New York, New York ...

"New York, New York.  So good they named it twice ..."  Really? Without wishing to upset my American readers, I just don't get it.  Last week was the third time I have visited the Big Apple and quite frankly my opinion hasn't changed since the first visit back in 2007.  Admittedly, that was a work trip and other than my hotel room and a few restaurants in the evenings, I didn't get to see too much else, so gave it the benefit of the doubt.  The second visit was in 2009, when Mr B and I spent a long weekend there to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  We managed to take in most of the main sites and whilst we enjoyed the trip, neither of us could really see why people raved about New York?  Granted, it was October and the weather was cold and rainy, so when Mr B had to visit again last week on business and asked whether Ethan and I wanted to go along, I decided to give it one more chance.  After all, It was probably much nicer in the springtime right?  Wrong.  It was .. er ... cold and rainy.  To be fair, it was sunny & warm the afternoon we arrived and as we were staying in the financial district, we managed to get out for a walk along the waterfront in the late afternoon sunshine and witnessed a beautiful orange sunset set against the fabulous city skyline.  The next day, Sunday, whilst cooler and breezy, wasn't too bad either and we managed to fit in the obligatory touristy visits to the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island (where comment of the day from Ethan after bemoaning the fact that he had no 4G signal on his phone was "OMG! how did those immigrants stand it with no wifi?!").  We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the the 9/11 Memorial, which was actually very moving, and gaze up at the impressive 104 storey Freedom Tower of One World Trade Centre, before a stroll down Wall Street.  Right, well, that's most of the sights done.  What on earth are Ethan and I going to do for the next 4 days whilst Mr B is at work?!   

We awoke on Monday morning to torrential rain and so thought that maybe an indoor activity would be the most sensible option.  Ethan voted for a visit to  Mme Tussaud's in Times Square, as he had always wanted to go to the one in London but we could never be bothered to queue (we are so similar in that respect!).  As we were staying right down in the Financial District, we decided that the quickest way of getting anywhere was going to be the subway and set about running to the nearest one (yes, it was still raining) in an effort to stay as dry as we possibly could under monsoon conditions. This proved to be easier for some of us than others as two minutes after we had left the hotel, Ethan stepped in a puddle of epic proportions (think Dawn French in Vicar of Dibley) completely submerging one of his trainers and socks, hence having to put up with soaking wet feet for the rest of the day!  After buying our tickets and working out which side of the track we needed to be on (trust me, that was a challenge in itself) we managed to board a train, which was amazingly headed in the right direction.  Five minutes into our journey, at one of the subsequent stops, our carriage was joined by a 50-something African-American man, who proceeded to tell his tale of woe to the captive audience and then walk up and down the carriage holding out a brown paper bag for donations.  This has obviously become the latest trend as begging goes as on our next three subway journeys we encountered similar experiences (although, at least two of them tried to sing for their supper and attempted a gospel number as they handed round their paper bag ... I don't think we will be seeing them on The Voice any time soon though).

As we finally reached our stop, we jumped off, somewhat relieved, and headed back up to daylight ... and more rain.  As we rounded the corner we suddenly found ourselves walking behind a rather large (read morbidly obese) hairy man, with a wild beard and a pot belly, wearing nothing but a skimpy pink floral thong bikini (which left nothing to the imagination!) and the inscription 'Holly' tattooed on his forehead!!  (Ethan was at this point trying to shield his eyes muttering he had been scarred for life).  Dear God!

We thankfully made it to Mme Tussaud's without further incident and after a couple of hours looking at largely outdated and often poor 'lookey-likeys' we decided we weren't impressed and it was time to leave.

After a mediocre, over-priced lunch, and as the rain had started to ease off a little, we walked on to Nintendo World, the Rockerfeller Center, 5th Avenue & FAO Schwartz before a soggy detour through Central Park and finally back on the subway to the hotel, wet, tired and desperately missing the Arizona sunshine ... And we still had 3 more full days to fill!

We filled the next couple of days with trips up the Empire State Building ... Ethan was mildly impressed ... and to Maceys ... where he definitely wasn't ...and then a City Tour, both Uptown and Downtown, which we actually both enjoyed most of all.  The tour guide informimg us that you either loved New York or hated it and there was no in between ... well, I'm sorry New York, I gave it my best shot, but I'm afraid you're just not for me.