New York, New York

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New York, New York

After being spoilt with accommodation on our journey round Tennessee, we stayed in Queens to save on hotel costs and it turned out ok. The Pan American Hotel was comfortable but in need of an update. Cost and hotel airport shuttle were our main consideration but we also got free internet access. Now, If only I knew somebody with STATUS things might have been different
The subway was a ten minute walk from the hotel, we navigated the system quite well, with only a couple of cock ups, and found it non threatening. Although the stations were a bit smelly and shabby, the trains themselves were good and were clean. The journey into Manhattan took between 30 and 45 minutes depending on final destination,
We found contrary to belief that New Yorkers were very friendly, if you stood with a map somebody would ask you where you wanted to go, even the NYPD would give directions if asked, and they were everywhere!

Day One
we started at Ground Zero and looked around the Ground Zero Museum Workshop.
A very poignant visit, there were ample boxes of tissues placed all throughout the museum.

We then headed past Wall St towards Battery Park we passed numerous Statue of Liberty Mime artists and made our way to the wharves where a myriad of ferries and cruises were on offer for trips into the Bay and to Liberty and Ellis Islands, for which there were horrendous queues.
We decided to head for the Staten Island Ferry which is a free service that links Staten Island to the rest of New York and operates 24/7.
The trip was great and we had very good views of everything for free. Once on the island embarking is mandatory so we headed into the streets in search of lunch which we found in an Italian Deli.
We passed a neat little Stadium which Bev was intrigued with, it turned out to be the home of the Staten Island Yankees minor league baseball team.
I agree that cricket is boring but………………baseball? whats that all about?.

After we disembarked back on Manhattan we decided to head for South Street Seaport, a shopping and entertainment complex on the East River with a Maritime Museum and many old boats on display.
We had only ventured one block (a measurement of distance in the US) when we were confronted by hundreds of New York’s finest in the shape of Police, Fire and Ambulance personnel. Crash barriers were being erected everywhere and streets were being closed.
We suspected a terrorist incident at first but there was a complete lack of urgency in the troops on the street.
I stopped to ask a friendly copper “what’s occurring?” but the NYPD sergeant just smiled.
We leaned on a barrier to observe but were quickly moved on. We were then asked by a passer by “When is the President arriving?” It all became clear.
We had thought it rather a large presence for our very own Prince Harry who like us, was in town for a day or two.

Once we had “moved on” a bit we decided that we would stay awhile and watch events unfold. We waited 2 hours but had the company of a couple of freelance Paparazzi photographers who were very interesting company, one of them had been snapping Harry all morning over on Governor’s Island. He was very excited about the photo that he had entitled “Royal Flush”. We had a Royal Premier of his piccies!
They gave us a few ideas of what might be happening and it made our wait all that more interesting. Although our eyes were focused on the east River Heliport, all the time we were very aware of a muscular, 7 foot tall (?) smartly dressed coloured man with an ear piece and lapel pin sussing out the crowd behind us.

Eventually the air was filled with the noise of egg beaters as 2 Chinook helicopters zoomed low across the East river from the direction of La Guardia.
“the advance Navy Seals” shouted one know all, it turned out to be the President’s entourage of bag carriers!
Another helicopter appeared, “it’s a decoy” the expert cried, this time he was right because then Obama’s chopper appeared from the other direction followed closely by a further Chinook. The dozen or so Coastguard gunboats continued to patrol the river and all 4 choppers were safely on the ground. The President and all were whisked away in a mile long motorcade with the photographers getting barely a glimpse.
The excitement over, we continued on to the South Street Seaport where we had good views of the Famous Brooklyn Bridge and Bev had her first chance to browse some shops.

We passed City Hall, New York County Courthouse and the Woolworth Building as we headed, with heavy feet, in the general direction of China Town and Little Italy, the communities boundaries have begun to blur and merge and we kept swapping from one to the next as we changed streets. We got caught up in a fiesta in Little Italy, not another fiesta! We then decided to go with the flow and opted for an Italian evening, a bit pricey as the guide books had warned, and a bit disappointing. Probably why they had already added a 20%!s(MISSING)ervice charge, which we luckily spotted, just like the ladies dress that had lasagne spilled down it, well they did offer her a cloth!

Day Two was a Sunday so what do you do? You head for the park, Central Park of course.
As we strolled up 7th Avenue we passed Carnegie Hall, which is supposed to be quite well known locally. We noticed that upcoming attractions were artists that we had seen before, Swindon’s own Jamie Cullum and Pink Martini whom we had seen at the Hollywood Bowl.

We were approached by people renting bikes and trishaw rides as well as horse and carriages. We listened to one hard sell who promised we would see TV and movie locations from Sex in the City, Friends, Home Alone II, One Fine Day, Serendipity, Will & Grace, Hitch, I am Legend, Gossip Girl, Enchanted and Ugly Betty. (????????????)
This was a NO BRAINER!! We said NO THANKS.

We were told we could order soup from the Seinfeld (Who?)"Soup Nazi". Was the guy talking a foreign language?

Anyway we ordered bikes and pedalled ferociously for an hour in the heat and managed three quarters of the park, dodging joggers, trishaws, dogs and Tour de France cyclists. We did get to see the reservoir where Dustin Hoffman jogged in Marathon Man.
We heard a brass band and when we went to investigate I had an Israeli flag thrust into my hand and was urged to cheer as every Jewish person in the USA paraded past up 5th Avenue in celebration of the Israeli State.

