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Postcard From Europe

The US of A


U. S. A.


New York

When they say NYC is the most alive city in the world they're not joking. There's a vibe here that's contagious. We stayed a couple of blocks from Times Square and went there every night just to soak up the mayhem. Tourists, locals, hustlers, limos, bright lights -nothing else like it on the planet. The bus-long limos were sharing the roads with seven seater circular bicycles and thousands of pedestrians with no one coming to grief. Amazing! And the neon. Apparently one of the tall buildings here is completely empty but earns 20 million bucks a year just in advertising revenue from neon signs.




The security here is ever present although you do get used to it. There are bag searches everywhere and a high police presence. We've never felt safer although I must say the machine guns on the Staten Island ferry escot raised our eyebrows. As did the missile equipped helicopters flying overhead. Still when you see the gaping hole where the WTC was it is very sobering and you can begin to understand. It is a subject that still dominates everything in New York.




New York has an oversupply of culture and its Museum of Modern Art has a collection which rivals Paris galleries . While we loved the impressionist paintings our favourite was the Guggenheim Museum shown here. While its art collection is modest the Frank Lloyd Wright building is just perfect.




But the standout building is of course the Empire State Building towering above all the buildings around it. It acts like a beacon in the city and we just loved it.




Of course like all tourists we had to go to the top for the view and this is it at night.




We loved Central Park and returned there many times during the week. It is just an amazing patch of green in the middle of such an enormous city. People ride, run, fish, hike, walk and ice skate as you can see here with 5th avenue buildings in the background.




The weather turned pretty cold while we were here causing us to rush off and buy beanies and gloves. We went for a cruise around Manhattan which gives you a fantastic view of all the skyscrapers and the bridges. This is the Brooklyn bridge with the financial district behind and a very cold Paul in front.



San Francisco

Who can talk about San Francisco without mentioning the Golden Gate Bridge. It really is as good as the pictures. How lucky were we to get these fantastic views. The next afternoon it completely disappeared as the fog rolled in. Apparently this is common in summer making summer here actually colder than winter. Strange but true.




We were lucky enough to be here on Halloween. Walking around the streets watching all the families and their kids going into the shops in suburban main streets for their trick or treats was pretty neat. Even neater was all the adults dressing up for the day to go to work in their spooky outfits. Even the normally sartorially elegant hotel staff wore witches hats and scary face masks. And of course the theme behind all this is the orange pumpkin in every window.




San Francisco is famous for its cable cars which we rode time and time again. Even Dianne with her dodgey arms managed the "hang out" of the car as it rattled up and over the hills. Some of these hills are so steep the cars have trouble in the wet.



This is the end of our journey and we are about to catch the plane to come home. We hope all of you who have followed our saga have enjoyed reading about it as much as we have enjoyed writing it.


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Paris
  Paul & Dianne - Bio and Journals
  Postcard From Europe - Intro Average Rating of 8 Viewers
Chapters of Postcard From Europe
  Istanbul
  Denmark
  Sweden
  Norway
  Holland
  UK (part 1)
  UK (part 2)
  UK (part 3)
  Prague & Budapest
  Vienna & Salzburg
  Bavaria
  Italy - Rome
  Italy - Tuscany
  Italy - Tuscany part 2
  Italy - Tuscany last part and Venice
  A Boat in Burgundy
  Paris
  The US of A

       

Happy Trails to You

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