New York Part Two

A bad sleep - I woke every few hours, and

took a few hours each time  to get back to sleep. We breakfasted at Europa, a nearby cafe which offered quite a range of food, although all their coffee was rubbish. Jo took me across to Starbucks, where the coffee was equally underwhelming. We headed down to the Empire State building, which is a gorgeous example of Art Deco and an amazing feat of engineering for the time. We whizzed up the 80 floors in a few moments, and got to enjoy the 360° view just before the rain came in. I loved seeing the Flatiron and the Chrysler building. I had an interesting experience in the restroom, when I needed to do some intricate rearranging of my many layers - my goodness, going to the bathroom was epic! A cleaning lady came in and just stood there and watched me as though I were giving a performance, and then commented on how tall I was. It was just a little bit weird....

On our way to the subway we stopped for a bite - I thought I would cleverly use up some of my change and buy a soda water for $2.50. But no, their very confusing system of adding tax on top of the advertised price meant that it was not that at all! Try figuring that out at a restaurant with a group meal and then have to factor in the tip as well!!! We got off the subway to check out Grand Central Station, a huge warren of caverns, then back on, heading for the Met. 

Ticket window detail

Being a rainy Saturday afternoon, many others were doing the same and there was a huge queue in the rain - turns out that was just for the cloakroom. I had been looking forward to dumping coat and bag to walk around, but ended up carrying them with me as we went to see the beautiful exhibition "Death Becomes Her", exploring largely Victorian mourning wear.

 In the very short amount of time we had left, I finally escaped the Egyptian maze to find the European section, and very much enjoyed seeing the works of Pisarro, Seurat, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir and Manet in the flesh. I got lost again on the way out, going around in circles - and that was with the help of the guides!! The residences in the area were beautiful, especially with the Christmas decorations up - many even decorate the base of the kerb trees as well.

And look - real Christmas trees for sale!! We got the subway back to the city centre, then it was a long trudge home, where I picked up a slice of pizza and a beer before retiring for the night,

The Empire State - our shining beacon!

exhausted. Before indulging in the noms though, I had to tear the layers of clothing of me and shower - you need the layers for the outside but when you hit a building you sweat like crazy!! Errrrghhh!