day 5 New York state of mind

Our last day and we woke up to the news that all restaurants and bars have to close by 8:00 tonight!

I imagine Boris will be keeping an eye on this and seeing how it plays.

The staff in the restaurants are really worried - they won't be able to pay their rents. The staff at the airport check in didn't know if they would be working tomorrow...this is going to have a massive economic effect on so many people - cab drivers, everyone in hospitality and entertainment, even homeless people won't get any money from tourists. It's a real worry if those measures are introduced in the UK.

We're down to our last few things to do here so we took the bus

empty of course...

went over to Staten Island - the ferry is free - and also pretty empty

on the way you get some great views of Manhattan and Statue of Liberty.

The old girl is a steel frame covered with 3mm copper sheet - they had some trouble with the arm a while back so you can't climb up into it to the viewing platform.

We had a spot of breakfast on the island

This is a Big Boy

I know..... but it was delicious!

We decided that we needed to visit another island so this time it was Roosevelt Island. To get to this one you take the tram - that's what the locals call it - but it's a cable car really

again some lovely views of the city

 not actually very interesting over there on the island but quite a cool way to commute isn't it?

A random fact we learnt today - at the 9/11 memorial pools all of the people that died have their names engraved on the walls. They are grouped together not alphabetically but with their work colleagues. On their birthdays a white rose is placed over their name. That's a nice touch...

Onwards to JFK now - no word of any problems so fingers crossed.

Coral has just told me we walked 30 miles this week -  no wonder my feet are aching 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️

It's certainly been a memorable trip - but not necessary the way we planned.

😁😁😁😁😁😁😎😎😎😎

day 4 fairytale of New York

Well this is our anniversary today. 45 I believe but I'm not counting!

It seems whenever we go away to celebrate our anniversary something happens.

We've been freezing in Barcelona, so cold in Tunisia that we rented a car for 3 day so we could warm up and been in Istanbul with a terrorist bomber and a 4hour flight delay. Now NY in virus lockdown.

This is our lunch restaurant Sunday 1.00 - where is everyone?...

but you've got to make the most of it haven't you?

A bloody Mary and a glass of fizz helps pass the time.

Afterwards a walk in Central Park to walk off our lunch and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We thought about trying to change our flight to come back a day early but it's pretty fruitless. An hour to get through on the phone so we'll hang on here.

Still a few things left to do tomorrow so we haven't run out of ideas yet. 

😁😷

day 3 Englishmen in New York

So what to do in NY when the city is locked down?

Answer is to walk and use the public transport and enjoy the beautiful weather.

An empty 5th ave

Chrysler building

Then take a trip on the ferry from 32nd st

to Brooklyn - a bargain at $2.75 each

we walked a mile from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the bridge

subway to Times Square

And then back to the hotel - 8 miles again today - that worked off the corned beef hash and beer I had for lunch....

Now any large restaurants have got to reduce their capacity by 50% so there's a bit more room between tables - there is going to be such an economic impact I think a lot of businesses won't recover. And this is just the first week of these measures.

Got to give some thought to what we do tomorrow and Monday- Still enough areas to explore so we aren't thinking about self isolation yet....

day 2 - the only living boys in New York

Awake about 4 a.m. this morning we thought we'd go out early for breakfast.

So this is 6:30 a.m. - great start to the day!

 weather is due to clear up by midday and it's going to be a sunny 67F 

We took a ride on the subway down to the World Trade Center to meet our guide for today.

This is a New York rush hour with a coronavirus scare.

This it the NYSE

And the fearless girl.....

with the bronze statue.

It was a wet start to the day but things started to look up and the sun came out a little bit later.

We went to the 9/11 Memorial but the pools were closed to the public and the museum

 looks like we might have to change our plans because all the main attractions are now closed down So no shows no museums no Rockefeller Center.

We walked about eight miles with our guide and she took us to Little Italy Chinatown The High Line

Here's a few pics

 this chap was made in 1982 and he was found under the rubble of 9/11. He's been moved to this location and now he quite often gets an orange or an apple put in his briefcase for his lunch

 this place is called Oculus and it is next to the 9/11 Memorial unfortunately it's never really been open to the public is the roof leaks so badly

The High Line - a couple of miles of elevated railroad track that's now been turned into a lovely walk way

Pizza for lunch - of course!

the Edge is a new building with an observation deck on the hundredth floor -not for the faint-hearted. It's opened three days ago and now..... you've guessed it - it's closed. 

Didn't realize but our Hotel is just up the road from the Russian tea rooms - great memories of a fabulous meal there. 1997??

The view of central park from our hotel

 so we need to have a little bit of a rethink about what we do over the next three days

- we'll have to put our thinking caps on.

The good news is that we going to have three days of dry sunny weather

Day 1

It’s going to be an interesting day given what Mr Trump has said yesterday about travel into the US.
 We made our way to Heathrow expecting the place to be empty but it was business as usual. Also on the plane there were very few spare seats and cabin staff told us that a lot of people had moved their flights to a few days earlier so they could get around the travel embargo from Europe
We made friends with a couple of the flight attendants and they very kindly moved us up to a more comfortable seat with plenty of legroom.
I sat next to A Jesuit priest who wasn’t able to do his job travelling as a missionary to all corners of the world. Even doing the Lord’s work is going into lockdown!
An hour or so getting through immigration always takes the shine off visiting the US. Anyway we got to our hotel around 8 o’clock and the concierge told us that all shows and museums are closed for the foreseeable future........  the hotel has had a load of cancellations so the upside is we get upgraded to a  suite. Nice!
It’s going to be an interesting few days here.....
Tomorrow we’re taking a 6 hour walking tour so I’ll be able to get the lowdown then. Weather looks good for the weekend.