I went out again on Monday night. Well, visiting nightclubs is a form of sight seeing. I think.

When I returned to the hotel at whatever time it was, I needed a fag. Stop sniggering. So, I attempted to open my room window in order to light up. As I was doing so, the entire window frame and glass came off in my hands, forcing me back on to the bed. Apart from a couple of scratches, I was ok, but it was slightly bewildering to find myself laid out underneath a window frame on my bed in the middle of the night. Still, at least I could smoke now. After a few moments' thought, I considered it best to inform reception immediately. A man duly came up to the room and said I would be transferred to another, but that was before I was grilled about how the frame had come off, which struck me as utterly bizarre. Why on earth would I do this on purpose? For a souvenir to take home? Anyway, the new room I was moved to turned out to be a lot better than the now windowless one. So now you know what to do if you want an upgrade in a hotel.

I got up late again, found a nice little Italian restaurant for lunch, and then caught the subway south towards where the ferries depart from. I went to Liberty Island, where there is of course the Statue of Liberty. I don't know why, but it didn't seem as impressive in person. I've seen worse things, however. The view of Manhattan is spectacular from there, although it was absolutely obvious that all everyone was transfixed by was working out where the Twin Towers had been. Me included. Until a replacement is built, that will be what every tourist does, which is a shame in so many respects.

The ferry then took me to Ellis Island, which includes a very good and interesting museum about immigration to the US. On this occasion, I was more than happy to 'tip' and made a donation to the place's upkeep.

I decided to spend the last night of my trip with a visit to the Empire State Building. The view of New York from the 86th floor was amazing, although the whole experience was soured by the absurd time it takes to get up and down the building. It starts off with an escalator, then a walk through security, then a walk to where you pay, then a walk to a lift, then some stairs, then a walk to where they take a cheesy photograph whether you like it or not, then another lift, then some queueing, before you finally get to the observation level. Then when you've squeezed your way round, repeat the above. Still, it was a bloody good view.