Day 32 - Manhattan, NEW YORK # 2

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Woke up around 9.00am and it was nice to know after a 16 day road trip we did not need to check out or a hotel or drive the car anywhere.



Breakfast was pretty basic in a tiny room downstairs being 2 slices of toast with cream cheese and a strawberry yoghurt. Spent the rest of the morning chilling in the room and updating the blog as I’m a few days behind now. We have noticed this hotel only has 1 small lift that fits about 4 people at the most to cater for a 7 storey building so one has to be patient waiting for the elevator.



We left the room around 11.00am and walked up E48th Street past the Rockefeller Centre which will soon have its famous Christmas Tree installed and saw people roller skating and the NBC TV studios where they broadcast live from but nothing live appeared to be on as we walked past and we then got a train down to Brooklyn. I was expecting we’d be going over a bridge but alas we must have gone underground the whole way.



When we surfaced in the neighbourhood known as Dumbo, we saw the nice views of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge and it is hard to comprehend that this was bridge was built way back in 1884 before any of the modern engineering techniques were developed. Whilst I’m on the topic of bridges I saw a bridge yesterday as we drove to NYC that looked just like the Sydney Harbour Bridge ! Not as impressive through as it’s not crossing the beautiful harbour and there is no stunning Opera House next door either.



We then walked underneath the Brooklyn Bridge to Washington Avenue to get the “must do” photo of the nearby Manhattan bridge and then had a small lunch from a street vendor being a Lamb Gyro for $10- which we shared sitting on the nearby beach (as it’s known !). Occasionally a train would rumble across Manhattan Bridge and it was no noisy. You could not possibly live in this area and put with that noise all day long !



We then thought about doing the famous walk across the Brooklyn Bridge but decided instead to catch the East River ferry and we paid $4- each for the 30 minute ride up the East River to E34th Street which was about 4-5 stops. The ferry is a really quick way of getting around and relaxing too as we stood at the back looking at the stunning views on the way. This little trip enabled us to get a really good look at just how big Manhattan Island actually is.



Whilst we were in lockdown back home we discovered a few You Tube channel’s that do live streaming walking tours of NYC such as Action Kid, Walking Alice and one starring James & Karla and their service dog Hudson over the last few years. James & Karla do their live streaming as they take Hudson out for a walk and show some of the NYC neighbourhoods and they often give their opinions on the best places to eat as a local. Hudson generally eats more of the food they sample than James & Karla !



One thing Kerry was super excited to try was a Cannoli and we decided to do a 2km walk along 1st Avenue down to the East Village to find this old bakery called Veniero’s Pasticceria & Caffe which opened in 1894. James and Karla had streamed a visit here and was their favourite place for a Cannoli so it’s a bucket list visit. As soon as we walked inside I recalled the live stream I had seen so vividly and knew there was a seating area inside and hidden around the back corner.



It’s still in it’s original building and Kerry ordered the Vanilla Canolli for only $5- and I ordered the NY style cheesecake with berries. Their menu had pictures of all the cakes and coffees so I had their special layered cappuccino and Kerry had a hot chocolate and both were so well presented. Kerry said the wait for a Canolli was well worth the wait (I had a small bite and agreed) and the cheesecake I had was from heaven. Their website is www.venieros.com (not sure if they do home delivery to Australia !).



On the menu they describe their Cannoli as “nothing close to a standard cannoli. Crispy cannoli shell filled with luscious ricotta cream, chocolate chips and citron bits”.



After here we walked to nearby Washington Square park where there was people everywhere just listening to buskers on a quiet Sunday afternoon where the clouds have moved on it’s now a perfectly sunny day.



It was close to 6pm now and I was looking for somewhere nearby for dinner and I found this place on Macdougall Street in Greenwich Village which was like a sports bar but as we approached we could see it was too crowded and noisy and not the right feel but there were plenty of other restaurants in the area so I stumbled across Cafe Reggio which was another place on Kerry’s list. This place is said to be the home of the first Cappuccino ever made and was opened in 1927.



We weren’t overly hungry so we both had soups and I had another cappuccino and my first cannoli for dessert. However whilst the soups were Ok, the cannoli was nowhere near as good as the one Kerry had at Veniero’s so we’ve decided to go back to Veniero’s one more time before we leave town.

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Photos

Manhattan Bridge built in 1905.
Retro style in black and white.

Veniero’s Pasticceria & Caffe
Location is 342 East 11th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues).

Iconic photo of Manhattan Bridge taken from Washington Street.
A bit hard to see in the photo but in the gap between the supports of the bridge (under the road deck) sits the Empire Stare Building.