It's taken some time...

I had no time to write up Saturday on Sunday morning - we had to get checked in, fed, checked out and out into NYC for the last time, leaving enough space to do something and get back to the hotel, collect our bags and then get transport to JFK.

When we got home on Monday there were two days to write up and a lot of unpacking and sleep to catch up on, and Laddie to be collected from his favourite Auntie.

So here I am on a cold foggy Tuesday in Wellingborough bringing things up to date.  In this post and the next I'll deal with our final hours in NYC.  In the following one I am going to write up some thoughts about an interesting challenge I am facing later this week, which is also related to an item in the current New Humanist.

We went down 42nd to Pier 81 in order to take a boat trip round the island. Having got our tickets we decided to go round US Intrepid, a WW2 aircraft carrier, moored next door.  But the line was long and strangely full of people in service uniforms.  So we walked up the front to see what was going on. 

It didn't take long to find out!  Moored alongside Intrepid was another ship, the focus of attention.  It was USS New York, to be commissioned that morning. 

The bow of the New York contains steel salvaged from the World Trade Centre, and the line waiting to board Intrepid contained people who were connected to 9/11 - relatives of people killed, emergency service people, and so on.  From the number of very obvious men wearing dark suits, with short haircuts and a curl of wire running from an ear to inside their collar (hereafter to be called Obvious Service Agents) it was apparent that a real big-wig was on the way.  We went off for coffee and while we were enjoying it, Hillary Clinton arrived.

So we didn't get to go on Intrepid.  Next time. But we can heartily recommend the Circle Line tour of Manhattan Island.  Some of Bonnie's pictures of the wonderful views will go on our picasaweb page in due course.  The guide was amusing and very informative, and I think the tour was among the best 3 hours we spent in the city.  And we were sitting down all the time.  There cannot have been any other 3 hour time slot in the week we were there that we were sitting throughout.

After the trip we wandered into Macy's for a little shopping then back up Broadway to say goodbye to Times Square.  It is impossible to do justice to that place in a movie, let alone a few words.  It vibrates with life.

But even if you know Times Square, expect the unexpected.  There was plainly something going on ahead.  When we got up there Bonnie assumed her new role in life.

Wedding photographer.  In all the hussle and bustle, with passers by walking right through the wedding party, there they were.  Maybe, Bonnie suggested, they had met on Times Square.  Well, we wish them a happy married life, filled with the excitement of Times Square, and the stability that is less obviously present.

So we went back to the hotel, changed, and went out to find somewhere to eat.  Mid Town Manhattan, Saturday night, no reservation.  Oh well, you can hope.

In fact we had our best meal out of the week.  The Kellari Taverna is a gem.  The service was brilliant, the food and wine exquisite, the decor fabulous, the atmosphere wonderful.  What a fantastic lucky chance to stumble upon it on our last night.  I can see the Kellari becoming a Last Night In New York tradition for Bonnie and I.