Thursday 5 August
I left Watertown fairly early and got on the road to New York City. The landscape of upstate New York couldn't be more different from the city - miles of forests and mountains with dramatic valleys and rivers and very few buildings. It is amazing that, given all this space, human beings need to live in crowded cities with skyscrapers getting ever taller. The weather on the journey was pretty dramatic - at one point it rained so hard I pulled off the freeway and stopped until it eased. I decided not to take the sat nav's advice to go via Scranton, New Jersey and instead took route 17, which was rather more scenic.
Eventually the unmistakeable Manhattan skyline came into view and I took a deep breath before braving the New York City roads. Actually, the traffic was fine and I parked up by the YMCA on W 63rd St where I had three free nights' accommodation thanks to the school choir trip I'm planning for April 2011. Once checked in I took one last drive in N America (at least for this trip!) and left the car at the rental location on E 80th St.
I took a trip to B&H electronics store, which is an amazing place on the corner of 34th St and 9th Ave. There are several stages to the purchase. First you select what you want and take it to the desk, or for bigger purchases tell the assistant what you want. They then put it in a big plastic box which disappears along a track/conveyor belt. You then line up to pay at the cashier's desk and finally go to pick it up, by which time it has travelled along to that point and has been put in a bag for you to take away! It is actually all rather more slick than it sounds!
After that I walked up to Times Square to see if there were any tickets available at the half-price ticket booth for a show. I had noticed that West Side Story was on but unfortunately there was nothing left so I decided to try again tomorrow. Times Square is a little different from the last time I was here - the ticket booths have been rebuilt and now look very smart and one side of the square is now closed to traffic which makes a pedestrian's life much easier.
I wandered back along Broadway towards the hostel and looked into the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle which has a big shopping mall. In the basement is a big "Whole Foods" store which is a combined self-service restaurant and supermarket. I decided to have my meal there - very tasty, wholesome and cheap!
Oh! So you visited the place where we are going to stay. I hope it is good!!! Will we be eating at that 'Whole Foods' store? Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.
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