The City that Never Sleeps

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Between two snow storms, we made our escape to the south.

Of course, we didn't venture too far south to start with...there were friends to visit first! Our first visit was New York, New York.

Now New York is a big city. Growing up, my impressions of "the City" were generally of a big, scary, place where no one knows your name, and with lousy weather, as my luck always guaranteed bad weather on city trips. It wasn't until I went to live in another city that I began to appreciate the fascination that people have for New York City. While I still would never live there, it is a pretty cool city.

So we set out to discover why millions of people all over the world are fascinated with the city that never sleeps. We crossed the Hudson to take the train into beautiful Grand Central Station. From there, we set off towards Bryant Park to watch the ice skating. Shortly thereafter, Dave bought his very expensive NYC hotdog, and I searched for a decent slice of pizza. Sights included Rockafeller Centre, where they had just taken the tree down the day before (darn!) and Times Square, where we climbed the new red glass steps (and later, we found out the half-price Broadway tickets were underneath the steps!). We passed by the International Center of Photography, but unfortunately the exhibition halls were closed. We continued wandering, finding a coffee shop where they had the basics right but couldn't get the coffee quite right, and saw Washington Square Park. The beautiful arch was under restoration, however, spoiling any photo shots. We then wandered towards SoHo, where we laughed at the line outside the Ugg store (they're called Uggs cuz they're UGLY!), and convienently ran into Liz, our lovely host for the next two nights.

Together we explored a bit more of the cool cast-iron architecture of SoHo, got some yummy snacks in Chinatown, visited Ground Zero (which to my surprise was no longer a big hole in the ground!), and after a bit of grocery shopping at a wonderful market, got a glimpse of the lovely Columbia University campus before retreating to Liz & Tim's for the night. We had fun cooking up a storm and listening to vinyl records in Tim's collection in their lovely riverside apartment.

We started off the next day with a walk in the park...Riverside Park that is. We laughed at the kids sledding down the hills covered by a few milimeters of snow, and I slowly adjusted to kids speaking in English again. We feasted on some of the yummy Absolute bagels, and hopped on the subway towards the East Village. We did a bit of shopping on St Mark's Place, and found outdoor markets in Tompkins Square Park. We found neat community gardens to wander through, enjoyed a good cup at 9th Street Espresso, and ate Indian in the place where "Chili-Pepper Lights meets Christmas Tree Lights".

Next we headed further south, passing the "Law and Order" stairs of the US Courthouse on the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge was high on my list, because of all the countless times I had been to the city, I had never seen the bridge! Dave and I walked out to the first set of towers and decided it was too windy and cold for any more. So we headed down to South Street Seaport, where we ended the day over a few pints at the Heartland Brewery.

Liz had an online class that night, so we headed back to the apartment and made another mess of the kitchen, watched the Golden Globe ceremonies and listened to more of Tim's records. It was a perfect way to end the huge day of walking.

Our legs wouldn't forgive us the next day, when we walked from Liz & Tim's to Central Park, then through the length of the park, including walking around the Jackie Onassis Reservoir. We continued on, stopping at F.A.O. Swartz for some toy fun, and along 5th Avenue for some window-shopping. After a bit of lunch, we decided we were city-ed out, and headed back towards Grand Central.

If 20 city blocks equals a mile, then I don't know how many kilometers we did...but we did enough city trekking to last us a while!

Thanks to Liz and Tim, our wonderful hosts, for having us, the yummy meals and cookies, and killing your feet wandering around with us! We had a great time!

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Photos

The Colours of Times Square
The new Red Stairs at Times Square offer a great view!

Cast Iron Detail
The buildings in SoHo are beautiful!

The Famous Bridge
Finally I got to see the Brooklyn Bridge!

Brooklyn Bridge by Night
From Pier 17 at South Street Seaport

Ducks in Central Park
I just liked the patterns in the ice!

Comments

[Cessna152]

Fantastic photos!