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Well it must be something to do with the New York air as we were both up a little late again this morning but out on the streets relatively quickly. After breakfast we headed out towards Chelsea and the highline garden.

The highline garden was an old rail line that sits at about third or fourth floor level form the street that used to be used to transport goods straight into warehouses and factories in the area. Much of it had been demolished but two local residents of Chelsea came up with a vision to see this double width rail track converted into a public garden and park and so three years ago the highline opened. I have to say that the results are stunning and its really interesting being able to walk in between the high rises and residential New York at a whole new level. The planting itself has been left to look like a wild meadow

although managed and planted in an ordered way. The line itself stretches form Chelsea into Greenwich Village and various sections of the route are now sponsored by businesses. This is real escapism from the hustle and bustle of the city and if I lived here I would take a good book, a flask of decent freshly roasted coffee and read and people watch all day. The railway lines themselves are still in situ and have been put to use on some places with sun loungers on wheels stretching across the tracks. The other thing you notice is how nice it is to actually be able to walk without having to constantly stop at every block or street waiting for the white traffic light man to appear (although New Yorkers do seem to have a love of waiting half way out across the road).

The Highline took us in to Greenwich Village and a quick coffee stop. It was again refreshing to see the rows of brownstone townhouses and the breadth of independent retailers and restauranteurs that have continued to thrive in this area, if you were going to live in New York I would pick somewhere between Greenwich Village and Chelsea.

We stopped by the famous Stonewall Inn, despite the number of times that Trevor has been to New York he had never made it down to Greenwich Village so it came as a real surprise to him to see just how small it was yet that inn and the patrons of that inn had actually changed our lives....now thats people power!

We left the village and headed down The Avenue of The Americas to Soho via Spring Street.

As we reached the streets of Soho it got a lot busier. Suddenly we were being banged and crashed into compared to the real sense of serenity on the highline. We did however make our first purchases of the day here so it was worth being in the area. Still it was time to change direction completely so we jumped in a cab and headed down to the seaport area and Pier 17. This is where all the clipper ships and a lot of the tourist hudson river cruise boats leave from. Its also a great place to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. We had a quick bite to eat before Jonathan disappeared off into Abercrombie and Fitch for his New York Shopping ritual.

It was as we left the store that it started to rain so we spent the next two hours or so dodging getting wet under the shelter of buildings and canopies. It was not raining hard at all but never the less we were getting wet as we headed off towards the site of the world trade centre.

Things had really moved on here since we were last here with Jonathans Dad in November last year and it looked like two of the towers were all but finished. No landscaping had been done yet and it was still all fenced and hoarded off like the building site that it is but there is no denying the size and scale of the main tower that has risen out of an awful tragedy.

Now we could not be this close to Battery Park without going to look out across the Hudson at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was still spitting with rain and we were dressed in t-shirts and shorts so hardly dressed for this afternoons weather so we moved on to the complete dryness of New York's subway system. As we stood on the platform waiting for the next train to come along (we were at Wall Street Station so right by the stock exchange) the heat was almost unbearable. It was humid and sticky and you could actually feel the beads of sweat running down your back (not pleasant I know). Luckily although the train was rammed as we headed for Grand Central Station at least there was some air conditioning or I think that people would be passing out all over the place. We changed trains at Gran Central and headed off to Times Square to make a brief walk back through the garment district to out hotel and a bit of chill time.

Whilst passing through the garment area we passed some amazing fabric house and fabric trimming stores and we took some pics and sent them to a friend in the UK who is a tailor and costume maker for a living. As soon as he saw them we had to go back into the store and try and negotiate a good price on 150 pheasant feathers in purple,red and pink (thanks for that Peter a.k.a. Miss Abbi). Needles to say with no internet access this was a bit of a drawn out process but believe me, if Peter had been here in New York he would have spent a small fortune.

We headed to Macy's (again) from here and got caught up in a fire alarm. Although the store was not evacuated they kept making announcements and you could hear the fire alarm going off. As we left the store we saw ambulances and fire trucks on 24th street, apparently a dumpster (rubbish cart) had caught fire is what we overheard.

Back at the hotel again briefly we did some packing and had a shower to freshen up before heading out for dinner.

We wanted to go out for a nice meal tonight it being our last night of the holiday so thanks to trip advisor recommendations and open table we booked a steak house over in Hell's Kitchen (an area of NYC) about a twenty minute walk from the hotel, The food was fab and the steak yummy and huge but the service was a little harsh and some of the waiting staff needed to learn what a personality was but we enjoyed our meal and the bottle of merlot that came with it.

Its sad that this is our last night, although it some ways I know that we are both looking forward to going back to the UK and ultimately GC is still sad when something ends that you had been planning for so long. It feels like ages ago since we were in Iceland but I should save all that looking backwards for the last blog tomorrow.

Good night all and see you all very very soon indeed!

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