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Published: June 26th 2017
Geo: 40.7489, -73.9916
TIME CHECK: 0636 - more like lunchtime for us!. Up since 0430 - coffee made in our little kitchenette. American appliances are solid and I think slightly retro. Our room upgrade was well worth the extra and we have a lounge, kitchenette and balcony which from the 22nd floor gives us a fantastic view from West to East Manhattan. You can just see the Hudson River to the left and across to the East River the other way.
MISSION: Jump on the Subway at Penn Station down to Canal Street (Blue line E) where we will either find a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant or head to Katz (a Jewish diner) serving Hot Dogs and Bagels located in the lower East Side.
WEATHER: Mixed and muggy but who cares. "Dolly Mixture" helium voiced weather forecasts girls on cable TV wave their hands over vast areas of North America - Storms here - droughts there - a whole continent forecast in 10 seconds!
CATHY as ever holding up the troops spudding about in lime green flip flops.
08:30 HRS CHINATOWN! We are very very early and head out of Canal Street Station in search of a Chinese Breakfast. Eventually we find a small cafe
- Mei Lan Wa (or something) and order won ton noodle soup - spring rolls and shrimp dumplings!
ON TO THE BUDDIST TEMPLE. Are we in NYC or SHANGHAI? We enter a stereotypical Buddist Temple just as you would expect in Bangkok!!. Over 30 moralistic murals hang either side of the temple. One lists the four virtues.....someting about not killing each other but one was missing....
10:00 LOWER EAST SIDE: China Town is taking over. Guss Pickles has gone and Tong Fu Wang seafood imports are taking over everywhere. The Jewish Tailors are struggling. However we are accosted by a little man with a scull cap purporting to have an English wife from Stamford Hill N16. We are "lured" into his outfitters and shown an horrific white check blazer.
We beat a hasty retreat ......
KATZ DINER is still thriving and is an icon to 1950's America. This time only a coffee but I looked longingly at the Katz Hot dogs and the long line of Chefs ready to serve a Baloney Bagel!
Off we trudge to East Village..... yeah man dude tattoo artists and hippee types selling "smoking equipment". We pass trendy shops selling skulls and fluorescent underwear. This is laid back
NYC - full of cool types.
Time to head off "UPTOWN". We take a northbound subway train up to 50th Street and change to get over to the "Westside" so we can hook up with a Blue Line Train to 135rd street (Haarlem)
HAARLEM! At name that at once conjures up images of Huggy Bear, Malcolm X - Young men sitting on tenement steps selling drugs - The Apollo Theatre - muggings - worse!!!!........... well nearly, but now far from the truth. The area north of Central Park is now an eclectic mix of refurbished Victorian Mansions worth millions of dollars (approx $5m each) and sure there are hard young black men with basket balls who look threatening but to be frank are friendly and welcoming. We chat to locals on the bus who served in NAM (who lost a brother in the Tet Offensive in 1966) and was injured in 9/11 as well as a lovely lady from Dulwich who is missing the UK. Funeral Parlours abound alongside Pentecostal Churches and smart restaurants selling Afro-Caribbean food.
The iconic Apollo Theatre is a must. This is where people like Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Gladys Night and Michael Jackson started their careers. We tuck
into Pizza for lunch is a dodgy looking deli with "locals". Fantastic!
Its hot and sticky and by 1530 we realise we have been walking steadily for near 7 hours with only small pit stops. Time to head back to our Hotel. Taking the bus we pass through endless boulevards with high end shops, fantastic restaurants with red carpet walkways. Further on the cityscape melds into Time Square and Broadway. This is the New York you image.......shops selling everything from furs to Pizza, sidewalks full of every race on the plant - The Trump Tower and Carnegie Hall - yellow cabs.......wow we have been here twice before but it is just as impressive!!!
THE "CRUMPLE" MAP
In Amsterdam Cathy purchased a crumple fabric map of NYC. You can ball it up and put in your pocket. Brilliant. However a man on the bus suggested she threw it away and invested in a new one! See photo!
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