Once we handed our bikes back we set off to find Strawberry Fields, but missed it so a very friendly lady delayed her daily jog to take us there personally. She said it wasn’t up to much, she was right, but it had to be done. Similarly we paid homage to John Lennon outside the Dakota Building.

We were very impressed with Central Park, a green oasis and so big!
Lunch beckoned so where better to go than the pink marbled halls of the Trump Tower.
Getting there was difficult as still every Jewish person continued to parade through the streets and security was as HOT as the weather.
This decided us to head for the Imax in the afternoon which was housed in the Museum of Natural History, unfortunately the guy in the ticket office was not English! Because of this he failed to understand that we were not “Museum People”. But as we ended up paying for it we had a wee browse. It’s BIG!

After our rest we hit the subway and headed for Greenwich Village, as we emerged blinking from the subway we consulted our map, a passer by asked us what we wanted, we said we were trying to get our bearings and what is that building in the distance? It’s the Empire State he replied with disdain! DOH!

We headed for Washington Square Park a vibrant place for a Sunday afternoon, here we saw groups of aging hippies singing and happy clapping. We then strolled a bit and found a Gay street and a Perverts street, a Feelin’ Groovy street and others catering for all manner of tastes, along with many dodgy and unusual shops. We stopped for a beer at an Irish Pub and eventually settled on a delightful Thai Restaurant for our evening meal.

A couple of points about the subway, you are very aware of the multi-culturality of the city when you see the vast array of newspapers being read in many different languages, all published locally. Also everyone is wired for sound, and every black guy looks like a rapper!

In our area of Queens, the majority of the small shops had Chinese signs, but in the larger stores the assistants were speaking Spanish.

Day Three
Today we were going to reach for the stars! We had decided to go up the lesser known Rockefeller Center so we could see the Empire State Building and beyond. It’s called “The Top of the Rock” and it is very good, you get a history lesson as well. The Centre was built and wholly financed John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1930 after the stock market crash of 1929 It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times.
The views of the Empire State Building and beyond to Liberty Island were superb as well as great views of Central Park and the rivers.

From here we wandered over to Times Square where 376 rubber lawn chairs and loungers have temporarily taken over a section of Broadway for the summer after a start was made on pedestrianisation of part of Broadway. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/nyregion/11chairs.html

We bought the mandatory T shirts and had New York Pizza on Broadway en route to touch the Empire State Building and wander around Macys (bit of a dump!).
As we did not have a very good view of the Chrysler Building from the Rock we headed in its direction where we could gawp at the splendour of Grand Central Station at the same time. It was then quite a hike from there to The UN headquarters. It’s a big building with lots of flags. Then a long hike back!

After all this walking we needed a rest, Bev did not want to sit on the subway all evening so we headed over to Pier 83 to catch a 90 minute Twilight Harbour Cruise.
Unfortunately this meant another hike as there was no nearby subway.

The cruise left from near to where US Airways Flight 1549 managed to ditch into the icy waters of the Hudson River, moments after taking off from LaGuardia airport with 155 people on board. The cruise line had been first on the scene. This was one of many interesting tales recounted to us by the tour guide. Great close up of the Statue of Liberty.
I declined to spend $7 on a plastic cup of red wine, he poured it back into the bottle!
Fail to see the beauty of the Brooklyn Bridge though!

There was a courtesy bus available so we returned to Times Square to see it after dark in all its Neon Glory and have dinner. Spent $7.25 on a glass of wine, very nice it was too!
Our latest night to date, finally getting over jet lag!

Day 4
We never ventured far as it was our last day. We caught the bus to Forest Hills which we were told was a nice leafy suburb with nice shops and restaurants (Ruislip?)
We were not told that we needed 16 quarters for our bus fare, the driver would not take a $5 note and as he drove off with us standing in the aisle he said to ask the other passengers!
We stood there like lemons as all eyes were upon us, what an assortment of citizens…. Big Fat Mommas, Chinese, Jews, all mostly older and poorer. (assumption!)
They could not have been more obliging and helpful, a hubbub of noise erupted as everyone searched for change to pay our fare. When we reached our destination, again the passengers could not have been more helpful, directions were offered from all quarters.
We found a nice Coffee shop that reminded us very much of an English Tea Room and treated ourselves to cake but apart from that decided to return and hit a nearby Shopping Mall.

I am happy to report that we made no purchases, we had an Applebee lunch and returned to the hotel to cool down and await our transport to JFK.
We departed the hotel at 4pm in pouring rain and with thunderous, black skies.
We had only been driving for 5 minutes when a couple realised that they had left a bag at the hotel, the driver refused to return but dumped the guy at the side of the road to make his own way.
Our Virgin flight back to Heathrow was a super fast 6 hours 20, although this meant a 3 hour wait at Heathrow for Bev's cousin Rebecca to pick us up as motorways had been closed due to accidents!

So what did we think of the Big Apple? We weren't blown away by it, maybe we believed all the hype. It did not give me a "Buzz" like San Fran or even Chicago, but we felt safe and found people, contrary to opinion, very friendly.
After 6 years without a "proper" holiday it (and our trip around Tennessee) has given us that travel bug again.

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Photos

President Obama arriving
An expensive trip to the theatre!

Greenwich Village
Ageing Hippies strum along

Bev + Ken on Top of the Rock
Empire State behind us

What's this?
NYC's most recognisable landmark!

Comments

[Jim Simpson]

Old Hippies
Couldn't see you in the picture of the aging hippies!