New York City

Like I’ve said in previous blogs, Topdeck changed my life. If I hadn’t done that tour then I would never have ended up spending two weeks over Easter in one of the greatest cities in the world – New York.

Getting to the Big Apple was far from easy though, in fact it’s by far the longest journey I’ve ever been on. I caught the tram outside my flat in Bremen to begin what was to be a 48 hour trip. I flew at 10:30pm to Stanstead Airport before catching two night buses through London to Heathrow. I slept on the floor there before jumping on a 10 hour flight to Miami because the person I was visiting was living there when I originally booked the flights. I had to wait in the airport for about 5 hours for a connecting flight to New York and I was completely exhausted. But one short taxi ride from the airport later and I was there, ready to see the city that had been top of my “to visit” list for well over a decade.

I slept most of my first day there but I did make it up in time to go visit Times Square. Unfortunately it was pouring down and I didn’t have an umbrella, but in truth I didn’t really care.

A very emotional afternoon looking around the site where the World Trade Centre once stood with its replacement close to completion.

Madison Square Garden.

One of the hundreds of New Yorks streets I crossed.

The Empire State Building.

United Nations Headquarters.

Grand Central Station.

St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Radio City Music Hall.

George Washington’s statue at Federal Hall, where he was sworn in as the first President of the United States.

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

Quite literally grabbing the capitalist bull by its horns.

T-Rex skeleton at the Natural History Museum. Ben Stiller was not in attendance.

I picked a bit of a terrible day to go to the Statue of Liberty – the weather was awful. Still, that’s one big, green, copper lady!

The British Empire Building. It turns out we never left and 1776 was all a big lie.

Rockefeller Plaza with the famous ice-rink.

“Top of the Rock” – the view north from the top floor of the Rockefeller Centre…

…and to the south.

We managed to get tickets for a Yankees game at the brand new Yankee Stadium, which is really impressive. Unfortunately the baseball was not – a 2-0 loss to the White Sox and not a homerun in sight. It made me glad I’d decided last minute to unpack my catcher’s mit.

Tucking into one of the countless slices I consumed that fortnight.

On my last full day in the city I crossed the impressive Brooklyn Bridge and ate yet more pizza.

The sun going down on my final day in New York.

Leaving was very tough. It was the end of a great two weeks, and as it turned out, the end of a relationship. Still, I have absolutely no regrets apart from maybe opening my credit card bill the following month...