If you want to know whether three days is sufficient to “do” NYC then the answer is Yes. You won’t experience anywhere near everything the city has to offer but, you will have a great time, see most of the iconic landmarks – and, I expect there are New Yorkers who haven’t experienced everything either.

The things most people want to see are all within fairly reasonable walking distance of each other and/or quickly accessed by the subway system which is now easy to use as you just tap your credit/debit card onto the readers at every entrance. No need to buy tickets in advance or anything. Having said that, we certainly got our steps in, and more, every day.

With hindsight I may have put a museum or art gallery into our itinerary, even though they are quite expensive to visit, but overall, we were very happy with what we did and we saw lots of street art anyway.

“The Travellers” installation on Park Avenue was created by a Moroccan born sculptor, Bruno Catalano. Apparently, it depicts figures frozen in the middle of a journey, the duration, origin and destination of which remain a mystery.

They are supposed to be people from the ordinary world who carry pieces of life and history in their luggage.

The sculptor’s intention was to show people torn apart by emptiness – their identities fragmented by trials and tribulations.

They were installed in the Murray Hill district in May 2024 and will remain until May next year.

We came across “Life Underground”…

….. purely by accident when we got off the subway at 14^th St/8^th Ave. Created in 2001 by an American sculptor, Tom Otterness, it is on permanent public display. There are several other sculptures, but I only captured the two.

“The Great Elephant Migration” is a global fundraising exhibition with the aim of creating human-wildlife co-existence projects to protect migratory animals as they journey across land, rivers, skies and oceans.

There are 100 elephants taken all together to different towns and cities. They were only in the Meatpacking district of NYC for part of September and October – so we were really lucky to see them.

We also walked the “High Line” – which is open daily from 7am to 10pm. Opened in 2009, it is approximately 1.5 miles long, and was created along an old rail line…..

….. on the west side of Manhattan.

As well as artworks…..

Born in the Bronx in 1960, the artist created this work to demonstrate the complex relationship between the individual and society in the US, pointing to an increasingly self-focussed population and their apparent disregard for community and others.

Born in Italy, this artist uses scrap metal [bits of machinery/rebar/car parts etc] to direct the viewers attention to the importance of regeneration. In this work the figures are designed to look like newly unearthed tree roots.

There are also some impressive buildings….

… and great views of the city.

A super way to spend an hour or so.

At one end is Chelsea Market….

…. which is a fabulous place to find food and drink….

….and at the other end is Hudson Yards, a more commercial mall but one which does contain a craft beer pub on the first floor….

…. and a Spanish Food Market in the basement called “Little Spain”.

It is the brainchild of local chef José Andres – in collaboration with his friends, the Adrià brothers who, for those of you not in the know, ran the famous “El Bulli” in Spain. It was not surprising, therefore, to see several of their books on display.

We really enjoyed our lunch here and returned on our final day for wine and people watching, when “Hell’s Kitchen” proved to be a bit of a let down. The Hell’s Kitchen area is on the west side of mid-Manhattan and as we were in that area and I had read that it was very lively and full of restaurants, we thought it would be our kind of place – especially as the emphasis seemed to be on ethnic food. Well, yes – there are quite a lot of street food outlets and restaurants but, unfortunately, we found that the focus was on night time revellers rather than a couple of old fogies looking for a decent lunch. It was 90% shut. Walking down to the Hudson River side of it we did, however, see the WWII aircraft carrier – “Intrepid”.

Having survived five “kamikaze” attacks and one torpedo strike, she now houses a Naval museum.

For those of you who know us well, you would expect that Food would form a major part of our days in NYC. We had Bagels and Lox at the Jewish Heritage Museum café and when we passed a nice French restaurant which had a 4pm Happy Hour Oyster offer well, we just couldn’t refuse.

We had a breakfast in the basement of Grand Central Station – and what an amazing building that is.

We had Dim Sum in Chinatown and Pizza in Little Italy.

We just had to have the “diner “experience and what an experience it was!

Fortunately, when we walked in, I saw what some other diners were eating so, whilst Mike was thinking we would order two sandwich lunches, I suggested maybe one would be enough. He had thought we might have one Corned Beef and one Brisket – as these are traditional New York deli staples but, managing to convince him that one would be enough [he hadn’t seen the other plates] we opted for the mixed meat one.

What was amazing – to us anyway – was that the other diners, including children, were eating a whole one each.

Whilst we enjoyed all our food and drink experiences, the one we will remember best is “McSorley’s Old Ale House”. Opened in 1854 by an Irish Immigrant from County Tyrone it started life as a working man’s saloon and did not allow women in until 1969 when the law forced it to be open to both sexes. However, a separate women’s restroom wasn’t installed until 1986. It is a real spit and sawdust place and is considered to be the longest continuously operating ale house in the US because, during Prohibition, it served something called “near beer” which had so little alcohol in it that it wasn’t illegal. Today it serves just two types of beer – light and dark. When you ask for one, you get two because it is poured very fast so it is frothy and only half fills a glass.

The walls are covered with memorabilia and nothing has been removed since 1910.

