Our flight home was from Newark, which was a perfect excuse to spend our last new days in New York City. I’d never visited there at all, Veronica had been once before, so had memories to share. But there was one last stop on the way first.
We stopped to spend one night with M and her partner P in Milford. We needed a little downtime, a transition before reaching New York – and we had a perfect break here. There was great food, cakes, proper tea, and Rock Band. We did take a drive out to get train tickets to New York, and admire the local Christmas Light Crazies, but the rain was coming down hard, and some of the lights were off, so we didn’t get the full experience. It just meant all the time to play Rock Band. There’s something about that game that just makes for a wonderfully fun, silly, social space.. Everytime Ive played it, has been a good time, with good people. This was no exception. 
We got to New York City around Monday lunchtime. We’d found a nice hotel in Chinatown (Hotel 91) at a good price via TripAdvisor. The only possible complaint would be that it was near the Manhatten Bridge, so there were occasional train noises – but nothing you couldn’t sleep through. For the price, it was a really nice hotel. We dropped our bags off, grabbed a quick lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then headed straight for the Staten Island Ferry. Our original plan had been to head up the Statue of Liberty, but there were no tickets available for the crown until January. In a way, I was glad, there’s something more romantic about being on that ferry, that I’ve seen in so many movies and TV shows. I felt the “wow, I’m in a movie” feeling once before, in San Francisco.. but I felt it again strongly in New York, and it started here. Watching the skyline of Manhatten, sailing past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, watching water taxis in the harbour, and bracing ourselves against the icy cold wind. 
On Staten Island, a quick walk out and around, and we were back on the ferry home. Light was fading, but there were still half a dozen photographers braced against the cold on deck. As the sun set, there was an amazing red glow on the horizon – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sunset as red. Coastguard boats, water taxis, and the other ferry slipped past us, heading directly into the red glow. Eventually, we had to go inside. Even with our Canadian thermal layers, it was just too cold. The thermometer inside was reading 2F, -16C: and the dry wind was cutting even colder. So it was a pleasure to watch Manhatten drift closer through the ferry windows.
None of this felt quite real yet. Arriving in New York had felt like getting out of a taxi, into Hong Kong – Chinatown is so large, there seems to be no end to it. Then we’d walked through a basement door into a little piece of Mexico for food. Then another magic taxi, this time to the Staten Island Ferry. So, after warming up in the hotel, it felt great to head out and meet a local to get to know New York a little better.
That evening we met up with R, who lived in Edinburgh for a while, but is now back in New York. Our taste of New York evenings involved walking down snowy streets, Artichoke Pizza (so very scrummy!), cocktails at Art Bar (smashing pumpkin pie martinis!), drinks in Highlands (a Scottish gastro-pub, with a half-decent whisky selection and Irish barstaff), then back to R’s apartment to see just how tiny Manhatten apartments can be, and help dispose of the tail end of a bottle of whisky.
It was all wonderful, but I think the magical part for me was walking through New York streets, with snow on the ground, snow drifting in the air, very cold crisp air. R also helped us put together a plan for the next day – a route to walk between most of the things we wanted to see and do.
That plan started with the Empire State Building. In reality, it started with coffee and panini’s a few doors down – then up the Empire State. It was another brutally cold day, but that meant it was quiet. The usual two hour queue was more like ten minutes. It was such a contrast to the shiny glass, metal, and gothic buildings of Chicago. It felt old – reminding me of the interior of old ships, rather than the old buildings of Europe. But it had character, more than any other American building I’d visited. The views were amazing (lots more in the photo gallery too), but it was incredibly cold. The west side of the roof was deserted, when we stepped round there, the wind whipped across us, and I could feel my skin burn and go numb within seconds. So very cold. So we headed inside to warm up.
The rest of the day had us exploring Macy’s, Times Square, Radio City, Rockefeller Plaza, St. Patricks Cathedral, F.A.O. Schwartz, the Apple Store, and finally Central Park. Of course, we had to take a carriage ride – but only a short one, it was way too cold even with a big warm blanket and a bag of M&Ms for fuel. It was a wonderful experience – to see skaters in Central Park, the Ghostbusters building, skylines across the park. I can imagine that in the summer, the carriage ride around the whole park would be a wonderful experience – but for me, in my imagination, that experience always had snow on the ground, a nip in the air, and someone to snuggle under a blanket with. Another movie moment – how many dozens of movies have I seen set in Central Park, and now.. I’m there, with the girl I love, snuggled under a blanket against the cold.. exactly as I always imagined.
Our last day in New York, we went to pay our respects at the World Trade Centre site. I’d had a vision of it still surrounded by a wall with tributes, but it’s now a huge, buzzing construction site, where they are building the ‘Freedom Tower’ (now not to be called that, but instead, the ‘more memorable’ “Number 1 World Trade Center”). Around the corner from the old Ladder 10 firestation, we found the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, and a walking tour was just starting. The center does tours of the WTC site, led by family members of those who died, and survivors of the site. Michael (a retired fire Lt. who was there helping on the day), and Rosemary (whose son George was a firefighter killed on the day) were our guides. I don’t think I can do justice to their stories. All I can say is that we were both deeply moved, and that if you want to know what that day was like – ignore the other tour guides and go to the Tribute Center. The Center also has a museum, and I found it very hard to stay in. The wall of photos of lost people, the mangled fireman’s uniform, pieces of plane – it was suddenly all so very real.
After that, we’d planned to go to Macy’s for some more shopping, but it just didn’t seem important any more. We headed in that direction on the subway, and grabbed some food, hoping it would help us return to the present day, but by the time we’d done that, it was almost time to return home. So it was a rushed trip back to the hotel, to collect our infeasibly large stack of bags, and wait for the car to take us to the airport, and homewards.
The trip home felt a bit surreal too – sharing the airport lounge with Gordon Brown and his security entourage, being unable to sleep on the way back because my head was spinning too much with all these experiences.. and then, the jet lag. It’s been a blur since.. And I guess that’s us home. The end of an adventure. Perhaps just room for one, last, reflection before I close this particular book.
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