NEW York is one of the must-see capitals of the world. Hey, millions of people the world over can’t be wrong. Even if you only manage a short break there, it will stay with you forever. KLM flies to New York daily from Amsterdam. New York is America at its most alive. It represents so much of the history of the US, with its cosmopolitan, multicultural roots in the great immigration boom of the late 19th and early 20th century when people from all corners of the world flocked to this great city hoping it would be their gateway to a new and better life. Now you can have the luxury of seeing New York just for the fun of it! Flying with KLM gives you all the benefits of crossing the Atlantic with one of the best airlines in the world. When you get there, relaxed and refreshed, you’re in for a treat. New York City’s five boroughs are home to some of the most recognizable and cherished landmarks and attractions in the world. Visitors marvel at the stunning icons they’ve come to know through TV and the movies, while locals revel in the historic sights that define the place they call home. From the Statue of Liberty to Broadway, from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, New York City exudes visual magic. Don’t miss these must-see attractions.

THE NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE

Recognised the world over, the high-rising New York City skyline is an attraction unto itself. Many of Manhattan’s skyscrapers are national landmarks, dating to different eras in NYC history and representing diverse architectural styles. Among the oldest are the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower and the Woolworth Building, both built in the earliest years of the 20th century. Other famed stops include the Empire State and Chrysler buildings-considered some of the finest examples of art deco architecture-and the sprawling Rockefeller Center. See it best from the Empire State Building Observatory or the Top of the Rock Observation Deck.

STATUE OF LIBERTY/ELLIS ISLAND

Since 1886, the Statue of Liberty has been a beacon for countless immigrants. The statue was created by two Frenchmen, painter-sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and master iron engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (who later produced the Eiffel Tower in Paris). View the Statue of Liberty up close in a tour or from the shoreline of Manhattan’s Hudson River Park, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Staten Island Ferry.

CENTRAL PARK

Spanning more than 800 acres in the heart of Manhattan, Central Park encompasses a diverse landscape of rolling fields, walking trails and tranquil waterways. Designed in the mid–19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park today is the centerpiece of the City’s public parks system. Among its landmarks are Wollman Rink, the Central Park Zoo and the Friedsam Memorial Carousel— great for kids of all ages. Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn, meanwhile, offer sprawling expanses where visitors can relax and enjoy the outdoors. Rumsey Playfield is the site of SummerStage, a free performing arts festival featuring music, dance, film and more.

TIMES SQUARE/BROADWAY

Times Square is synonymous with Broadway—the area is home to many historic theatres and top-ranked shows. To get the full experience, take in a pre- or post-theatre meal along Restaurant Row (46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), where many eateries offer threecourse, prix-fixe meals. Another spot to consider is the legendary Sardi’s (234 West 44th Street), located in the heart of the Theatre District for more than 80 years.

STATEN ISLAND FERRY

More than a means of transportation, the Staten Island Ferry provides an attraction unto itself. For no charge, visitors can voyage by water from Lower Manhattan to Staten Island and take in the Statue of Liberty and the stunning vistas of New York Harbour and the Manhattan skyline.

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TOKYO is one of the world’s most breathtaking cities. In fact it’s every city you’ve ever been to, fused together in one intense, vibrant, non-stop metropolis. It’s a mass of contrasts – concrete, steel and neon lights bombard all your senses and then you come across the tranquility of a quiet garden or a reverent memorial to this nation’s proud history. Japan has always been a country that punched above its weight. These small islands gave us the way of the samurai, emperors, military might normally associated with a superpower plus ancient martial arts and religions. In modern tmes, it has transformed our technical world. It is at the forefront of all the latest technological discoveries and advances. And at its heart is Tokyo, a collection of cities that have grown into one giant mass. At its centre live two thirds of its 12 million residents. It is an astonishing experience. KLM will fly you from Norwich to link up with their daily service to Tokyo Narita airport. Here are some of the amazing sights that await you in this exhilarating city.

HIGASHI GYOEN

A 50-acre oasis in the middle of this bustling city, in the grounds of the Imperial Palace and once the site of the ancient Edo Castle (Edo was Tokyo’s original name). It offers a tranquil break from the hubbub of downtown Tokyo and is a blaze of colour all year long. The main attraction is the Inner Citadel at Higashi Gyoen’s highest point. This was once where the Emperor Tokugawa’s main castle – built in the 17th century – used to stand. Its five-storey keep was japan’s highest building at the time! Only ruins remain, but you get a real sense of the past as you walk around.

