Grand Central

In terms of railway architecture there are few places more iconic than Grand Central Station in New York. Pixie and I popped into the concourse last week, at the beginning of our brief trip to the Big Apple (or is it a moderately-sized banana, an undernourished kumquat, a decidedly sparse kiwi fruit, who knows?). Following the clamp down in recent decades on both cigarettes and steam locomotives, it no longer has the shafts of sunlight-through-(or thru)smoke so beloved of the photographers of this building in the thirties and forties. However it is still an impressive space and cried out for a tripod, which I didn't have.

We both have an aversion to tourists and queueing, even when touring ourselves, so most of the time we spent making our own itinerary. Not for us standing in line at the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island; there are some things that become just too familiar through the medium of film and television. We did venture up the Empire State building, going early to avoid the crowds, but not doing so would have been an equally good option, and cheaper.

Overall we liked NY - wouldn't want to live there, however, unless we could disconnect every car horn and teach them how to brew tea (and coffee).