New York, 2000

 21 years ago this weekend I took a family holiday to New York. 

New York Central Library

Chrysler Building

Grand Central Station

Battery Park and the Financial District, seen from the Staten Island Ferry

Times Square

Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge, seen from the ferry

Statue of Liberty

Experimental picture, showing our reflection in the door of the ferry. I'm pointing at the Financial District, Downtown Manhattan

World Trade Center, looking up from floor 1. 'Worm's eye view.' Would have benefitted from SLR.

Sculpture on Floor 1, World Trade Center.

Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, The Borough of Brooklyn, as seen from the observatory of World Trade Center.

Downstairs downtown: the streets of Manhattan from 107 floors

Empire State Building, taken from The world Trade Center. I remember the cloud rolling back and the shaft of light revealing more of Manhattan. I took the picture just after it cleared Empire State.

Chinatown. Had my first cup of tea.

Policeman on a horse, outside an Italian restaurant. Andrea Bocelli's Time to Say Goodbye played over the speaker in the background.

Not sure what street this was but the Flatiron is right down in the distance.No zoom on the camera.

Grace building. Iconic concave front. Taken at dawn. My body clock hadn't adjusted, so Dad and I had a wander around.

Empire State Lobby. Trying hard to channel my inner Andy Garcia. SLR would have made me dead centre under the mural.

Chrysler from the Empire State observatory

New Jersey, across The Hudson River, seen from Empire State

Downtown Manhattan, seen from the Empire State

Upper Manhattan with Central Park in the B/G, seen from Empire State

Dakota Building. John Lennon's murder site

The roads being steamed

An exhibition in the Guggenheim. Many CRT TVs on their backs. Was more impressive at the time.

Guggenheim's spiralling staircase

The family in Central Park. Empire State's spire peeking through the skyscrapers.

Baseball in Central Park

Washington Memorial Arch, Greenwich Village

Tic and Tac, two acrobats performing in Greenwich Village

Manhattan from across Brooklyn Bridge, dusk. We timed it perfectly, having got the subway to Brooklyn. As we walked back accross the footbridge over the traffic, the sun set behind the Financial District. Magic.

17-year-old me showing off where I threw up the plane food on the first night. I had to leg it across the lobby to get out in time

Trump Tower, Donald Trump's vanity project that left him in debt

Atlas, outside The Rockefeller Center.

The plane, ready to take us back from JFK

 

Incredible holiday. I recommend, if you're going to go, wearing a peaked cap as everything you'll want to see is above you, so it means looking into the sun a bit. Wear comfortable shoes, and take more pictures than I did.

The weekend that we went, Lennox Lewis defended his belt against Michael Grant at Madison Square Gardens. We happened to be outside at the time of the fight. I was not successful in blagging entry. On the plane, we had an actor from Emmerdale, a heavy-set mixed-race guy of whom nobody can remember the name. Him and his mates got steaming on the flight over there, made loads of noise including dodgy Ali G impressions, shouting 'ridee da punani,' spilled his drinks over everyone and got bollocked by passengers and crew alike. On the return flight they were put at the back of the plane, but word has it they slept the whole way.