Advertisement
Published: September 21st 2016
This is my second attempt at starting my blog. I had got quite far on my first entry a couple of days ago and then the web page crashed and I lost everything, so I will ensure that this time I save regularly as I go along and hope for a more successful outcome. I'll have to add photos at a later date as the computer I'm on has no facility for accessing an external source. I have never written a blog before but there's a first time for everything. I hope you enjoy reading about my travels. I apologise in advance because I know I'm going to waffle!
Day 1: Thursday 1st September - To New York.
My sister and nephews took me to the airport which was much appreciated - my parents having gone away to Rome on their own mini-adventure and they're joining me towards the end of the month anyway. Unfortunately there wasn't enough room to fit my nephews into my luggage (which I was very pleased came in at under 20kg in weight!). They are under instruction to start saving for a trip to Tokyo in 2020 for the Olympics (although they have already
expressed some misgivings about this, preferring instead to spend their money on things that they can enjoy a bit more immediately.)
The journey over was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Newark without any drama. I had booked into a hotel for the first night to make life easier and had the benefit of a huge bed and huge tv for the evening. I found a channel showing the US Open - the reason for staying in New York in the first place, and started to settle into the city.
Day 2 : Friday 2nd September - Broadway and Time Square.
After a lazy start, the highlight of which was discovering that I could listen to Mark and Simon live on 5Live on my phone, I made my way into New York and to the hostel that was to be my home for the week. It was big, clean, had a nice cafe attached and was well located for transport links. The main event of the day was going to see "Matilda" on Broadway. I had been trying to go for a while in London but it's very hard to get tickets there, so I was excited
when they had some available in Time Square that were not too expensive. I felt slightly guilty going as I have been promising to take my nephews for a while. but having seen it I would have no problems going to see it again. It's one of the best musicals I've seen in a while.
After the musical had finished I popped back to Time Square to soak up a bit more atmosphere. It was so busy you could hardly walk down the street. I heard someone behind me say that it was an assault on the senses, which just about summed it up.
The other thing that I did was a mini walking tour up to Grand Union station and back. I have been to New York twice before but had forgotten that you seem to find yourself walking miles to see everything. There was the most amazing sunset. One of the few things I don't like about London (apart from the lack of mountains) is that you can't see the sunset because the buildings are in the way. The same is true in Manhatten. You'll see as the year goes on that I'm prepared to invest
quite a lot of time and effort to catch the best view of the sunset.
Day 3: Saturday 3rd September - US Open
As I mentioned earlier, the primary reason for being in New York was to go to the tennis. On Saturday I had my first opportunity to go as I had purchased a ground pass for the day. This was bucket list item number 1. Although I was excited to go, I have to confess that my expectations were not high having seen on tv people talking through points and moving in and out of their seats during games - very non-Wimbledon behaviour. I should have known better though - Americans know how to put on a show. One of the things that I liked most was that my ticket got me on to every court apart from Arthur Ashe. Also, people were generally pretty quiet on the outside courts and didn't move seats except at change of ends.
I have been a tennis fan since I was young, and I can assure you that this is the peak time for British tennis in my lifetime, and probably quite a few others. I went from
one court to the next watching British tennis players. I decided against watching Andy on the screen because Dan Evans was playing on the Louis Armstrong Court. I almost missed Jamie Murray and Soares because Heather Watson and her partner took a long time to lose their women's doubles match and Murray and Soares won at breakneck speed. I did watch Dimitrov too - so it wasn't soley about the Brits. The highlight was definitely the Dan Evans match. He came so close to winning, although you could see that he was already tired by the fourth set, so when it went to a fifth, there was only really going to be one outcome.
The other thing I learnt from the day is where the "space ships" from the end of Men in Black are located - in the park next to the grounds! (I can't remember the real name of the place - I think it might have had something to do with a World Fair.)
Day 4: Sunday 4th September - Harlem - Central Park - The Top of the Rock
On Sunday morning I did one of the tours organised by the hostel. It
was advertised as a Harlem Gospel tour and finished in a gospel church in the heart of Harlem. It was an interesting walk and our guide was very knowledgeable, having lived all his life in the area. The church service was slightly odd due to the huge number of tour groups that arrived for it and were shepherded up to the balcony, making it feel much more like a performance than an act of worship. However most of the tourists left after about half an hour, once the choir had sung a couple of songs and the notices started. There's a message in there about notices in a church service; and they were some of the longest notices I've ever sat through! I stayed for three hours. They were having communion by then and I'm pretty sure it was near the end of the service.
