Taking note of the guide book advice to go early to avoid the crowds, we set off for the Empire State Building this morning. So far, this was the warmest day we have had here so there was some haze first thing.

We could even make out the Brooklyn Bridge where we were heading to later.

Back at street level we did some shopping. I am usually shopping for shoes in the USA or Northern Europe as in the UK, it is harder to find women’s shoes in size 9 (US 11). If you type ‘Women’s size 9 shoes’ into the search box on Ebay in the UK, it comes up with transvestite-type kinky boots, not really my style! However, I was not looking for shoes today. As we have done so much walking (and I have done more than the 5 miles a day I pledged for Lent) we decided to go to the cinema. I had meant to see The Revenant before now but not managed to so we decided to do that today (I am not one for a feel-good movie). Afterwards, sitting in Madison Square, I spotted this sign, usually ‘Keep off the Grass’ but in this case:

Later, we wandered over the Brooklyn Bridge:

The craze for attaching padlocks to bridges which began in Paris, has obviously spread further afield.

On the way back to the hotel, walking through the Village, we almost got run over by a motorised skateboard. We have seen several skateboards and Segways, marvelling at people who can keep their balance so well, but this was something new. As it was dusk and he had no lights, I did wonder whether he was allowed on the road but he zoomed off into the distance and we headed for our hotel.