New York - The Day after Sandy

We went to New York and it was shut.

This can be the official subtitle of the day. The storm had certainly caused some damage and it was still blowing a hooley when we went to our now local breakfast haunt, The Happy Days diner. The real downside was that all the bridges and tunnels were still shut and therefore cutting us off from Manhatten.

Breakfast done and back to the hotel. Then the news that everyone was waiting for, Brooklyn Bridge had reopened. Charge! A mass exodus from the hotels started. We were lucky to pinch 2 of the first cabs heading over the water.

Now all we had to do was meet up with the other 4 travellers from Stanwick. As it happens they were quite pleased to see us.

The rest of the day was spent exploring NY. 5th Avenue, Empire State building, Central Park, Macys, Times Square. All had a common theme - they were shut! Here are a few pics.

This is SAKS 5th Avenue, one of the most iconic stores in the world. In my opinion a total over-reaction to the storm bearing in mind where they are located in NY. It just looks as though they have gone bust. No other store took these measures.

Once again a good traditional Irish Bar came to the rescue for lunchtime refreshments. This is where I will leave the story for the moment. The evening's activities shall be in a new post.

PS This is the droopy crane you may have seen on the news. Bizarrely the steak restaurant we had booked before we left the UK was right beneath this. Needless to say our reservations had been cancelled!

New York - Sandy's Day and Night

So our first day in New York full of excitement and anticipation. This is what we woke up to.

We were not going to get put off by this. We have all experience a blustery day at Skeggie in the past; this cannot be any worse. Off we set in search if traditional American diner for breakfast. Oh did we strike lucky - Happy Days diner, only one of two places open in the whole neighbourhood.

Nicely fuelled with eggs over easy on corned beef hash and unlimited corfeee. We wondered what we could do in a city that was shut, the rain going sideways and enough wind to blow the skin off Mrs CT's rice pudding. Luckily the locals are very helpful & Victor the teacher gave us a list of his favourite bars & restaurants.

A walk down to the end of the street to Brooklyn Promenade is the closest we are going to get to Manhatten & The Statue of Liberty.

Nothing else to do but head to the nearest Irish Bar to drown our sorrows. Girls drinking chocolate martinis. At least that will give us some peace this afternoon.

The boys left one hour later just as all hell let loose. Some of these photos are messing about but some are real. The wind nearly took Mr B from us and blew him down the subway.

We are in for a very bumpy ride. Hold onto everything folks - here comes Sandy.