New York!

I am back blipping big time to our trip to New York for Tim’s birthday (a month later). For those of you who have been to the Big Apple, you’ll know it consumes you and there isn’t a lot of time for blipping. Thank you for your patience. 

We left a rainy London about mid day and had a fairly good flight with poor service. We were bamboozled before we landed by the latest immigration/visitor video they showed us on the plane that made it seem like you had to pay $100 to get into the country, unless you were an American or a Canadian who had been in the country at some point in the last eight years. As it turned out, there was a normal queue to have passports checked. We had a very nice immigration officer with a quintessential New York accent who was friendly and welcoming. I could have listened to him all night. 

A few moments later we were picked out of the crowd to have our hand luggage scanned - we hadn’t yet got to the bit where you pick up suitcases. Another friendly officer scanned our back packs and then asked Tim if he had any fruit in his bag. Tim had a few satsumas but had forgotten so he said no. The friendly officer pulled out the two pieces and said “This is a tangerine. It is fruit. I could fine you $300 for each piece. But I won’t.” He then kept the satsumas and gave us a friendly smile as he moved on to the next person who also denied the plum in her bag. So before we had even left the airport we had saved $100 visitor fee + 2 x $300 for the fruit = $700!! Phew!

We got into the city fairly easily and found our hotel very close to Times Square. A lovely young man called Kibwe (what a cool name!) checked us in and then we went for a stroll to explore the neighbourhood. It’s been a long time since either of us had been in New York and things have changed. We had a week to see the changes and the things that do not change.