I've not kept this up much this time have I? Been quite busy...

Got to Liberty and Ellis Island yesterday - the queue was much smaller. I've also been for a ride to Staten Island and got caught up in some parade thing that was happening down 5th Avenue.

Ready to check out of the hotel now. I'll be back tomorrow.

Yesterday I got to photos of the Statue of Liberty, visited the Rockafellar Center/Square (that's where they have the skating rink and Christmas tree at the right time of year) and the United (sic) Nations. Also spent some time very lost again, but got the hang of getting around by the day's end. I'm really not very good with cities that are laid out as a grid - I know it should be very simple but it so isn't. Every junction looks exactly the same and you don't know if your heading in the right direction or not. Well I don't.

Some photos from the last couple of days:

I was going to get the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands today, but when I turned up at Battery Park to get the tickets I discovered a queue that was at least a couple of hours long. So I didn't. I'll try again another day - if I get up early enough to avoid the queue.

Instead I visited Wall Street, Battery Park and lower Brooklyn (walking back to Manhattan across Brooklyn Bridge). Later on I explored Macy's - New York's answer to Harrods - which sells everything, including one thing Harrods doesn't - cheeseburgers. There's a McDonalds on the 7th floor. Now I've nothing at all against Mc D's (actually, I quite appreciate it - they sell nice breakfasts, it's cheap, it's open when everything else isn't), but I was very disappointed to find one on the 7th floor of New York's supposedly up-market flag ship department store. Especially since there's no shortage of Mc Donald's on and around 34th Street anyway.

Chilli Dog was lunch, which was nice but it really should be called 'slop in a bread roll with cheese and perhaps something resembling a sausage', because that's exactly what it is. Not in a bad way - it did taste nice.

Today I've been wondering round a wet and overcast Manhattan. I got quite damp, quite lost and spent a considerable amount of time on the wrong Subway train.

I did manage to get myself to see some sights though: I started at the Grand Central Terminal. Obviously this is a building that interests me particularly and I had to compare it to the recently restored and quite beautiful St. Pancras International station in London. They're very different. Unlike St. Pancras, the platform area at Grand Central is nothing - it's dark and garage like, but the concourse is palatial:

It's still very much a station, and hundreds of thousands of passengers pass through every day, but it's also been turned into a classy shopping and dining destination. I had lunch in the food hall (bagels) and the choice was amazing.

I also went to Times Square (which is like Piccadilly Circus on steroids), the south side of Central Park (it wasn't really a day for spending time in the park) and the Apple shop on 5th Avenue (I didn't buy anything).

I did go to have a look at the site of the World Trade Centre, but that's definitely a site rather than a sight - unless you like cranes and hoardings. The artists impressions of what they're building there look nice enough though.

I'm not really saving much money by staying at this Holiday Inn in Newark. Although it's nice, the room rate's definitely a bargain and it is very easy to get into Manhattan - it's not cheap. The train fare's about 15 quid a day - could have spent that money on a closer hotel. Strange how I could get all the way from my hotel in South San Francisco to San Jose last year for about a fiver but it costs three times that round here to do a quarter of the distance.

I got here ok. Going to bed now.