New Jersey & New York 26 Dec - 1 Jan

I am slowly adding photos to this posting, so do return to see more.

26 Dec - We had a late celebration of Christmas, to include Will, Penny and Laurence in the festivities. (See previous post for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.)

27 Dec - we took a trip into New York. We walked uptown from Penn Station:
starting at Macy's where Lan bought me several excellent cotton shirts;
past the Empire State Building (the huge queue round the block deterred us from going to the top);
we admired the New York Public Library;
the Chrysler Tower lobby;
we ate at the food court of the Grand Central Terminal;
we dropped into St Barnabus who have a very impressive bookshop in the porch;
St Patrick's Cathedral was less commercial but full of tourists;
we watched the skaters at the Rockerfeller Center and later at Central Park too;
Lan crashed out in the massage chairs at a gadget shop;
before we finished the day at Central Park and a stroll back to the station.

28 December - another day trip to New York. This time we went downtown, mainly looking at shops, including:

a market in Union Square;
Little Italy; and
Chinatown.
We then walked further downtown, under Brooklyn Bridge on the way to South Street Seaport to see tall ships and then crosstown to Ground Zero. There was a very solemn atmosphere amongst the onlookers of this tragic site.
We walked back through Chinatown and Little Italy. Lan was looking for a Nail Supply shop, so I suggested she asked at the next Nail Shop. The Chinese staff were helpful in giving us directions to a shop on Broome St.
We found the Nail Supplier, run by a Vietnamese family. While Lan was stocking up on supplies for her Nail business, she mentioned to the shopkeeper, Jenny, that we were planning to spend a few days in NY but hadn't found a suitable hotel. Jenny recommended a hotel two doors down. Not only that, she shut up shop and came with us to negotiate a cheap rate for us. So we booked ourselves a room for two days later.
After a meal at the Wholefood deli cafe, we took a taxi back to the station.


29 Dec - In the morning I went to Princeton with the parents to see Princeton University art gallery. In the afternoon Lan shopped and cooked for the household.

30 Dec we set off for the hotel in New York (SoHotel, 351 Broome St, on the corner with The Bowery). It was well placed, on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy and close to a delicious Vietnamese sandwich shop, Banh Mi So Mot. We got friendly with the owner who was give us some useful advice. When going to Washington don't use the expensive train or Greyhound bus, but the Chinatown buses.

31 Dec - We walked through Chinatown to the Battery and then caught the Staten Island Ferry which gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and NY.

We walked back amaking a slight detou to the Brooklyn Bridge. In the evening I insisted we go to Times Square to the largest New Year's party in the world. However, it was cordoned off from 6.30pm so we could only walk around the edges. In the end, we saw the New Year in back at the hotel.

1 Jan 2006 - we went to the Natural History Museum, which occupied most of the day.

Follow these links for more of my New York photos or photos of Lan in New York.