New York highlights

Three days isn't quite enough to grasp the flavour of NYC, but here are my recommendations:

- Central and reasonably priced accommodation (by US standards ie less than $US 250 a day) is available and maximises the time available for sightseeing etc.

- Empire State Building gives an excellent overview (literally) of the bottom half of Manhattan Island and nearby landmarks such as Liberty and Ellis islands.

- A Manhattan island cruise gives an excellent ground level view of the island. I took the full island cruise with Circle Line Cruises which was excellent especially because of the views, the commentary and the six dollar bottomless mug of coffee/ chocolate sold on board.

- Museum of Modern Art

Needs more than one visit to even start to do justice to its collections.

- Natural History Museum

Good, but I was perplexed because I couldn't find the exhibit of the the giant squid and the whale fighting each other which was featured in (and gave the title to) the recent movie The Squid and the Whale.

- Staten Island ferry

A one hour free round trip which passes close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (though not as close as the Circle Line cruises) .

- Ground Zero

Worth a visit just to see the site: not only how much was destroyed and but also how so many buildings nearby were spared - check out the adjoining St Paul's Church with its almost intact graveyard and flower beds.

- Brooklyn Bridge

If possible walk across it from Brooklyn towards Manhattan and its skyline.

- Walk as much as possible (there aren't any steep hills) and use public transport when you need to move more a than a kilometre in a short time: $US7 buys an all day pass for the subway (which extends well beyond Manhattan Island) and the buses.

The longest day of my life

On May Day I left Adelaide at 6.40 am local time and arrived in New York at 5.20pm local time the same day. By my calculation this meant that for me 1 May 2006 lasted 37.5 hours, as Adelaide time is 13.5 hours ahead of NY time.

London

I'm now in London, having travelled via New York, where I spent three full days sightseeing. I'll have more to say in another post.

Today London is quintissentially London: overcast with intermittent rain, but by no means too cold to get out and about, which I plan to do shortly.