h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On Wednesday, I'll be going to New York. It's my first visit to the States--I had planned to go a few years ago, but a back injury started to act up and I had to cancel. On our trips to the Wexford Opera Festival, M and I have been talking for years about going to the Met in New York, so that's the main purpose of the trip. We've booked for three operas: Fidelio on Thursday, the Marriage of Figaro on Saturday, and Lohengrin on Monday. We wanted to go for operas that would really make it worth seeing a big stage production, so we ended up not picking any of the Italian composers: on the weekends we were looking at, the Italian operas were either ones I've seen a few times, or ones which were on a smaller scale, so that's how we ended up with Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner.

Of course we're going to do lots of other things: the other Met (art museum), the Natural History Museum, the Botanic Gardens, Ellis Island. Many people associate New York with shopping, but I hate shopping for clothes. Luckily for me M shares my shopping tastes and we'll stick to the bookshops, with diversions to look at jewellery and beads.

The cat is booked into her cattery, so once I've dropped her down there tomorrow morning I'll really feel that the holiday is beginning.

Sounds great!

I'll expect a full report when you get back. If you happen to see any cartoon books by Roz Chast while you're in a bookshop, please get me one.

Brilliant, Azara! You will have a ball there. I'm afraid I can't say much about opera (a woeful ignorance on my part ), but Ellis Island is wonderful.

Have a great time, Azara! I've just been the once, but it was memorable. You have to go through three security checks to get up the Empire State Building (but it was well worth it).

Let us know what you got up to when you get back!

The Empire State building should be fine, it's like being on a mountain. I don't know if the Statue of Liberty is open: even if not, it's worth walking around its little island. The climb up to its head involves twisty little staircases with a queue of people on every step, I don't think you'd enjoy it.

Zube

Well, with my head for heights, I definitely won't attempt the Statue of Liberty (though walking around the island sounds nice). Whether I try the Empire State Building really depends on the time: I've heard a few people say that the queues are very long. I think I might prefer to spend the time looking at the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum!

Azara