At the risk of sounding very hypocritical, I was amused by how late some people turned up for the service. Some rocked up about an hour and a half after the service had started. There was a great comment from a guy on the Daily Show the other day talking about how few people
9/11 memorial
The flowers show which people would have been celebrating their birthday.had been in church on the day that Trump had visited a Black church apparently in an attempt to win Black votes (although we all know it was more about appeasing White voters who might be feeling guilty about voting for a candidate who is so obviously racist) where he said that going to church was so important to the African American community that they go to church on the way to church, so I wonder if that's what they had been doing. As someone who once got to church more or less in time for coffee afterwards while living in Italy, I cannot criticise anybody for lack of punctuality.
Another thing I appreciated was the verbal feedback and support that was given to the pastor as he was preaching. The same thing happened in the church I went to in Washington which was a bit more racially diverse. I would love to give it a go when I get back to my church in the UK but I know that I don't have the nerve.
When I got back to the hostel I was pleased to find that I had a message from Alistair - a childhood
friend now living in New York. He, his wife and his son were heading to Central Park and I was invited to join them. It was lovely to meet Brooke and Henry and spend some time exploring the park with locals. From there I decided to head into town and took a trip to the Top of the Rock to take in some views of the Manhatten skyline at night.
Day 5: Monday 5th September - Baseball
I have been to a few baseball games in the past and have always enjoyed them. I didn't think I was going to get the opportunity this time as I thought the season would have finished, so I was excited when I discovered that there was another month still to go. However when I checked the schedules of all the teams in the places I was visiting I discovered the only game I had the potential to make was today - so I went along for the afternoon - in the heat! The Yankees were playing the Blue Jays. It wasn't the most exciting game I've been to as the Yankees were ahead for most of the game and ended up
winning and there were no home runs, but I still enjoyed myself. There was one inning where the Blue Jays had the bases loaded and, had they managed to get everyone home, they would have levelled the score.
In the evening I met up with Adele and Neil for some drinks and food. They were also over for the tennis and the suppliers of some of my tickets. They did New York in style, but they're well practised.
Day 6: Tuesday 6th September - US Open Quarter finals day one.
Back at the tennis - and this time I had tickets for the Arthur Ashe court too. I was still a bit gutted that Nadal had been knocked out as I probably would have got to see him play, but I was happy to watch Monfis. I had been expecting a rain-free Grand Slam experience in New York, but it wasn't to be, and I got to experience tennis under the roof. It was quite pleasant because they turn the aircon on too. The rain delays in the outside courts also meant that I was able to see the final match to ever be played on the
old Louis Armstrong court. (They're going to tear it down and rebuild it for next year.) It was the Brian brothers (always good to watch) against the Lopez brothers.
In the evening I headed in to Manhatten again in pursuit of cheesecake; it had to be done while I was in New York. I headed for a little place near Little Italy that, according to Trip Advisor, has the best cheesecake in the city. They were pretty good. From there I walked up through Washington square to Greenwich Village before getting on the metro back to the hostel.
Day 7: Wednesday 7th September - US Open Quarter finals day two.
When I had been at the tennis the day before, I had discovered that I could get a $45 ticket to the quarter finals the next day and see Murray in action, so it had to be done. (I have learnt from this trip that it is almost completely unnecessary to buy tickets for the tennis in advance as they had tickets available for every session.) However I didn't head straight to the tennis and instead retraced some of the tour from Sunday to get some pictures
of the things we had seen on the way. I still managed to get over to Flushing Meadows in time to see two sets of Murray and Soares, where I caught up with Adele and Neil again. The court was pretty empty so we were very close to the action. We skipped the women's quarter final to support one Murray brother. Unfortunately Andy was unable to follow in his brother's footsteps and was knocked out by Nishikori. It was the usual Murray-watching experience where you swung between hope and despair. Nishikori, on the other hand, seemed to be able to stay calm throughout the match.
In the evening I caught up with Alice, a friend from Milan days who used to go to the Sunday school lessons that I taught. The last time I had seen her was in California about 10 years ago when she was 13! It was lovely to catch up with her and I am so pleased that she has followed her mother's footsteps into teaching.
Day 8: Thursday 8th September - 9/11 memorial - Women's Semi finals.
This was my last full day in New York. I had tickets for the women's
semi finals in the evening and was tempted to go early for the celebrations for the Louis Armstrong court, but I had a list of things I was planning to see in New York and hadn't seen any of them, so I decided to do a bit of sightseeing instead.
