New York City

After an early start we arrived at 'Jazz On The City' youth hostel on West 96th Street, Uptown Manhatten at 11am. Check-in was at 3pm so we dumped our bags and headed straight for our first experience of an American 'fatboy' breakfast - we weren't disappointed!

We then walked off our fatboys breakfast with a long stroll through Central Park which amazed us with its greenery, natural beauty, and sheer size. From the relative tranquility of the park we were hit with the immensely big, busy and bustling Times Square on West 42nd Street with its electric billboards and honking taxis. We escaped to the grandiose Grand Central Station, which is the most impressive looking station we have ever seen. After taking refuge in New York library and then our hostel, we headed out for pizza, and therefore headed for Little Italy. Friday was over, first impressions were mixed, and we were glad to get our heads down.

We woke quite late on Saturday but headed straight downtown (after a ham and egg bagel of course) to the Staten Island Ferry Port. This gave us some great views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhatten skyline, which looked very impressive when the sun came out on the journey back. We then wandered through the financial district, past Wall Street, and came to Ground Zero. It was a very humbling yet inspiring experience to see it first hand, especially their positive attitude towards the future.

Tired of sightseeing, we thought that we could not be in New York on the week of the US Open without visiting Flushing Meadows. We expected to just walk the grounds and soak up the atmosphere, so we were thrilled when we managed to get a pair of centre court tickets for the evening session, including the all American tie between James Blake and Mardy Fish. What an experience! We had great seats and the two matches we witnessed didn't let us down; one of the highlights so far.

We woke up on Sunday to gorgeous blue skies, so decided there was no better time to visit the Empire State Building. Having pre-booked our tickets (thanks Keith P.) we skipped all of the queues and soon found ourselves on the 86th floor observatory with 360 degree views around the city. There couldn't have been a better day for it, as we could see for miles; quite spectacular.

After a great start to the day we ventured uptown to East 71st Street to take in some culture at the Frick Collection (thanks again Keith P.). This made a nice change from the mainstream attractions and there was some fantastic artwork on display. As soon as the sun went down we took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to look back on the bright lights of New York City. To complete our three day experience of New York we ate at an authentic American steak house on Times Square, again, we weren't disappointed!

After a really hectic few days we were really looking forward to getting lucky down in Kentucky!