Gustav Klimt portrait. Fantastic - and a very good cafe with yummy cakes. Bit posh though!


This little church is St Paul's, one of the oldest in the city where George Washington had his own pew. This was one of the bases for the rescue staff after 9/11 and had an emotion display about the events following the collapse. The picture above is of the many origami banners sent in by the school children of Japan to show their support amongst many other similar tributes from around the world.


Here are 2 of the best known buildings. The Empire State (more later as we hope to go up it) and the Flat Iron Building (did they model this on Imps in Margate!)


This lovely arch is the Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn modelled on the Arc De Triumph in Paris commemorating the Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Brooklyn is a large area with some lovely architecture but our trip was spoiled by a guide who tried to show how good the area was by slagging off Manhattan and other places. Every thing it had was bigger or better or had come before the rest of New York City! The second picture is a view of Manhattan from The Manhattan Bridge.


The night time tour retraced much of the routes taken on the other trips but was thrilling with all the lights blazing. Here is Broadway and Times Square.


Here we are on the Brooklyn side looking across to Manhattan with the most amazing city skyline. You just want to keep taking more and more pictures here.

Still so much more to see in this busy place so keep an eye out for the next installment!