"The City That Stole My Heart. " a New York City Travel Page by Maidstone_Nic

July 26th, 1966. England had just beaten Portugal in the World Cup Semi Final and I was off to the US in the morning. Could life get much better than this? Looking back and, from an England football supporter’s perspective, no! From the point of view of me as a New York lover however, we’d only just begun!
The trip was organised by the grandly named Anglo-American Intercultural Society and I remember we all had to have taken part in some sort of project with an American theme in order to qualify for the charter flight. In those days not only did you have to apply for a visa to enter the US from Great Britain but you also had to have a smallpox vaccination. We were due to fly to Washington, DC where we would stay until the 29th then take a Greyhound to New York before travelling to the Boston and New Hampshire areas to stay with 2 host families for a week at a time.
I remember Washington being extremely hot and humid – we were staying in student accommodation which had no air conditioning! We visited Arlington Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, Capitol Hill as well as the National Gallery of Art and the British Embassy.
My first impression of New York was not the best. Our bus was passing through the Bowery and, it was very much “Skid Row”. We watched from the window as some poor unfortunate staggered to the side of the road before settling down for the night on the sidewalk. Eventually we got to the Beaux Arts Hotel on 44th Street where we checked into air-conditioned luxury plus radio and TV! That night we went to Radio City Music Hall (I still have the program). Talk about eclectic! We saw, in no particular order, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the Rockettes, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the US Marine Corps Reserve and, finally, the film “How to Steal a Million” starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. There were also other shorter pieces interspersed – a Marionette theatre, what seemed like a shameless advert for the new range of Buicks and of course the Grand Organ. All in all something of a dog’s breakfast but we all enjoyed it enormously! Looking at the program again now, there is an advert for tickets to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium as well as a special offer to visit the “Observation Roof atop Rockefeller Center” – what is now “Top of the Rock”. Special price 95cents! I must see if they’ll honour it when I go again!
The next day we had a tour of the UN in the morning before getting back to our hotel to watch the World Cup Final. Amazingly, they showed it at 3pm EST which meant that we were watching it 6 hours after it had actually been played but we were all blissfully unaware of the result so watched it as if it were live. All Englishmen of a certain age will tell you exactly where they were when England won the World Cup (it’s our where were you when Kennedy was shot moment) but few can boast they were in a hotel in New York City! I remember piling out into the hot July evening and being amazed that the whole place wasn’t celebrating our famous victory. Truth to tell, the TV commentator was so ill informed he even got Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s name wrong (he called him George!).
On our last day the bus stopped off at Battery Park for us to get a view of the Statue of Liberty and I also took a photo of the New York skyline. Before my return trip in 2005, I was interested to identify the buildings in the photo and to work out exactly where I must have stood so that I could take an “after” photo. With a lot of help from Trip Advisor members, I was able to identify exactly where I had been and did indeed complete my before and after shots!
Incredibly, I took the grand total of 8 photos during my 3 day stay and I’ll include them all here. In 2005 I took just short of 800 and earlier this year came back with just over 1200! What a difference digital has made!

My fourth visit was to celebrate my son Jack's 21st birthday. I ended up writing a website describing the seven days. We had an amazing time! Highlights: meeting native New Yorkers who couldn't have been kinder in their efforts to show us their city. Central Park decorated by Christo's Gates, the view of lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Heights promenade and walking the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset.

Much happened between my 2005 trip and this one. This would be my last holiday with my present wife but we were determined to enjoy it despite the poignancy. I'm currently working on the travelogue New York in May which is beginning to take on the proportions of the Forth Bridge at the moment but will, one day, be finished!