Hey I finally finished. . .

Ok, that is pretty much all the posts I have for my trip to New York. It only took me a couple of months to get around to finishing them :P
And yes, I did go to New York and not go to the Statue of Liberty. I did briefly see it in the distance as we were leaving Brooklyn trying to find our way back home again.
Did I mention that driving in New York is crazy. Driving in Manhattan itself isn't too bad, but trying to use the highways is crazy, we got lost every time we tried to go somewhere in the car. They don't seem to put the same things on the signs as we had on the map or directions. But we did manage to eventually find our way everywhere we were going. We did need to stop for directions at least twice on the way to the bed and breakfast, but the people were nice enough, ven if the directions weren't that helpful.

Brooklyn Bridge

This is the start of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Subway

Here are some shots from the subway system. I love the subway, I think they should have them everywhere.

This was the station in Brooklyn near the B&B. It was a little sketchy looking, but there were usually other people (and police a lot of the time) around, so it turned out to be not too bad.

These were taken either as the rain approached or left, I can't remember which.


Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get pictures of the huge rats that live in the subway stations. They were down in the tracks (at least all the ones that I saw) so they weren't too scary. They seem to be more on the lines where you had to go further underground to catch the trains.

Random Central Park

I just like the light posts :)

This was a statue of a guy on a horse, I'm not sure the significance, I might have known at the time I took the photo, but this knowledge has fled my brain if it was there at one point.

Central Park Ice Rink

This Ice Rink was much smaller than I had envisioned as well (I'm not sure if I mentioned that about the one at Rockefeller Center or not, but it was also much smaller than I thought it would be). I think it is because the buildings in the background are so big that it messes with the scale in the photos and films of the ice rinks, making them appear larger.

The Dairy

This is another of the visitor centers within the park. This one had a gift shop, but we didn't go in, we were pretty much all tourist gifted out at this point.

Belvedere Castle

There is a castle in Central park, from which you can get a nice view of the park. I think, if I recall correctly, the name, Belvedere, actually means Beautiful view, or something along those lines.

Central Park North

These are taken in the north end of the park. It is the more nature related end of the park. It is also the end of the park that you shouldn't be in alone after dark.

One among many.

There are a lot of churches in New York, most of which are interesting architectural structures.

Streetscapes

These were also taken on the way to Central Park. They are along the same street. The second was in front of a boarded up / burnt out building quite close to the park. It was along the Harlem edge of the park.

New York Continued . . .

Here are some architectural details that I captured as we walked towards Central Park.

Stop Three

We were only booked into the hotel for 4 nights, so we decided to stay at a B&B for the rest of the week. (we ended up only staying 2 more nights). Here are some of the gnomes antics at Eve's. . .

Enjoying the mirrored dining room:

After seeing so many super tall buildings and full sized people, the gnome was happy to find a whole group of creatures his own size to make friends with . . .


Resting his feet after a long day of walking the city streets . . .

Warming up by the fire place . . .

Having a drink at the bar . . .

Checking out the neighbourhood . . .

Rockefeller Center - Round Two

The view at the Top of the Rock is amazing, especially from the second level of the observatory (which isn't surrounded by glass and has places that you can set a camera, making it much easier to get a decent photo)

Empire State Building

This building is really big ;)

21 Club

It was Restaurant Week in New York while we were there, so we could actually afford to eat at a fancy restaurant. It was excellent. We didn't see anyone famous there, but apparently it is the place to see and be seen (or something like that. . .)

The Night Continues

One of the many amazing churches in the city . . . (St. Patrick's I believe)

The gnome couldn't seem to hail a taxi on his own so he thought he'd try to hitch a ride with this guy.

The Chrysler Building (we may have thought this was the empire state building at the time this photo was taken, but figured out that it was indeed the Chrysler Building).

The Crown Building . . . I think . . .

Rockefeller Center - Round One

We found the ice rink . . . which it turns out is remarkably smaller than I imagined it to be . . .

The Top Of the Rock (from the bottom) . . .stay tuned for photos from the top :)

On of the many statues around the center