After 6 nights in Washington, we flew back to New York and spent 2 nights Downtown, 5 blocks north of the World Trade Center site.

Thursday 8th January - afternoon/evening
It was cold, very cold, and so being late afternoon we decided to go and see the latest Lord of the Rings movie. We found a cinema in the World Financial Center complex, which is right next to the World Trade Center site. After buying tickets we followed the signs up one escallator after another until we eventually found the cinema - around the 10th floor. After the movie we tried finding some food, and ended up back near the hotel at a pizza joint which served pasta pizza - yes, a pizza which had pasta and meat sauce on it. It was delicious.

Friday 9th January
Weather: NYC 17°F (-8°C) at 8.30am, wind chil 4°F (-16°C). Forecast max 26°F (-3°C). At 10pm it was 8°F (-13°C) (feels like -3°F (-19°C)).

We started the day by going to Grand Central to buy bagels for breakfast. On the way, we stopped off to get some photos of all the people going to work, it being a weekday. We took lots of photos of the Times Square Shuttle area in the station - a shuttle arrived every 5 or so minutes, all of them being full of people.

We spent the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw only a small portion of the enormous collection. We were amazed at the Egyptian Temple which had been set in a room with water and palm trees. There was some excellent artwork from China, Japan, Nepal, Europe, and middle eastern artifacts dating back to 7000BC.

Museums and art galleries in NY have a suggested entry fee - which we paid. It was $12 for the Met, and Jo read that it costs $34 per visitor (and they get 5million/year) to run The Met. The idea is that anyone can see the museums, regardles of their income.

The Met (Metropolitain Museum of Art) - we originally thought it would just be an art gallery, but after reading the frommers guide, it became clear that it was a museum, with some art. They say it's the world's biggest museum, and it was huge. We started with a highlights tour which went for an hour and the man who led it was excellent.

Some of the things we saw on the tour were:

Greek decorative jar (around 300AD?) - covered with illustrations using the newer red on black technique (jar is blackened, and then the black is removed to produce the picture, which shows through the original orange-red clay of the jar). The older techique (for which there were also may examles on display) was the black on red technique - black is painted on the red clay. He also pointed out the pottery from which wine was drunk - quite wide and shallow compared to today's wine glasses (a painting seen later depicted a greek drinking from one of these).
Choir screens - very decorative stone work which was used in churches to clearly separate the priests and the layety - one example depicted Christ's betrayal in great detail. A more modern choir screen was displayed in a huge archway - it was donated by William Randolph Hurst who did not have anywhere to put it in his house at San Simeon. It looked more like a modern communion rail, except it went floor to ceiling.
Statue of Diana - sculptured by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This cast 1928; bronze, gilt. This was the first nude statue displayed in New York
Egyptian Temple - the whole temple was given by Egypt to the USA in 1965. Carved on the side is the depiction of an emporer - it was actually that it was Caesar Augustus of Rome, who had had himself depicted in the traditional style of the pharaoh.
Painting of Lady and Man - very early double portrait
Tiffany glass windows and other items (Tiffany was a New York glass artist)

We then spent until mid afternoon seeing those bits of the museum which interested us. Some memorable items were:

• Stone engravings and small (4cm) crude sculptures from 7000BC
• Chinese and Indian Art from the last 2000 years

Late afternoon, we caught a bus (because it was too cold to want to walk to the subway - there was a "Stay Indoors Alert" for Friday and Saturday, which meant that if you were going outside, you'd better cover all exposed skin, or you could get frostbite) downtown to the Empire State Building.

We went to the 86th floor observatory, first by lining up for 10min to buy tickets, and then for 10min to get into the elevator to take us to the 80th floor, and then for 5min to get the elevator to the 86th floor. The elevator from the ground to the 80th floor was fast - the display in the elevator showing the floor number went up in increments of 10, though it didn't feel like it except our ears kept popping. The 86th floor wasn't very large in area - just a gift shop restrooms and the elevator. There was an outside observation deck and glass windows all the way around the gift shop. Outside, in the shade of the building it was cold, very cold. Out of the shade of the building the wind hit, and it was freezing. Fully rugged up we only lasted a couple of minutes. We arrived at the 86th floor just as the sun was setting - we watched its orb drop below the horizon - a magnificent sight.

Then we walked around taking photos in the twilight. We took it in turns with the camera, with the other going back inside to warm up. The observation deck has a wall which varied between stomach height and shoulder height and then a stainless steel fence (with big enough gaps for the camera) which was 3m tall and it curved over at the top - to make it nigh impossible to climb. The view was excellent, visibility seemed only to be horizon limited. Looking down to the streets, the cars were so small and at no time did we make out a person on the footpath (possibly due to the cold). We could see the lights from Time Square (8 blocks north, a couple west of the Empire State Building). We could see the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, Crysler Building, Central Park, and too many other skyscrapers to mention.

Once we had seen enough of the sunset and lights we went back to the Met and looked at a couple more exhibits before leaving.

Saturday 10th January
We flew back to Los Angeles on the Saturday. The forecast max was 16°F (-9°C), with an overnight low of 9°F (-13°C). On the way to the airport we crossed the East River and there was heaps of steam coming from all over the river!