TOKYO DOME

The Dome is a 55,000-seater stadium, home to the Yomiuri Giants baseball team. It also stages other major sporting, cultural and martial arts events as well as sell-out concerts featuring top names from the world of entertainment. The Baseball Hall of Fame is worth a visit. The Dome is part of a larger complex known as the Tokyo Dome City which includes a shopping area and a huge amusement park with rollercoasters and an amazing Ferris Wheel with no central hub!

ASAKUSA

Asakusa is a district of Tokyo which retains many flavours of the old city. Its main sttraction is the ancient Buddhist temple of Sensoji, built in 628 after two local fishermen found a statue of the goddess of mercy Kannon in the nearby Sumida river. It is Tokyo’s oldest temple. Next to the temple is a carnival area with fairground rides and games, called Hanayashiki.

UENO ZOO

This is the oldest zoo in Japan, opened in 1882. The accent is very much now on conservation and recreating habitats for the animals as close to their natural ones as possible. Hence the Gorilla Woods and Tiger Forest which give you a real sense of being in the wild. A monorail links the main areas of the zoo to outlying areas such as the Petting Zoo where youngsters can get up close to a range of tamer species.

UENO MUSEUMS

The Tokyo National Museum, National Science Museum, the National Museum of Western Art and the Royal Museum are situated within easy reach of one another in Uneo Park next to the zoo. The National Museum has over 6,000 exhibits of art and archaeological finds. The Museum of Western Art houses sculptures and paintings collected by business tycoon Kojiro Matsukata as he toured Europe in the early 1900s, including pieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and Rodin. A huge model of a killer whale stands outside the Science Museum.

TOKYO TOWER

Since its opening in 1958, this 333-metre high tower has been the world’s tallest selfsupporting steel tower – beating the Eiffel Tower by 13 metres. If the weather is clear, you can see Mount Fuji, the Boso Peninsula or Mount Tsukuba from the special observatory 250 metres up. The tower is also home to Asia’s largest wax doll museum.

TOKYO BAY CRUISES

A variety of cruise boats operate along the Sumida River and on the Tokyo Bay. The boats are called suijo-bus and are popular among tourists. It’s a good way to experience the city while getting away from the crowds and some of the futuristic cruisers are an experience in themselves. Cruises give you good views of Odaiba Beach and Rainbow Bridge.  

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BUSINESSES and organisations in Norfolk, which are actively seeking investment to help build their business, are being invited to promote their business opportunities, free. This will be a new service featured on the website www.investinnorfolk.com, which promotes Norfolk as a great place to do business, live and work. The aim is to showcase business investment opportunities in the county and provide a valuable service for investment organisations, nationally. Emma Finn, Director of Marketing for Shaping Norfolk’s Future said: “investinnorfolk.com is a really vibrant, informative website created by Norfolk County Council and Shaping Norfolk’s Future. Our aim is to create wealth and jobs in Norfolk and drive forward the county’s economy. We’d like to hear from Norfolk’s businesses and organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises, which are actively seeking investment, to discuss creating a case study of their business opportunities on the site to help them secure investment.”

Benefits to Norfolk businesses include:

• promoting the business investment opportunity to targeted audiences of business leaders and investors, free of charge

• raising the profile of the business to investinnorfolk.com website visitors across the UK and internationally

• driving traffic from www.investinnorfolk.com to the company website

The intention is to make the process as simple as possible for businesses. After an initial informal discussion with Shaping Norfolk’s Future, suitable companies will be asked to provide a summary of the company, investment opportunities and the key individual or team behind the business. “What is clear from conversations we’ve had with investors,” Emma adds, “is that their investment is in the people as much as the business. It is the skills and passion of the people behind the business, which is important to them and will help create a return on their investment.

We aim to provide simple, straightforward information to enable investors to get a real flavour of the business opportunity to identify whether they would like to find out more, from the company, directly.” www.investinnorfolk.com, which was developed to promote Norfolk as a great place to do business, work and live, highlights the strengths of the county’s key sectors and features videos, key facts and news.

