In Amsterdam the first thing you see when you walk out the door is bicycles. In Manhattan the first thing you see when you walk out the door is a swarm of yellow cabs (and tall buildings)! Manhattan covers an area of 60 square-kilometres and is home to around 1.6 million. It's the commercial, financial, and cultural centre of the United States. Manhattan is also has the highest cost of living in the US and is its most densely-populated county.

Bagel for breakfast from the street corner - the New York way! The butter within probably took care of my recommended fat intake for the week.

Cab anyone? These pricks are so horn-happy - just gotta toot the damn thing over anything (or nothing) at all!

We headed to Times Square (much colder than I remember it) to get one of the city sightseeing buses that depart from here. Times Sqaure was so-called after the New York Times newspaper moved into the area (before then it was known as Longacre Square), and is basically just one massive intersection spanning several blocks.

Good Morning America is broadcast live from this studio in Times Square. In the process of getting the shot on the right Jen saw me on a TV inside showing what was currently on camera - nice; 12 hours in the country and I'm already on the telly :)

Also in Times Square is M&M's world - drool (I love M&M's!). Two big floors dedicated to everything M&M's!

Damn, how much for the whole wall?!

After I'd finished drooling I bought a tie hahaha - it's a big hit at work ;)

Across the road is a Hershey's chocolate store, but it's shit.

Times Square at sunset (it's a madhouse 24/7).

After doing the sightseeing bus for a bit we went for a wander. This is Chinatown, where you can buy everything under the sun and where everything under the sun is fake!

Down the road a bit is Wall Street - just a kilomtre long but the financial heart of New York and indeed the country. Several major US financial institutions are headquartered on Wall Street and in the surrounding Financial District.

A while later we found another sightseeing bus and headed around Brooklyn. For those who don't know, New York City is made up of five 'boroughs': Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. Back in the day Brooklyn was a city in its own right, until 1898 when it was amalgamated with the others into what is now New York City. Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough with more than 2.5 million residents. If the borough was still considered an independent city it would be the 4th largest city in the United States.

Grand Central Station is not far from where we were staying, and we were recommended to go and have a nosey, so we did, and damn it's big!

Cool stuff on the ceiling too!

Grand Central was built at the start of last century, and with 44 platforms, numerous restaurants, delis, bakeries, a fresh food market and yada yada yada, it's huge!

Speaking of big, the Empire State Building! Visible from pretty much anywhere in the city, this huge mother fokker is 102 storeys and 450 metres in height with an observation platform on the 86th floor. The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building for more than forty years from its completion in 1931 until the World Trade Center's north tower was completed in 1972. After 9/11 and the collapse of the twin towers, the Empire State Building became the tallest building in New York City for the second time.

Again I'd have to say this would be a better thing to do in the middle of summer with the sun higher in the sky, less shadow on the ground, and some green on the trees. Hey, food for thought: why do we pay money to go to the top of high buildings only to look at stuff on the ground? ;)

An ever-present sight around Manhattan is helicopters! Some were clearly police but most are full of tourists.