New York; Monday, 19 December, 2022

I was once again up at 6am so after a shower and getting dressed I had time to fully pack before it was time to head down for breakfast. After breakfast I checked out of the hotel, leaving my luggage with the porter, before heading out into the city for one last day.

I headed down to Times Square and started heading East down 42nd Street. This choice was deliberate as some of the best pieces of public architecture are on this street – the Public Library and Grand Central Terminal.

First stop was the Public Library, the largest public library in the world with over 55 million volumes in it’s collection, as well as many artefacts including Charles Dickens writing desk, Virginia Woolf’s walking cane, first editions of many famous books and the original Pooh Bear that was owned by Christopher Robin Milne – all on display in the library’s Treasures exhibit which I spent some time looking round.

It was then a short walk a bit further along the street to get to Grand Central Terminal. Everyone always says that it’s large and it’s scale can’t really be comprehended without being seen and after having popped inside to see for myself I can agree – the space of the booking hall is on a monumental scale, and the way that most of the historic fabric of the building has been retained and kept updated is quite an achievement.

After looking round the station I continued my walk along 42nd Street until I reached the end of the road at United Nations Plaza. It’s here that you meet the massive skyscraper that is the United Nations Headquarters, flanked by flagpoles flying the flags of all the member states as well as a selection of art works.

From the UN I headed back in towards the centre of town, stopping off for a well earned cup of coffee before heading over to St Patrick’s Cathedral, the city’s Catholic Cathedral and a building which in any European City would be one of the key buildings of the skyline, but here is made to look petit by the tower skyscrapers surrounding it. Inside the cathedral had been all decorated ready for Christmas and it was quite spectacular.

Across the road from the cathedral is the Rockefeller Centre and it’s here that is really the centre of Christmas for the city with the Centres Christmas Tree being the Big Apple’s equivalent of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree in London, with the added bonus of the light reflecting from all the tall buildings surrounding it, and an ice skating rink in front.

I spent a bit of time looking round the centre and the Christmas decorations before heading back in the Direction of Times Square, the other focus point of celebrations in the city where the crystal ball drops at midnight on New Years to usher in the new year, on the way I stopped off for a late lunch to get me through until I got to the airport later.

Times Square finished off I headed back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and then walk the short distance to the E line station for the subway out towards the airport. I just missed a very full train, which turned out to be a blessing as a couple of minutes later another E train came through only about half full so I was able to get a seat for the 30 or so minute journey out to Jamaica Centre where I changed onto the Air Train round to Terminal 8 at JFK to checkin and start my journey home.

Of course, little did I know that as I arrived at the airport the British Airways flight management system had decided to meltdown grounding every plane that was not in the air already as captains couldn’t check or upload their flight plans, what should have been a pleasant couple of hours in the lounge extended on long into the evening, and threatened to go into the night…