Welcome to NYC! I’m interested to know what you think of the hotel, after all.
I just now found this.
Welcome to the States, Sam! I’m watching for when you arrive in DC, as I still owe you a drink or three from when I visited your town.
ETA:
IIRC, SciFiSam is a she.
ETA2: I’m available Wednesday evening subject to confirming schedules with my darling bride.
Wow, you guys weren’t kidding when you said the museums cost money, were you? I wasn’t expecting them to be quite so expensive! I have to actually plan things, pfft.
Just remember, The American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art – and probably some other major museums – are actually on a donation basis. They pressure you to pay the full “recommended” amount, but there is NO reason you must do so. You can give anything you feel.
In high school my art teacher used to send us to the Met to sketch, I’d pay them a buck a visit. I’ve also paid $5, $10 and the full amount, depending on my ability and inclination.
Just don’t get intimidated if they give you any lip. “The suggested donation is $17” “Yes, I know, and I choose to pay $5.”
If you want to meet for lunch tomorrow in Wall St. area give me a PM. Unfortunately I can really only take an hour, so I won’t be insulted if you’re not up for it.
Get down to DC where the Smithsonian museums are free.
We’re going there on Monday. Until then we’re in our paid-for hotel in NY, and I do want to see NY. If I can ever get my teenager to wake up, that is.
Yeah, but with the depreciating dollar, things must be a bargain for you here.
Enjoy your visit to DC. If you are on the Mall at lunchtime, the American Indian Museum has a really nice cafe (although the museum itself is lackluster). If that is too crowded, there is another great cafe underground between the National Galleries East and West, it can be reached by going downstairs in either builing. The Hirshhorn Museum on the Mall has a nice gift shop for gifts to take back home and if there is a person selling maps at the exit of the Metro, be aware that those are free maps that you can get at an information kiosk about 100 meters from where they are selling them.
Sadly, the pound is also weak right now.
You can tour the White House if you get tickets early in the morning. You will need to google to find out where the building is to get tickets. As best I remember, it’s close by but not on the site of the WH.
Your daughter might find the display of gems of particular interest. I think that is in the Museum of Natural History. They have the Hope Diamond, but some of the other gems are even more interesting. The Aeuronautics and Aviation Museum is fascinating too. The Holocaust Museum may be hard for someone her age to handle. It’s hard for any age to deal with. But it is different and impressive.
New York is pretty crap so far. The Empire State Building was good, the hotel’s OKish, but everything else, from the food to the transport, has been absolutely terrible. I’m really disappointed.
You have got to be kidding me.
What have you been eating that’s crap?
okay, emergency list:
Katz’s deli, Carnegie deli, St. Mark’s bookstore, Strand bookstore. Go to Jackson Heights, Queens, for South Asian food. Try Bedford-Stuyvesant for Caribbean food.
Take a walking tour of Chelsea, Greenwich Village, East Village, Little Italy, Chinatown, and Soho.
Have you gone to Times Square to get tickets for a shoe at the TKTS booth?
Circle boat tour around Manhattan.
What does it mean that “transport is crap”? Is the subway not running?
The metro is much less frequent than I was expecting. Last night we got off a train at 23rd St, not realising you couldn’t change trains there to the other 23rd St station, and we couldn’t even get over to the other direction’s platform without paying again. The train map we got from the station is quite good, but HUGE - it’s not practical to take out most of the time. And I say ‘quite good,’ but it’s not as clear as the maps I’m used to in other cities with metro networks. I’d prefer a non-geographical one - there’s not a lot of point in knowing that a station is on Lexington when Lexington is a mile long and none of the small streets are marked.
No taxis would take us to Queens; I know from another thread that they’re obliged to, but only once you’re in the car, and they kept the doors locked. Taxis generally wouldn’t stop for us at all, and we don’t exactly look like poor tippers or anything.
Oh, and what’s up with walk signs flashing but drivers carrying on anyway? They’re only coming from one particular direction, so I assume they’re allowed to, but surely not even when people are crossing?
Last night, in the part of Manhatten we were wandering lost in, everything was shut by 11. I think a couple of nightclubs were open, but we couldn’t go in those; all the food places were shut. ‘City that never sleeps?’ We even tried McDonald’s, who were so outstandingly incompetent and rude that eventually I had to get my money back and leave without food.
I can’t remember the places we’ve been to eat, but they were recommended by locals. In one of them the pizza was so bad that I couldn’t finish it; maybe it’s American-style cheese or something. Finding specific named food places is really hard.
I’m not particularly interested in South Asian food - I live near Brick Lane in London, so it’d be like travelling thousands of miles and paying loads of money to eat something I can easily get at home for less. Caribbean food would have the problem that I’m vegetarian, so I doubt there’d be much I could eat - plus there is a lot of it where I live. We got a Chinese delivered and it was OK, but it wasn’t in boxes like in the movies, boo! 
I would take a walking tour if they didn’t cost enormous amounts of money on top of everything else we’ve paid for.
We tried to find the TKTs booth and couldn’t, but we’re going to try again.
TBH, I think we’ve had a lot of bad luck and our trip isn’t necessarily representative of New York, but it’s still been really unpleasant. If I hadn’t pai in advance for the hotel we’d have left already.
Look up self guided wLkiny tours on the Internet. There are free ones. Just print them out. Your hotel should have a printer and Internet access. When I go to New York I use the Internet to plan the next day’s activities so as not to wander aimlessly.
Drivers are required to yield to pedestrians bit they won’t slow down unless you’re actually standing in their path.
Have you walked up Broadway and through Times Square? I can’t imagine not seeing the TKTS booth. The Carnegie deli is just up from there but if you’re vegetarian there’s badly any reason to go there. In fact if you’re vegetarian I can’t think of any interesting food experience in New York except Indian food.
We didn’t find the tickets booth today either, unless you mean the one in the tourist information centre; that’s where we bought tickets to Mary Poppins in the end - brilliant show. The whole evening was WAY better and almost made up for the rest for me, and I’m hoping tomorrow will be good too.
Getting home was a problem again, as we went from subway station to subway station and couldn’t find a working machine to top up our metro cards, and again couldn’t get a cab to take us home. We were asking for walking directions (it’s only a couple of miles, after all), but a kindly kebab seller on 49th St used his and his colleague’s cards to buzz us through. The people have generally been quite friendly and nice like that.
Well it’s a relief you had abetted evening.
I can’t figure out how you’re missing the booths it’s right smack dab in the middle of Times Square at Broadway and 42nd. There’s a big grandstand on top of it. http://gonyc.about.com/cs/discountbroadway/a/tktsbooth.htm
We were actually standing on the red stairs in that picture, but there was no ticket booth underneath it, or anything saying tickets. It was just a set of stairs there as a viewing platform. Perhaps the booth has moved.
How odd. According to the website it’s still there. They open at 3 pm most days.
Here’s some food I bet you can’t find easily at home! In Queens, even! Right near my dad’s house. There should be some vegetarian things for you to try - just don’t go there from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.