Some reviews say that the Irish bartenders are rude and surly – but we found them to be excellent company, full of blarney and Irish wit. Brilliant. Hanging above the bar on an old light fitting are chicken wishbones. Supposedly they were put there by local men and boys before they went off to fight in WWI. The idea was that they were to be collected when they came home – so the ones that are left belonged to those who did not return.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my own photograph of these, even though we stood under them, but we were given a postcard so, I have taken the following photo for you to see.

Now, did you know that Italian Americans celebrate Columbus Day – a National Holiday in the US? I didn’t until researching what there was to do in New York City in October and finding that we were there for Columbus Day and its, apparently famous, parade. I, like many people, have always associated Columbus with Spain – you know, that Christóbal Colon chap who has featured in more than one of my blog posts. Well, although he sailed for Spain, having been able to find financing there when he couldn’t find it in Italy, Columbus was actually born in the Republic of Genoa.

The day was originally celebrated on October 12^th, the date he landed in the Americas, but it is now held on the second Monday of October to create a long weekend. So, this year it was Monday October 14^th and we were there from 12^th – 16^th.

The parade heads north on 5^th Ave from 44^th to 72^nd Streets and we found a spot on the corner of 47^th.

Led by mounted Police….

……hundreds of flag waving Italians march, dance, stroll, drive or get driven along the route.

Many are in costume…

…. and one even came dressed as the man himself.

All the main city Service Departments are fully represented and, although I knew that the NYPD and Fire Service Departments had “mottos”, I now know that they all do – or all that we saw, do……

…. even the Sanitation Department….

….. including “Dusty Bin”, who we encountered further up the route when we had tired of standing on one corner.

The route passes the Rockefeller Centre….

….and St. Patrick’s Cathedral….

…. before reaching Central Park, and it was there that we left the Parade for a look around the park.

It is vast and we only saw a small part of it….

…. but we did come across a rather unexpected thing…..

They cost between the equivalent of £65,000 and £80,000 and can accelerate from 0-60mph in 4-6 seconds [depending on the model]. However, we understand they aren’t exactly problem free with recall notices having been issued on five occasions since their launch twelve months ago!

With that acceleration rate, maybe NY City’s Finest should consider them – though it would appear that they may have had some budget cuts!

Having got this far in the blog, you might well be wondering when I am going to show you the “big” sights. Well, here we go.

Our route to McSorley’s took us past Macy’s….

….the Flat Iron building….

… and also gave us a closer sight of the Empire State Building.

It also passed through Times Square ….

…. which wasn’t as “tacky” or packed as we had been led to believe.

As our hotel was in Chinatown it was only a very short walk until we could see the Commercial Centre….

… including, of course, the One World Trade Centre.

Wall Street….

… was a bit of a surprise….

I’m not sure what I was expecting – but it was more than this. The most interesting buildings were Trinity Church at the top of the street….

… and what is now the Cipriani Centre.

In its previous incarnations it has been the Merchant’s Exchange, the Stock Exchange, the Custom House and the HQ of the National City Bank. Currently its first [top] floor houses the Trade Correspondence Office for the Soleil Bank and its Ground floor, what is described as an up-market Italian restaurant where the “elite” like to sip Bellinis. Having looked at its food prices, whilst not cheap, for NYC it certainly isn’t expensive.

The “Battery” at the south west end of Lower Manhattan is, like much of the rest of NYC – or so it seemed – being renovated, with sectioned off no entry areas and scaffolding. However, we did see “Castle Clinton”….

Built as a Fort in 1808 and used as such only until 1811 it later became an immigration centre before the opening of Ellis Island. There are a few canons scattered around and it is free to wander into.

Close by was this memorial to the Lives Lost in the Atlantic during WWII.

However, the real reason we came to the Battery was to catch the free ferry across to Staten Island….

…. and from which, as she plies her way across Upper Bay, there are excellent views of The Statue of Liberty.

There are, of course, trips available [for a price] to both the Statue and to Ellis Island but we had read that the queues for these trips, and again for entrance when you arrive there, can be very long. We were more than happy with the views we had.

Talking of views, we had been told that looking back at NYC from Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges at dusk/sunset was a must do. So, we did!

We crossed out on the Brooklyn Bridge….

…. and back on the Manhattan Bridge.

A very fitting end to a day and, whilst on the subject of fitting ends, on our last evening we went to Birdland.

I had thought of booking this as a surprise for Mike but I wasn’t sure which of the two shows available during our stay he would want to see. He is also much better [patient] at booking things than I am – my forte being the research/planning part. Anyway, by Mike doing it he found a much better booking site than I did – and saved us quite a lot of dosh by doing so – certainly more than enough to cover the bottle of wine we shared whilst watching the band and the commemorative T-shirt that Mike had to have.

Born in 1937 Ron Carter is the most recorded jazz bassist in history with 2,221 appearances in recording sessions. He has won three Grammy Awards and has also recorded numerous times as a cellist

It was a really great evening which rounded off our three days/four nights action packed time in New York.

Having long said I didn’t fancy visiting NYC I am really glad that we went and the only reason for doing so was that our flight to the US from Manchester landed at JFK and it would have been a missed opportunity not to take advantage of that and see what the city had to offer. However, our initial purpose for vising the States was to see three lots of friends – though you will have to wait for my next post to hear about that.