lathany

We arrived in Penn Station on the evening of Saturday 13th. This was a grim experience as the station was not air conditioned. We left quickly and took a taxi to meet the person who would let us into our apartment. This turned out to be straightforward and we had a nice, although small, place not that far from Times Square.

We went back out once to buy food and then settled in to sleep.

Sunday was a bit of a non-event, well for me at least, it was hot and I was tired and didn't fancy venturing out. So we only went around the corner (to Amy's Kitchen) for pizza slices and cupcakes for lunch and made use of the apartment kitchen for dinner (vegetable risotto to bring some welcome vegetables to our diet!).

Monday was the Museum of Modern Art. This turned out to be a disappointment. It wasn't bad, but it was the first place we'd been recommended that just wasn't excellent. The Museum tends to rotate artists, so I assume we were just a bit unlucky with the current selection. This was also the day that we discovered that the Lonely Planet book, which had been great for Washington, was not nearly as impressive for New York. It failed to correctly locate the Tourist Information.

Lunchtime we bought some burritos from around the corner. In the afternoon we located a launderette for the mid holiday washing. We found it and found an English couple from Bristol doing theirs (they were out for four weeks). This was good as we got to chat about holidays and also very useful as they were able to advise on using the machines and things. No-one was very hungry for dinner so we bought cake from the bakers around the corner.

Tuesday we had pancakes for breakfast. It was also the day we discovered that the Museum of Modern Photography had moved. So

bateleur suggested The Top of the Rock. We thought it was a bit of a long shot - as it's one of those attractions where they advise you to book - but tried to get tickets anyway. And, actually, had no problems at all!

The Top of the Rock was probably my favourite attraction in New York. In the afternoon we visited the M&M store in Times Square and

bateleur cooked more veggie risotto for dinner.

Wednesday was Central Park. It made a pleasant change from wandering hot streets (the temperature for the week was mostly 30 degrees C.

For lunch we had hot dogs. Dinner was cous cous and fried beef.

Thursday we went to Madam Tussaud (without Bea as waxworks did not appeal to her). This was a big hit with Ryan as it had both Ghostbusters and The Avengers as exhibits. Lunch was huge pizza slices and dinner was pasta.

Friday again started with pancakes and it was our shopping day. I bought a t-shirt for

chrestomancy and chocolate for work. For dinner we went out to a nearby Italian called Amarone Ristorante. I had the Orecchiette ("w/ Leeks, Prosciutto, Smoked Mozzarella, Pink Sauce" - where pink sauce is cream and tomato) and then Tiramisu.

Saturday was a 4am start to catch our plane back. We had arranged to be picked up by a Dial 7 car and this worked well (you can't book yellow cabs, only hail them, although it turned out that we saw plenty at 4am). I was unimpressed by JFK compared to Heathrow - pricey and lacking in seating. The flight was decent (we were served breakfast and also muffins). We landed early at around 7:30pm London time.

We got home to a rather surprised, but well-fed, cat.

chrestomancy had looked after him well.