First I headed to the 9/11 memorial and museum. I saw the towers in my first trip to New York and went to Ground Zero last time. The museum was very sombering. It reminded me of visiting Hiroshima - good to go but not something that you can say you enjoyed. It was very well done and interesting. From there I made my way down the Battery Park for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. I had been hoping to visit Ellis Island but that'll have to wait until next time.
In the evening at the tennis I witnessed the handing over of the Number 1 slot from Serena to Kerber. It was good to see Serena play on her home turf and I was disappointed that she lost, but it was a great match. Actually there was some amazing tennis in both matches - a fitting
end to my US open experience. Between the two matches, a girl came out to sing the National anthem which was a bit odd; another thing that you wouldn't see at Wimbledon!
Day 9: Friday 9th September - To Washington - Georgetown
As always I left New York with a long list of things to do next time and far less money in my purse! The bus to Washington was comfortable enough and it was quite nice to be on the move again. I arrived in the afternoon and, once settled into my hostel (with an unusually shaped room that meant a bit more privacy but nowhere to put my suitcase), I headed into Georgetown on Adele's recommendation. Overall it was a good move as it was definitely more lively than the area where I was staying and I found a nice place to eat, but it turned out that the bus that had taken me over there stopped at 9pm. It took me quite a lot of walking around to work this out, which meant I got to explore a bit of the waterfront too. Fortunately there were other transport options available and I made it back
to the hostel without too many problems.
This hostel has had the most interesting fellow guests of any hostel I have stayed in so far. When I got back to the hostel there was a man holding court in the lobby who claimed to be running for President. In fact, he was doing a live tv broadcast back to California from the lobby. I missed the name of the party that he represented but he explained that, if he won, he would get rid of all the current rules and just make decisions based on the bible and the Constitution. He ended up singing Amazing Grace on telly with a group of high school students who were also staying in the hostel. During the broadcast another guest interrupted him to correct him about something he said about Hillary Clinton. I missed what he had said, but he did describe Obama as a Muslim so I'm sure there were probably quite a lot of inaccuracies in what he was saying.
Once he had left, the guest who had interrupted him and another, very sweet older gentleman who was staying in the hostel attempted to convince the students that Clinton
wasn't planning to take their guns away from them and that maybe some level of control as to who was allowed to own a gun might make them more safe rather than less safe as some of them feared. As you can see I had great fun eavesdropping for a bit while trying unsuccessfully to download the photos from my camera.
Day 10: Saturday 10th September - Museums - Twilight/Night tour of the city
This Saturday was very hot - to the extent that I could only bear to stay outside for about 20 minutes at a time. Fortunately Washington has amazing, airconditioned and free museums. I started at the Museum of American history to seek out the ruby slippers and then made my way over to the Air and Space Museum. These are actually the only two museums I've been to before - but I enjoyed going back. You definitely need more than a weekend to do Washington justice.
In the evening I had booked on to a twilight tour of the city. However there was a mix up with the buses and it turned into a night tour! It was a good way to get
round the Monuments quickly but I decided I needed to go back and see them properly the next day, partly because we couldn't even get out to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial because they were getting ready for a triathlon the following morning. Our guide was very enthusiastic and jolly, and was able to help out the driver when he started going off in the wrong direction!
Day 11: Sunday 11th September - Monuments - The Kennedy Centre
I went to church in the morning in a part of the city called "Friendship Heights". It seemed appropriate. I had to be back at the hostel for 4:30 because I had signed up for a trip to the Kennedy Center to watch a performance; but I was still keen to go back to check out the botanical gardens (as recommended by Trip Advisor, of course). As a result I did an extremely quick waking tour of almost the entire of the National Mall! Get to a memorial - take a few pictures - move on. Despite my haste I was still about 15 minutes late back to the hostel. Fortunately they hadn't left though and I even got to enjoy
a bit of pizza.
The trip was advertised as an opportunity to see some dance, drama and listen to music and then have a drink in the roof top bar. We didn't do any of these things. It turns out that the Kennedy Center puts on a free show for an hour at 6pm every day, which is also broadcast on the Internet. We happened to be there for a "playback" evening. People from the audience were asked to share their memories of 9/11 and then the company acted them out. It was different but entertaining. When it had finished the rest of the group decided to head into Georgetown but I decided to skip it in pursuit of the sunset. This was a good move. The sunset was spectacular.
Day 12: Monday 12th September - On to Halifax, NS, Canada.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 6; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0442s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Lisa Whiting
non-member comment
Great blog!
This is great! You really have been having some amazing experiences, I'm enjoying reading all about it and enjoying seeing terrific photos!