NYC: Midtown

6 July 2011

Having said goodbye to Bethany, Troy and Sonja we took a cab back to midtown, intending to have a rest at the hotel before tackling the next points on our itinerary. Manhattan had other ideas though and in trying to get through the rush hour traffic, a bus ended up squeezing and scraping alongside the back left corner of the taxi (also known as: inches from me) in impressive fashion. We were thus dropped off somewhat earlier than anticipated as the driver pulled over to inspect the damage and, we supposed, to talk to the bus driver. Having turfed us out though, he then decided that actually, he might as well carry on and someone else got into the bashed car and off he went with another fare.

We found ourselves standing outside the New York Public Library, so Suzy had her Sex & The City moment as Carrie on the stone steps.

We relaxed for a while on the steps under bright blue skies (just look at them! After weeks of the forecast being for thunderstorms, the weather was amazing), watching the traffic and the world go by on Fifth Avenue. Any other time taxis had been fairly elusive beasts, but now, right when we didn’t really need one, the road was a sea of yellow cabs taking people hither and yon.

As we were only a few blocks from the hotel, we returned home on foot and collapsed in our cool room for a while before freshening up and heading out for dinner. We took a cab to Carnegie Hall, just to see it as a site of note. So, just like so many other buildings in the city, it was of course covered in scaffolding! Still, I can still say I’ve seen it. Bits of it, anyway.

Just across the road Suzy spotted a beautiful juxtaposition of patterned brickwork and glass walls. I love how New York is a patchwork of building styles, with all kinds of different architecture to be found. As the views from the top of the Empire State Building showed, the city was a mishmash of different colours, with no set template for the skyscrapers – they could be wide, narrow, black, white, squat or pointy.