theDIBB - The Boys from The NYPD Choir were singing Galway Bay

Dream come true, New York for christmas. Very impromptu trip as 4 of us were going to go to watch the Jets and have a bit of a drinking weekend, 2 boys were humming and haaing so put it off until next year. Leander knew I was gutted so suggested we go ourselves for xmas. Didnt need asking twice :thumbs-up
Time to book everything. Flights with Virgin Atlantic Economy Delight out on the 22nd and PE on the way back on Boxing day. 4 nights at the Hilton Garden Inn on 53rd and 3rd. We drove to my daughters in Caerphilly, taxi to Sophia Gardens and caught the National Express back and forth to Heathrow and then to my daughters for a few nights after. Also stayed night before at Premier Inn Bath Rd.
It was a simple process to get to Sophia Gardens were I had time for one of these beauties before getting the bus

The journey went quite well and we arrived at the hotel to face the most people Ive ever seen in a hotel due to BA bringing a load of delayed passengers for the night because of that Drone fiasco. I went over to an employee at the bar and they got a manager who checked us in as he could see that I had checked in online. Very good guy. Took our bags up and then back to the empty bar (go figure ! ) to relieve them of some of their bottled Bulmers.
Up early and down to catch the bus over to T3 where we had a bit to eat and a Magners before catching the 08.50 flight to JFK

A great flight and turned up at midday New York time. Flew through security etc. and got a flat rate taxi to the hotel. Checked in to a lovely hotel which the front desk made us so welcome. Unpacked and off out into the streets ! Walked to Grand Central and got a Metro Card and caught the tube to Ground Zero.

To paint a picture, Leander and I went up the tower in 1994, saw them blocked off by work-screens in 2007 and Ive seen the site twice in 14 and 16 but the Freedom Tower and the World Trade Centre train station werent quite complete. They are now. We and every visitor said that its the most powerful place weve ever seen. Man its sad.
After seeing this we decided to go back up and grab something to eat and go back to the hotel. If my memory serves me right, we ate in an Irish pub.We just strolled back and stopped in a CVS to buy snacks to leave in the room unopened until we checked out:D:D