So Good They Named It Twice

When I surprised G in October last year with plans for a trip to New York to celebrate his 50th birthday this year it seemed such a long way off.

Well time, as it has a habit of doing, has ticked by and last Tuesday we got on a practically empty plane and flew to Newark airport.

I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to the long flight but it passed relatively quickly, there was a good deal of snoozing which helped! 
Because there were so many empty seats we were invited to move if we wanted and G took the opportunity to sit in the row in front of me during the flight. This meant he could stretch out to his full 6ft 5in and so feel more comfortable by the time we arrived.

Once we had made our way to our hotel room and unpacked we went in search of food. On a recommendation we took ourselves off to the dining concourse at Grand Station Central where we enjoyed a combination of sesame chicken, chicken in black bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken and fried rice which really hit the spot.

New York has been G's number one place to visit for the longest time and so our agenda was always going to be doing and seeing the things he wanted. Seeing Grand Central station was high on my wish list too. 
It is truly every bit as elegant as I thought it would be.

This was the image of Grand Central station I had in my head and standing on the stairway and taking in this scene was just magical.

Of course the whole building is beautiful but looking up is absolutely stunning.
The brilliant chandeliers 

and the astronomical ceiling is breath taking.

In the centre of the main concourse is the famous clock. 

Seeing this from our spot on the stairs made me realise, spine tinglingly so, we were actually there.

I know that sounds daft but I had that feeling so many times during our few days there.

Some images were so familiar having seen them in movies or TV programmes and it felt unreal to be there and among them, but it was always exciting and totally fascinating.

Unfortunately this photo is slightly out of focus but I loved the simple elegance of this traveller, how she is stood, how the pattern of her dress echoes the scrollwork around her and the colour reflects that of the ceiling.

I'm going to be posting lots more snippets from our trip and so I apologise if you get a bit of New York boredom but I want to record as much of our time there as I can.