Day three: New York
Saturday 20 March 2010
Well, I’m up bright and early on Saturday and ready to see the sites. The sun is shining, 67 degrees, like an early midsummer day - unbelievable.
Keith is the only one of the three of us who has done New York before (when he did the marathon) and we’ve nominated him as tour guide as long as there’s no running involved…
We set off in the direction of Grand Central station - wow! In the market vaults of the station itself the place was buzzing, fantastic fresh seafood, cakes to die for and cheese in abundance - such a fantastic spread. The station is well designed, laid out and so clean. I’m already taking some best practice notes! The general areas of cleanliness internally and externally are much better than you would encounter in London.
From here we went on to Empire State Building, although only up to the 86th floor, the views are magnificent especially with the clear skies, not a grey cloud to be seen. The building itself is Art Deco and restored to its original specification. The attention to detail is outstanding and you really do meet some interesting characters from all over the world in the queues.
I’ve noticed that customer interaction and cleanliness are exceptional, and we’re now becoming to expect this as the norm!
The Chrysler building is just up the road from our hotel and again it’s well restored and impeccably maintained.
Next we’re off to Time Square: it is such good fun here, spectacular definition within the advertising building screens, they are so much bigger than anything I’ve have seen elsewhere.
My batteries are about to die, but I’ll be back tomorrow with the next installment.