New York City Holiday

I would just like to say one thing about our journey from London to New York and then I thing we'll move on just as the therapist suggested: If you really dislike someone and want to make them suffer, buy them plane tickets with Brussels Airlines.
Moving along then...New York eh?! Yep, we decided because we were that much closer to the USA whilst in England, we would just nip*across the Atlantic and take our boys, aged 14 and 17 to see New York for five nights, and even some days.(*really it's a decent 8 hour+ flight)
My husband Fil  and I are not really fans of cities. We don't much like crowds.
I stress about etiquette/cultural faux pas on the go and Fil, well, cities just seem to upset his whole Tardis coordinates.
To be fair though, the kids have been dragged around a lot of pretty scenery and historical buildings which is clearly boring as all buggery (This is mild colloquialism in Australia, so take it in context if you would- it means 'really, really') and we thought New York would be a little more exciting for them.

 New York City certainly hit the spot. What a great place! It's big, bold, busy and brassy.
 And I still liked it.
 Fil was the only one of us who had been to the US at all and never New York, so I looked up some etiquette and cultural tips so as not to appear too ignorant an ass during our  visit.
 I'll mention a few here in case you're thinking of going yourself and would appreciate some advice from a fairly clueless novice. Here goes-
For one thing tipping for service is standard,  but just so you don't get complacent, it varies from one thing to another.
Learning the different percentages is a great start, but there is a certain grace to it once you get the knack. So I imagine. We were hopeless! We tried. We threw extra money at some people and short-changed others (sorry!) in our awkwardness. No one swore at us though which was really decent of them. Not in a language we could understand anyway.

At first we didn't really get which helpful 'service' people get a tip and which you might offend by even offering. (For those interested, we left $2- a day for the hotel maid, tipped cab drivers between 10 and 15 % {you're grateful to survive the ride after all} and tipped meals 15-20%- but you gotta check the bill as some venues actually add the tip  themselves. )
Our accomodation was the Wellington Hotel on 7th Avenue on Manhattan Island. If you like a combo of chandeliers and scuffed skirting boards, this is your place. It impressed Borat in anycase as this was the hotel he stays at apparently in the movie of the same name.
 Don't get me wrong, it's a combo I quite like. Olde grande I call it. We had booked a suite based solely on having very little choice with it being Easter weekend.
We had spent many hours trawling the Internet for a hotel, getting more desperate as time went on.
 New York is not cheap at all, but the suite at The Wellington ended up a good thing as the boys had one room (a queen sofa and a portable king-single) with a tv and table and seats and so did we, plus a teensy kitchenette with microwave, fridge and sink.
 We all shared a nice bathroom with water pressure so high, taking a shower had you pinned against the far wall like a bug on a windscreen. From this I can assure you New York tap water tastes very nice.  Bonus!
 The Wellington is in a great spot mid-town, equidistant from Times Square and Central Park. There is a Greek Restaurant attached to the hotel which we never made it to, but the diner-style cafe is where we had our breakfast each day. Unfortunately the Internet shots did not show the queue most mornings to wait for a table. I had never been mashed up against diners, waiting a breakfast table for an 'included' brekky, but I have to say, the staff were amazing at wending and weaving and we never waited more than five minutes. It's just part of the fun.The trick was not to drool on seated diners.

The stodgy and tasty brekky of either French toast, a pancake stack with maple syrup of an 'American' cooked brekky, set us up each morning for a day of adventures.
I had booked a New York tour on-line (New York See It All! Tour). This turned out to be a really great city 'taster'. It was five hours long, mostly on a bus which we got on and off half a dozen times and there was also a boat cruise. It started and ended a few blocks from our hotel and we all had a great day out in glorious weather. We saw so many iconic tourist sights. Many we would have had to go quite out of our way to see on our own so this was a great time saver.
The Statue of Liberty out on the harbour was lovely. I was surprised to find to she was shorter than I  expected, but unlike me, of course seems taller on closer inspection. This was as close to Ellis Island as we got and for us that was fine.

Over the next five days we either walked or if we were feeling giddy, caught a cab which is a very affordable way for four people to travel cross town. Hailing a cab is a good exercise for tourists in confidence but in fact cab drivers are so used to bumbling out-of-towners, they'll pull up even if you gaze at them long enough with raised brows (you are trying to see if the cab light is lit to indicate it is vacant).
We visited the Empire State Building Never again. The queues sadly were a joke of two hours plus. At the top you have to wait patiently in crowds three-deep to get a view. Or yell "Look, there's King Kong", and push in as everyone turns their iphones upward.
 It took over an hour to get down again too. Urrgghh! Go after 10pm if you must go. (We tried to go at a 'shoulder' time too).Personally we happened to fly in to the city at night and they were the best views by far. Magic!

On another slightly disappointing note- Central Park- don't expect much in winter. It's bare and many lawns are roped off to recover. It just looked tired and over-loved. There are not really any flower beds that I saw. I bet it looks lovely in the summer and autumn though. I'd say best seen then.
I'm afraid artistically we only made it to the Guggenheim. There was an exhibition on that was not really my cup of tea, though I'm sure some people would enjoy it. Maybe. If you stood on your head and squinted.

 It really was worth going to see some of the permanent collection in any case. (I personally loved the pieces by Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso, Rousseau, Bonnard, Seurat, Van Gogh).
New York is of course filled with amazing art galleries and museums but my teen boys were more interested in giant meals, giant toy-stores (FAO Schwarz is really impressive), Times Square and the general buzz of New York. We tried to book a Broadway show but could get no seats together. Should have booked before-hand. Speaking of hands- the tickets will cost an arm and leg but obviously worth it if you can gather the funds.

The USS Intrepid museum which is an actual aircraft carrier was a big winner. The museum is very interesting as are the collection of aircraft on deck including one of the  space shuttles. We also did the submarine tour which was genuinely fascinating (in a wow! and I'm glad it wasn't me way).
We visited the shrinking Little Italy, the growing Chinatown and SOHO- all great for a fascinating wanders of distinct uniqueness.

Our ice creams in China Town by the way ( Chinatown Ice Cream Factory) were amazing. My Zen Butter was divine (peanut butter and sesame).

We were pretty tired out with tramping by the end of our holiday, but really enjoyed our visit.
The locals were friendly and helpful to us at all times, though being a big city, people generally keep to themselves and get on with their own thing. Like getting around the ogling tourists;)
There are just so many beautiful buildings in New York, you have to look up a lot to appreciate them all!
I will just add that food really is very expensive if you dine in- even just a simple cafe, so the best way we found to eat (other than treating yourself to at least one great restaurant) is street vendors (the ones with queues are often the good ones;), deli's (which sell EVERYTHING) and the restaurants of Chinatown, Little Italy and the wharf building down Seaport ferry terminal.
I'm sure you could spend weeks in New York City and not really have seen much of it. It's truly a vast metropolis, but with all it has to offer, mapped out of sequentially numbered streets you can't really get lost on, I would highly recommend it as a fantastic place to visit.

Next we're emptying the coffers to go somewhere completely different...Ireland!