The team behind the website is working closely with a Norfolk digital marketing business to improve the website’s ratings on Google through search engine optimisation and drive targeted audiences of business leaders and investors to the site. The website already features major manufacturing opportunities at EastPort UK. EastPort UK, the new deep-water port at Great Yarmouth, is England’s largest energy industry port and the closest deep-water harbour to the East Anglia Array. With a deep-water harbour, generous quay space and available land, EastPort UK provides an attractive offering for developers and manufacturers of offshore wind farms.

To find out more about how your business opportunity could be featured contact:

Emma Finn, Director of Marketing, Shaping Norfolk’s Future

Direct Line: 01603 222931

Email Emma - Emma Finn

Investinnorfolk website: www.investinnorfolk.com

Shaping Norfolk’s Future website: www.shapingnorfolksfuture.org.uk

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THERE are three flights daily Monday-to-Friday with Eastern Airways to Wick from Norwich via Aberdeen, giving you the chance to explore one of Scotland’s most beautiful coastal areas. Wick was for nearly 500 years the administrative centre of Caithness, famous for its glass and lies on the east coast of northern Scotland. It is the UK mainland’s most northerly airport. The name comes from the Norse for Bay and it was the Vikings who first used the mouth of the River Wick where it flows into Wick Bay as a harbour for their longships and trading vessels.

Wick today still has the feel of a town that revolves around its harbour and its seafaring traditions. Wick holds the claim to fame of once being the busiest herring port in Europe - in the mid- 19th century. The town’s story is told in the excellent Wick Heritage Centre in Bank Row, Pultneytown (Wick is actually two towns - Wick proper, and Pultneytown, immediately south across the river), which contains a fascinating array of artefacts from the old fishing days.

The dramatic 15th to 17th-century ruins of Sinclair and Girnigoe castles rise steeply from a needle-thin promontory three miles north of Wick. There’s a good clifftop walk to the castles via Noss Head lighthouse from the tiny fishing village of Staxigoe. You’ll encounter seabirds, including puffins, and come across the beautiful Sinclair Bay beach, popular for windsurfing and sandyachting. Today’s Wick is an interesting mix of influences and elements. The harbour is still in full swing, while the town centre has considerable character without being stuck in the past – it’s a modern vibrant centre.

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MILLIONS tuned in to watch the BBC’s Great Hebridean Escape in which presenter Monty Halls revealed the wild and rugged beauty of the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of northern Scotland. Now you can experience these magnificent islands for yourself with Eastern Airways who fly to Stornoway, in the Isle of Lewis, from Norwich via Aberdeen every day Monday to Friday. Transport yourself to this wild, unspoilt world and get a real sense of getting back to nature. If you’re feeling really adventurous you can use Stornoway as your gateway to the other remote islands. Or you can stay in the town and get a real feel for the ancient Gaelic culture that still survives in its 9,000-strong community.

The Hebrides are a striking mix of landscapes from windswept golden sands to harsh, heatherbacked mountains and peat bogs. An elemental beauty pervades each of the more than two hundred islands that make up the archipelago, only a handful of which are actually inhabited. Lewis and Harris form the northernmost island in the Hebrides. Lewis in the north is the largest island in the group and Harris is home to the world-famous Harris Tweed, which has to be made on these islands if it carries the name.

Across a narrow isthmus from the more mountainous North Harris lies South Harris, presenting some of the finest scenery in Scotland, with wide beaches of golden sand trimming the Atlantic in full view of the mountains and a rough boulder-strewn interior lying to the east. Further south still sit a string of tiny, flatter islands including North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra.

Stornoway itself has a bustling harbour, while attractions include the An Lanntair Art Gallery, Lewis Loom Centre (all about the famous local tweed) and the Museum nan Eilean. The restored Latta’s Mill is one of three corn mills built in the early 1800s by the Mackenzie family, owners of Lewis at the time. The mill was named after John Latta, who died there after an accident in 1834. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1890 and not rebuilt until recently. Some of the original equipment, including the mill stone and part of the wheel can be seen at the mill. All of the other equipment has been completely rebuilt. Inside the mill interpretive displays tell the story of the mill and its workings. A must see for families with young children.

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