Ten States in a Fortnight - then New York City

Time moves fast when you're travelling! Another week has gone by & we're now in Noo-York!

Arches National Park

The Trafalgar tour of the Scenic Parks finished in Las Vegas, after more spectacular sights: Arches National Park, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde, where there are cliff houses built by Native Americans around 1100 – 1280AD, stand out particularly. The Grand Canyon was certainly spectacular, but for us seemed a little less so because it rained just after we arrived, and out planned flight over the canyon was cancelled due to low cloud the following morning. Nonetheless we did get some quite good views. To summarise the two week Trafalgar tour, we would have to say we thoroughly recommend it! Very efficiently run, we definitely saw the pick of the available sights – and the guide certainly knew his job – it was his 8^th circuit of this tour this year, but he still approached it with great enthusiasm!

Mesa Verde Cliff Houses

Monument Valley

At Hoover Dam

After returning to Las Vegas we took a half day trip to the huge but unfilled-since-1998 Hoover Dam, which which sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona, two of the ten states we have visited on the western portion of this trip (that ten includes New Mexico of which we crossed the NW corner for about 40 seconds when going from Colorado to Arizona.)

Back in Las Vegas we had another last explore of the rather loud & brash city - and of course the retail outlets - before flying on to New York on Thursday. Amazing how many poker machines there are in LV! The entire ground floor of our hotel (and every other hotel) was given over to machines & gaming tables, throughout almost every shopping area we visited, and even in the airport arrival & departure lounges AND the baggage collection area! Contrast this with the collection points at the airport for travellers packs (unused hotel soaps shampoos etc) to be sent to the military, and a request we received at a supermarket (here in New York) to add a gift to our checkout payment to provide lunches at a local school!

The views from the plane were good for the first half of the flight over the canyons and deserts west of the Rockies, then the mountains with a first dusting of snow on the highest (up to 14,000ft) peaks. We caught sight of the shoreline of Lake Erie later in the flight. It's a long flight – 4.5 hours, and we lost 3 hours in time zone shift, so it was quite late arriving at our apartment in East 11^th St.

A moment of concern when we alighted from the taxi and could not get anyone to respond to the doorbell! A quick phone call or two however resolved our access, and we soon settled in to a rather interesting small but adequate 3^rd floor bed-sitter in an 1840s house in Greenwich Village. (With bed, new bathroom, tables, lounges, TV and grand piano. (Well, you never know when a holiday tenant may need one.)

Brooklyn Bridge

New York Harbour - Miss Liberty & Lower Manhattan

So we've now been running around 'doing' New York – starting with open-top bus tours around four routes, including a night tour; a ferry ride to Liberty and Ellis Islands, a walk through lower Manhattan (Wall St, World trade Centre vicinity, Brooklyn Bridge) and today up the Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal... oh, and shops! We've got to know the Metro, and are finding it pretty easy to navigate. 

It's hard to comprehend just how HUGE New York is, and how many people! Everywhere. Day and night. (And an awful lot of them are tourists from all over!). And Taxis. And scaffolding on so many buildings. 

New Yorkers, Americans generally, always seem very firm in their appreciation. It's never 'thanks' or even 'thanks very much', but nearly always 'thank you SO much!'. None of then has heard of New South Wales, though 'Sydney' usually gets an acknowledgement.

Crowds and Scaffolding - Times Square

It has become evident that we have not the stamina for travel that we did on our earlier trips (notably our 1975 epic), and are rather footsore and weary after 4 days here, so tomorrow may need to be a bit slower! On Wednesday we take a train to Boston on the next stage, and we will be back in New York in about 3 weeks, so can see more then.

Day 25....