New York, New York

So to New York the gang went for a couple of days folks. Here is a pic of the girls doing the 'Abbey Road' walk across Park Drive at the start of our trip to New York. New York is so good they named it twice and we had an action packed weekend lined up to enjoy.

Here are the girls outside our hotel, The New York Helmsley which was centrally located on 42nd and 8th. If anyone is planning a trip to New York we would certainly recommend the Helmsley with its great service, great rooms......

.........and talk about a room with a view, check out the view of the Empire State Building out our bedroom window, wha?

Marguerite, Jude, Aideen and Megan decided to splash out and take to the skies with a spectacular helicopter ride around New York. This was a truely great experience. Here is a pic of the helicopter itself just before we took off and while our stomachs were in knots.

Marguerite and Megan show their excitement as the helicopter takes to the sky. Meanwhile Jude's fear of heights is quickly forgotten as he gives the thumbs up on this wee adventure.

Aideen was hilarious folks. When flying past the Statue of Liberty she expressed her amazement that it was perched on an island and asked, 'what's that doing there, is that not meant to be in the middle of Manhattan?' Wha?

The Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1883, now that was a long time before the first car was ever made. Figure that one out but whatever way you look at it it truely was an inspired move. All these years later and it is still one of the busiest bridges in the world.

The helicopter ride was really, really exciting and it definately lived up to expectations by providing the most wonderful sights of this great city. This pic is of the Financial District in lower Manhattan. Class!

This pic shows 'Ground Zero' where the Twin Towers used to sit. Jude has a great pic of the Twin Towers in his apartment which he took while on holiday in 1994. Even now 8 years after 9/11 this view still provided for a real weird/shocking feeling in seeing this exact same spot with those towers gone. To see the Towers again in all their glory have a look at one of Jude's favourite films, 'Man on Wire'. Jude reckons you will not be disappointed.

Here is a pic of the Empire State Building and central Manhattan, this time from the sky rather than our hotel room......

........and here we see Central Park sprawling through the center(e) of the city

Oh, and here is the Hudson, where yer man landed thon plane safely and saved all those fortunate folks' lives earlier this year.

This is the view of New York's west side that the passengers would have got just before they landed on the Hudson

Look here folks, bus tours rock ok, helicopter rides are cool and exciting but the bread and butter of city sight seeing is the good auld bus tour as it gets you right into the streets and allows you to get a good feel for a city. Here Aideen, Megan and Jude enjoy the New York Downtown line.

Anyone who has ever been to Times Square will know that it is quite an experience just to walk there but now that it has been recently closed to traffic it is an even better experience. Photos don't really do it justice I'm afraid, as it's a classic 'you gotta be there' scenario. Here are Marguerite and Jude chilling with a cup of tea in the middle of the maddest Square on the planet.

Michael Jackson died this week and New York was doing its bit to remember the great music he brought to the world. Here he is on a massive screen in the Square while his music blasted out for all.

Broadway runs right through Times Square and there are enough shows there to keep any man or doll happy. Our collective decision this time was to see 'Chicago' and a great choice it was too.

In the pic below the silouettes are Marguerite and Megan frantically getting dolled up to go out.
















And here they are, ready to rock. Check out Marguerite's top there folks, those with good memories (that rules out Jude's brother Paul, who usually can't remember what he did yesterday) will remember the post for Marguerite's birthday and her opening her presents. Well that top she has on there was part of her birthday present from Jude.

Marguerite decides that today is the day she spoils herself. Jude reckons Marguerite's auld memory must be wandering a tad as he's convinced that she spoilt herself yesterday too, and the day before, and the day before that, and the day..........