New York for Breakfast

Saturday morning we were up early for a ride in to New York City.  We are only about an hour and a half away by fast freeway.  And fast it is.  Limit is 65mph but sitting at that speed we were nearly blown over by the air-wash of cars overtaking us.   10 mph over is what almost everyone does, 20-30 mph over seems quite common. 

It was a relatively clear run from 6:00am to 7:30 so we had a nice time of it.  Except for one part where the GPS let us down.  I have it powered by a USB in a cig lighter socket and it apparently rattled loose on the rough concrete freeways near New Jersey.  Just as I needed to make a decision about which of two roads to take, with absolutely no signs on them (might have been one further back but I missed it) the screen went blank.  I had a 50-50 chance and chose one.  The GPS took a while to get back online but by that time I knew I had made the wrong choice as the NJTurnpike sign was now visible on the road I didn't take.

Impeccable timing by the GPS.

Oh well, it only added 30 or so minutes to go a long way around via a bridge rather than a tunnel, but we eventually found a tunnel and arrived about 40 blocks from our intended destination in Manhattan.  Luckily, 8th Ave is one way and the lights are timed so we had a good run up to 34th Street and a parking station.  Bikes are given a special place to park in sight of the office.  Excellent.

Bridges and tunnels took us to the Big Apple

 A quick three block walk saw us at the Empire State Building 15 minutes before opening time and about 200th in the queue to get tickets.  Not bad.  (By the time we came out there were hundreds more lined up.)
The staff are quite efficient at getting crowds through - and relieving them of substantial amounts of cash - so we were soon on the 86th floor admiring the view on this fine morning.  Just a little smog hanging about.

View from the top

Selfies are obligatory.  Arrow points to the Flatiron building.

A NYC Icon, the Flatiron building

More icons

By now I was starving so I dragged Charleen into a cafe on Broadway, called The Broadway Cafe, for a proper New York City breakfast.  Bacon on pancakes smothered in imitation maple syrup.  With cawfee.

Gotta love it

Trump plane at NJ airport and yellow cabs in NYC

New York is a place with plenty to see and we wandered about moving from sight to sight and had to make a concious effort to not stray too far from our car park.  As it was we wound up about 10 stree blocks and three avenue blocks (larger) away and had to walk all the way back.

The only people allowed on the grass in Madison Sq  gardens are these little fellas.
And don't they love it.  Show-offs.

We even had time to do a little shopping at Maceys.  The store takes up one full city blook and is a mixture of the old and the new.  The old being these wooden escalators, still (mostly) working well.

And now the real reason for our visit to the Empire State.  Our local coffee shop at home, Backstreet Espresso, encourages their customers to bring back from their travels, photos of the Backstreet coffee cups from their travels.  Also they have a large photo of  Manhattan, including the Flatiron building, an aerial shot taken from the Empire State building.  Naturally, another shot with their own coffee cup in the shot is desired.  So here are a couple we got.