Morning in New York then Fly Home

Sunday 11^th September 2016

Today New York is mourning the 15^th Anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. We can see on TV that there is a  large memorial service at ground zero  with the reading of the names of all of the victims.

As we head out onto the streets around us, it is business as usual, without the office workers. We had breakfast at the “Cosmic Diner”, a typical American diner which served a pretty good breakfast.

After breakfast we just needed a bit of exercise and to fill in the rest of the morning before checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport to catch our flight home.

We opted to go for a walk down to Central Park and have a bit of a walk around. It really is a great place for New Yorkers to get out of the rat race and into a nice relaxing park environment, away from the concrete jungle.

It was then off to JFK airport for our flight home.

A more relaxing day in Manhattan

Saturday 10^th September 2016

It was an exciting (or disturbing) start to the day with the hotel fire alarm sounding at 3.30 am. After about 10 minutes the tired voice od the Director of Fire Safety came over the audio system, telling us that an alarm situation had occurred in the hotel, and it was being investigated. No need for alarm, just stay in your room and wait for further instructions.

About 30 minutes later after intervening messages telling us not to worry, the situation had been resolved and we were instructed to resume our normal activities !

Having had our sleep disturbed it was a restless night from then on till we eventually got up at 8 am, and not in a hurry to rush off anywhere.  We agreed that we would walk down to the waterfront to go for a stroll along the Highline, a surviving section of the old elevated rail system that ran throughout Manhattan and has now been given park status. We need to walk 20 blocks to get there and it is already very hot (32 C).

Breakfast was at a small café where they were cooking huge pizzas this early in the morning. We soon saw several customers come in to have a slice for breakfast (or maybe an early brunch)

Breakfast Pizza ?

As we walk down west 34^th Street we are confronted by a huge glass building on the waterfront, which we now know is the Javits Convention Centre.

Javits Convention Centre

We soon found the entrance to the Highline, and we were at the end of the development , and the last part of it to open,

The walk offered elevated river views whilst walking along the path of the old rail track that had been filled in to make it trafficable

Vegetation along the way was described as natural self seeding plants  (in Australia known as weeds)

Great View of the Shunting Yard

As we entered the more developed parts of the Highline Project which now weaves in between residential highrise apartments, it was a lot more pleasant and well presented. I am sure that latter stages will get to this standard at some stage.

The more developed parts are obviously adding to the attractiveness of property in the area. It is great to see an old wasted piece of infrastructure like this being turned into something that is beneficial to the community.

As we walked down the stairs from the Highline you could see the cast iron structure that held this massive rail project above the streets.

We walked back through the streets in the direction of Macy’s, still a long walk in this oppressive heat.

One thing we have noticed in Manhattan is the need to protect fire hydrants from large beings that are apparently inclined to perch on them. In Australia we have our bird spikes , but this looks much more serious.

We later saw a guy sitting on one anyway, obviously with appropriate protective equipment.

Soon we were at Madison Square Garden and soon after at Macy’s where we welcomed the air conditioning . We did a bit of shopping there buying a few clothing items (much cheaper than at home), had lunch in the store, and ventured back out in the heat to head back to the hotel.

On the way Carole spotted a Skechers store, and after a visit there our purchases had grown further and we declared an end to shopping and headed to our hotel.

It was still stinking hot and the air conditioning in our room was most welcome. By now it was around 3.30pm.

After a suitable period of air conditioned relaxation, we ventured back out for a predinner drink and dinner.

Walking back through Times Square crowds were building and a few people were just having a rest.

Uptown Manhattan and Brooklyn

Friday 9^th September 2016

It is our last day of use of the Hop on Hop off bus, so we plan to do the Uptown Manhattan  Route and the Brooklyn Tour today. That should keep us pretty busy.

Getting to the pickup point for the Uptown route is about a 15 minute walk to the stop which is opposite the Trump Tower at the lower end of Central Park near Columbus Circle.

The NYPD’s secret weapon to beat the traffic

Columbus circle (Trump Tower in the background)

This morning we are earlier, having left the hotel at around 8.30am,and the traffic heading uptown is better than the traffic in the other direction we have experienced over the past few days, but it is still early.  The route takes us right around Central Park spending most of our time in Harlem. Many of the Museums are located on this route.

