New York
Lotus
Mon 26 Jul 2010 13:49
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'New York, New York so good they named it twice, I
love it!'
Ensconced in the 79th street yacht basin we made
daily forays into the city on our folding bikes, months of relative inactivity
took their toll and after the first day, during which we covered about 10
miles (getting on and off about 200 times to go into bars, shops, museums,
galleries, cafes etc), our legs were wasted. The traffic was manic but as
the days went by we got to grips with it and were soon darting in and out
of traffic, through red lights, up one way streets like the best New York
courier cyclists, maybe just a little slower. Our cycling friends Jim and
Jo would have been proud of us, well actually maybe they'd have laughed at us!
 New York really is a city that never sleeps,
most of the shops in the busy areas such as Times Square are open 24
hrs a day. It was strange seeing toddlers going into Toy R Us at 2 in
the morning. We saw all the mayor sights including the Empire State
Building, Times Square, Wall Street, Twin towers site, Brooklyn Bridge,
Staten Island and many other smaller attractions. We watched some street
basketball in Soho and cheered them on with a 'very well done!' cheer in an
extra special British accent. We dined and strolled in Greenwich
village, had a picnic in Central park, saw the Billy Elliot musical in
Times Square and were gobsmacked in the Guggenheim, by
the con that the art world plays on the paying public, the video
installations costing 10's of thousands of pounds consisted of a continuous
play of an old fashioned reel to reel tape recorder, another a woman in period
costume spinning continuously in an 8ftt square room, we were so close to declaring out loud that 'the Emperor was wearing no
clothes'. However the design and beauty of the Guggenheim building made up
for most of this.
 We eventually sailed down the Hudson River, round
Manhattan, up the East River past the UN building and bade a fond farewell
to the Big Apple.
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