In  general prices are pretty good over here. Sure you have to take the exchange rate and tax into account but – not that we have had any (true story) the burger meal deals are all 4-5 dollars, petrol under $4 a gallon and beer (we cant say we haven’t tried any) is pretty cheap. The little bar down the corner has 2 pots for $3.50 that’s nearly half our price, a more up market place might charge $5 a schooner or pint as they are called, and there are a lot of places doing $3 a bottle. But the bargain is down at the Quicky Mart thing down the road- $8.00 for a six pack of Corona or Heineken, but the bargain was these tasty Rolling Rocks, can you believe tax included $5.80 for six.

Walking along the East River waterfront precinct we noticed a free ferry ride to a huge new IKEA store on the Brooklyn side of the river. We got some great views of Brooklyn Bridge and Gary’s keen eye spotted the Sea Princess which was used as one of the ships used on the TV series the Loveboat.  Not sure if Captain Stubing or Julie the Cruise director were on board but Gary reckons he saw Gopher- I dunno.

This huge complex is home to NBC studios, a lot of TV comes out of here including NBC news and Conan O’Brien. Radio City Music Hall is also just around the corner. The complex has some lovey art deco artwork and an observation deck which we might drop back another day and take a look of.

Sure we have seen Piccadilly Circus in London and the dazzling lights of Tokyo, but Time Square would have to be the most spectacular. Dozens of huge LCD screens showing the latest must have products to phones, cars, beer and even M&M’s.  Time Square is the heart of the city’s entertainment area, in the heart of the Broadway Theatre (or should I say theater) district.  Just about every show ever written is here, and plenty which probably shouldn’t have- including can you believe it Xanadu the musical and Legally Blonde the Musical.  Disney is right in on the action too, there’s of course the Lion King, Marry Poppins and even the Little Mermaid.

There’s nothing more fun than a free boatride, and this one was a beauty. It was a ferry ride from the bottom of Manhattan to Staten Island one of the burrows about 20 minutes away. There wans’t much there so we turned around and came back but not before seeing some spectacular sites of the city and the Statue of Liberty.

Wall Street is the financial heartbeat of the world.  Home to the New York Stock Exchange and many of the worlds big financial names like the banks and even the Trump Tower. There are plenty of Fancy brand names around too like Tiffany and Cartier must be for that indulgent extravagance after a good day on the stocks. There wasn’t much shopping going on, everyone is just watching their stocks fall. There was a huge media presence all waiting in reaction of the Governments bailout passage which was being debated.

Battery Park is on the foreshore just down from the World Trade Centre site and is home to dozens of fury little squirrels. These critters are pretty friendly, you wouldn’t want to stay still to long as they might run up your trouser leg..and we all know what they eat!.  The park is also home to a pretty impressive War memorial with huge steel eagle and one of the more interesting artifacts around the city a huge damaged metal ball. This item lived in the foyer of the World Trade Centre and was salvaged to become a memorial.

You might have heard about this place, there were two buildings which fell down a few years back, now they are building another one called the Freedom Tower, bigger and higher than anything ever before seen in the USA.

Our first car of shame is the new Ford Taurus. We will show a few other monstrosities over the next month as we can get a shot of them. The photo really doesn’t show it in all it’s uglyness, with its big bling grille and bad angles. We have only seen one of them but have seen hundreds of Camry and new model Honda Accord…what does that tell you about US designed cars.

Where better to get a few ales and a burger (with a free beer) than the Slaughterd Lamb. We were the only ones in the pub so we had some fun with the barmaid for a few hours before doing a bit more exploring through the Greenwich Village.

There is a pretty big sediment around the city looking forward to George W Bush’s last day as President of the United States on the 20th of January next year. There are many shop fronts which have countdown clocks and signs hoping he doesn’t fully stuff the country by the 20 of Jan.  The biggest news story over here is the election, the financial crisis is running second.  The Alaskan Pit Bull as Sarah Palin is being called is really coping a knocking. She seems to be coping the same treatment from the press as Pauline did down our way a few years back and there are some real similarities in being red neck, having no idea of finance, foreign policy- she is being eaten alive.  With the election now under a month away the fun and games will only get bigger.

We headed east and ended up at the Meat Packing precinct. This must have been a huge meat area years ago, still today there are dozens of boning rooms and trucks delivering sides of beef. A lot of the area has been run down due to the meat works moving out of the city. Trendy hotels, apartments, boutiques and cafes are moving into the area, keeping a lot of the meat packing heritage. The are will soon be the trendiest place in New York City. It’s right on the East River with bay views of New Jersey and not far from our next point of call Greenwich Village.