Noo York

Well, have survived our 5 days in New York. After an uneventful flight over, sadly not on the promised Qantas A380, we hit the ground running. We were staying in a perfectly positioned Inn on the Upper West Side of New York - brilliant position, very close to a subway, and close also to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. We walked through the lower section of Central Park for an hour or two - it really is amazing, and no doubt the lungs of NYC. Finally, we decided to have a 30 minute ride with a young Croation fella who rode around with us on the back of his bike. Everyone in Manhattan is from somewhere else, and everyone is out to make a dollar. There are so many vendors selling food from incredibly portable 'kitchens', and people appear out of nowhere with eskies full of ice and cold water - they sell it for $1 a bottle, others for up to $3!!!
That evening, we went on a dinner cruise around the harbour. This left port about half an hour before dusk, so we saw all the lights of Manhattan and New Jersey come on as we sailed about the harbour. We could hardly sit still in the dining room long enough to eat dinner, which was remarkably good(!) - we took our drinks up on deck to suck it all in. Truly a stunning view, and we also visited the lady herself "The Statue of Liberty" in all her lighted glory. The evening was beautiful - very warm, so everyone was in a very festive mood. I may have had one too many drinks, because when we left the boat, I left my cardigan on the back of a chair - never to be seen again. Bugger... The DJ on the boat was an Aussie - we recognised him pretty quickly - when he first talked to the crowd, he tried to say Noo York, but kinda slipped into Aussie, and gave up trying to sound American. There was also an Aussie girl waitressing/singing on the boat too, and they were all loving NYC.
Went out for our first real American breakfast at our neighbourhood diner. We did the right thing and had eggs etc. etc.. It was okay, but of the course the coffee was undrinkable. I tried to order a cappuccino, but they had sprinkled about a dessertspoon of cinnamon over the top - omigod.....
Once again, made our way onto the subway - this runs like a dream, a train comes every couple of minutes, they are clean, the air conditioning works, and their ticketing system is infallible. Why can't we do something in Melbourne.
We joined a hop-on-hop-off bus tour for a look around Manhattan - good way to get an idea of the layout of the place. The tiny island has the population of Melbourne crammed into her wee self - everyone living on top of everyone else. They told us that an extra 3.5 million tourists were in town for the week-end... We believed them.
Times Square really has to be seen to be believed - it is a stunning, pulsating, shiny, ever-changing sight for sore eyes. The local Police were out in force, but mostly posing for photo's with tourists, although there were 3 or 4 big blokes, not there for fun, toting very big, automatic rifle type weapons - scanning the crowds. Reality check I guess.
The weather has been brilliant, not as hot and humid as usual, and very pleasant to walk around, which we have done miles of..
On Saturday night we went to see the Neville Brothers at the BBKing Blues and Jazz Club, right in Times Square, on 42nd Street. Great show, they still sound brilliant - not sure Arthur liked it too much, but I loved it.
We caught the subway down to Greenwich Village - the 60's are definitely over!!! All very clean and middle-class we thought. Barely a lentil in sight..
On Monday we caught the train down to the bottom of Manhattan to do the trip out to see the Statue of Liberty. We were on an early ferry, and on arrival, only had about a 45 minute wait to get into the Statue. The queues can be up to 4 hours - for the ferry, and for the Statue!!! Can't think I would've waited that long!! Anyway, they don't let too many people in at once, so the experience is really very pleasant, you are not rushed, and not pushed about. All in all, well worth doing we thought.
We had booked a helicopter sightseeing flight over Manhattan for the afternoon, and after a bit of a marathon, arrived at the heliport, only to be told that flights had been cancelled for now, and they couldn't tell us when they would be going again. Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon, a sightseeing helicopter with 4 passengers had crashed into a light aircraft over the Hudson, and 8 people came to a sticky end!!! We figured they might have the safety issued okay by the time we flew, but it seems they were hauling bodies out of the water at the time, so thought it best not to keep flying!! Bugger. Hope we get on several hundred dollars back!!
Last real day in New York Monday - so we went back into the madness of Times Square in the evening for a night time view from the top of the Rockefeller Centre - "The Top of the Rock". Once again, well worth doing, and another gorgeous evening.
Tuesday, we were up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus to Washington DC for the day. There were four buses going on this trip, and we were on the only English speaking one. The other three were Spanish speaking..... Every second person seems to speak Spanish!! It was an absolute marathon of a day - about 4 1/2 hours there, and back, and a couple of hours in Washington itself. Saw the absolute 'musts' The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, and all the War Memorials - Vietnam, Korea included. There is a nut case of a woman camped outside the White House, she is protesting about nuclear weapons, and has been there, without a break, for TWENTY EIGHT YEARS.... Her shelter is a kinda plastic lean-to, not a tent, can't imagine what that's like sitting there 24/7 in three feet of snow in Winter. They have changed the laws because of her, and now nobody can stay there protesting for more than six hours. Her husband can come and relieve her for a wee while, but if the camp is ever without an occupant, it will be removed forever. Bizarre..... We were absolutely knackered by the time we got home - could barely walk up our stairs, which were only one flight!!
Wednesday, out to the airport, and flew to Ottawa. Thursday morning (today) walked about Ottawa... Arch had forgotten to bring some medication with him (of course, I didn't arrange it for him), so we had to trudge about to find a doctor. Ended up in a surgery in a less than salubrious part of town, and I think most of the 'patients' were druggies waiting for their daily dose of Methadone. At least the entertainment was good whilst we were waiting.
Took one of the ever-present hop-on-hop-off buses around town, and packed our bags again - leaving as much as possible here at the hotel - we're off on our Arctic Cruise tomorrow - back in Ottawa on the 25th of August.
Hope everyone's enjoying Winter in Melbourne - we have no idea who is winning the football, and strangely don't care!!
Cheers from sunny Ottawa, will post again when I can.
Ann and Arch