American Museum of Natural History

Central Park

 A bit of competition for KFC ?

Also the Cathedral is on this route, and as we were the only two on the bus at this early hour, the driver stopped and gave us 5 minutes to have a look inside.

The Cathedral Church of St John the Devine

Our next main attraction was General Grant’s Tomb, and to get there we drove past Columbus University and the massive Riverside Church.

Riverside Church

General Grants Tomb

Now, still in Harlem, and just past the far end of Central Park we turn down past The Apollo Theatre to then drive back along the other side of Central Park.

The mansions of many of the great families of America are located along this route, but we plan to get off at the Museum of The City of New York to find out more about New York.

Included in our admission fee is a New York breakfast , a bagel and a cup of coffee in a newly renovated cafeteria

Whilst not all of the displays were of great interest, there were two that were excellent. One was devoted to the timelime of New York’s development and was in the form of a 30 minute film in an auditorium. The other was a display dedicated to Activism in New York going right back in history covering everything from the abolition of slavery, Suffrage for Women, prohibition, The Vietnam war etc, and more recently the rise of terrorism.

We then caught the bus back to Rockefeller Square to head off on our next adventure.

New York Library

Just near the Rockefeller Centre is the stunning St Patricks Cathedral, modeled on the DOM in Cologne, it is the centre of the Catholic Church in New York.

St Patricks Cathedral

To get to the Brooklyn Tour, we need to do some more walking to find a stop that will get is on the downtown loop to Soho, where the Brooklyn Tour leaves from. It involves another longish walk back to the Flatiron building. We stopped at a deli along the way and had a wrap for lunch.

There were only 8 starters for the Brooklyn Tour, so we had the undivided attention of the tour guide for the whole 90 minute trip and he was very entertaining and passionate about Brooklyn, his home town.

Soon we were on our way, through Chinatown, Little Italy (both adjoining each other), and over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Chinatown

The Brooklyn Bridge

According to our guide, Brooklyn is the only place to live, and wherever he took us, it seemed to be only 20 minutes from Times Square. Brooklyn has apparently made a major recovery from being a less than desirable place to live with lots of social issues, to a desirable and thriving place. Much of this turnaround was due to the will of the people who lived there to not give up, and make it a better place.

There are great views of Manhattan from parts of Brooklyn.

The Manhattan Bridge

Grimaldi’s, is supposed to be the best Pizza Place in NY

There was the usual traffic (but not as bad as Manhattan)

Some nice leafy streets

Pets are well looked after

The Gay Community are well represented

The Local Penitentiary fits into the Cityscape

Many of the historic buildings have been reborn as apartment buildings

Wiliamsburg Savings Bank Tower – now all apartments

Other urban renewal has taken place in the old wharf and industrial areas under the Manhattan bridge. It was bought up by a developer and transformed into a now upmarket residential and commercial area knowns as DUMBO ( Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass).

Dumbo

Our guide went to great lengths to point out the major sports stadium in Brooklyn, The Barclay Centre, with it’s distinctive turfed roof. He assured us that it is a state of the art facility inside.

Driving further on we passed the Soldiers and Sailors Arch, quite close to the Brooklyn Library.

Public Library

We then went past Prospect Park, Brooklyn’s equivalent of Central Park designed by the same designers, after they had completed Central Park. It serves a similar role in Brooklyn as Central Park does in Manhattan

After a stop sat the Library to use the restrooms, we were on our way back to Manhattan. Our guide continued his praise for Brooklyn all of the way back. It is no wonder they brought about the transformation of the area if everyone is as passionate about Brooklyn as he was.

Once back at Soho, we linked up with a bus that would take us back to the Rockefeller Centre, which is our closet stop to our hotel. It was now 5.30 pm, and it has been a very hot day. The temperature at 9pm was still 27 C.

We found another nice little Irish Pub on our walk back to the hotel and had a cool beer, before completing the walk home.

It was a very long day, and we covered a few km. For dinner we decided to go back to the Thai Restaurant we ate at 2 nights ago, as the food was so good. We were not disappointed.