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The Big Apple ... at last!
In February 2006, I finally arrived in New York as part of a three-day work trip. For some reason, New York is one place I had never visited ... I had assumed that I would be sent as part of work at some stage but it never happened ... until this year. The nice part of this trip is that we were staying in mid-Manhattan and so close to everything.
The weather was also very nice - sunny but cold. About two weeks before we arrived, New York had a very cold period of weather with over two feet of snow falling in a few days. The strange part was seeing the snow built up in some places two weeks later - gives you an idea of how cold it was!
Outside work, New York is huge, a scale which is unbelievable if you've never been ... block after block of buildings rising into the sky. The first night, we got our bearings from the top of the Empire State Building - no need for maps from the top of this building ... the views were just amazing. It's hard to imaging King Kong up here or the fact that its top was originally designed for docking airships.
And then for the remaining few days and weekend, it was a quick trip around the city ... from Central Park to 5th Avenue, from the Rockefeller Centre and icerink to Wall Street. The visit to the site of the former World Trade Centre was very poignant seeing how disaster can strike and how something new can arise again.
While this was a very short trip, we did manage to see many sights and sounds - the Staten Island ferry allowed us to pass the Statue of Liberty, Macy's and Bloomingdales were as busy as any department store, yellow cabs were great taking us around (especially coming back from the pubs and comedy club down in Greenwich Village) ... And it was a nice surprise to meet up with Mark and Carol for a meal in the Oyster Restaurant in the Grand Central station. Again, I have a habit of travelling a long distance to meet with people who normally live or work reasonably close by.
All-in-all, a really enjoyable few days in New York ... I'll definitely be going back for a longer visit soon because there's so much to see and do. And I've so much more to see and do there too.