Flying through the night was really beginning to get to us - no sooner have we taken off, been served a beverage, patiently waited to be served the customary meal and then rejected the duty free trolley; we finally sit back and relax, noting that the distant horizon is no longer a dark black empty sky, but is instead showing signs of dark grey, blue and eventually pink as another day dawns and we lose yet another night sleep...
As we approached J F Kennedy Airport, we realised that the bright blue skies of the South Pacific were already a distant memory and the reality of the cold grey northern Atlantic hit us quite hard. We flew out over the Atlantic before landing, catching a glimpse of Manhattan Island, the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings of mid-town instantly recognisable but lower Manhattan and the Financial district, quite different to when I last visited, the dominating presence of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre notably missing.
On arrival at JFK, we booked ourselves into a hotel on 32nd Street and took a taxi shuttle bus to Manhattan Island. We stared down at our only mode of foot transportation, flip flops, and realised shopping was going to feature pretty imminently on our agenda. We walked from 5th Ave across East 32nd to our hotel just off Madison and were quite surprised that the air temperature was slightly warmer than expected - far from tropical Hawaii of course, but not quite freezing... we checked into the hotel and, once again, crashed out, only rising again mid-afternoon feeling slightly more refreshed but now rearing to go. We donned all the heavy clothes we were carrying, along with our trusty flip flops and headed out. We walked back up to 5th Avenue to the Empire State building before then walking downtown to the Flat Iron building (one of my favourites), back up Broadway to Time Square and along 42nd Street to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building (my all-time favourite!) before again wandering back down 5th Ave to 34th Street and the Empire State building (I will stop writing the word 'favourite' now but this building would also fall into this category).
It was late afternoon and we were determined to get up to the Observation deck on the 84th floor to view the city in daylight and then watch as the sky grew dark - the skies were a perfect blue and promised a glorious Winter sunset - and being 31st October, the spire at the top would be lit up in Halloween colours... it was fantastic - I only wish the photographs could fully capture the views - they are magical.
We returned back to ground level and headed along 34th Street and into various shoe shops, me eventually purchasing a pair of boots, but Mark unfortunately not finding anything which was quite right. After walking back to the hotel, we changed (me into cosy warm socks and boots) and headed back out taking a cab down to Greenwich Village in hope of finding a decent restaurant and to see the Halloween parade... Unfortunately, before we were even out of mid-town, the roads became gridlocked so we opted to get out and walk, quickly being swallowed up with various ghost, ghouls, witches, monsters, nurses, princesses, cheer leaders - pretty much every kind of fancy dress you could possibly imagine - we walked to the parade and the streets were full with people, taxis, buses and various Halloween floats - we stayed for a while, but after getting pushed and shoved a few times too many, opted instead to head back up Broadway and found a quieter restaurant called Jacks where we both enjoyed hearty meals and a couple of beers before returning to the hotel, me quickly realising that my new warm boots had gorged a great big hole in the side of my foot. Hmmm - great?
The sound of a drill directly outside the hotel, aided our early start the following morning but we were pleasantly surprised to look up out of the window and find bright blue skies. We dressed, plastered the sores on our feet, reluctantly put on our flip flops and headed back to 5th Avenue to catch the subway downtown to the City Hall in the Financial district. We walked through City Hall Park, getting some double take stares at our feet, passed the awesome Woolworth Building and crossed a further couple of blocks to Ground Zero. As we walked across the streets, I felt an enormous apprehension in retracing steps which I had previously taken with great anticipation of seeing the towers, knowing that what we were walking towards was now a large hole in the ground where so many people had lost their lives. As we met the corner of Vesey Street, my stomach churned and I felt quite sick remembering the jaw dropping amazement at the size and height of the buildings no longer present. As we approached the site, I, allbeit a little too late, considered whether it was appropriate to visit but on arrival at where the World Trade plaza had once stood, I was impressed to see a tasteful collection of enlarged photographs silently portraying memories of the buildings, their demise and the incredible emmotions of people on the day of the atrocities.
We purchased a cup of tea and sat in the square opposite the site, reflecting and watching as the work continues, before then heading on further down town to Wall Street and the NYSE (Stock Exchange). We walked along the small famous street and stood at the end admiring the massive stars and stripes flag draped across the front of the NYSE as business men darted in, out and around all the buildings, passing through the steam drifting up and out from the man-hole covers. We continued to the end of Wall Street and caught the subway under the East River across to the suburb of Brooklyn and stopped for a wander around Brooklyn Heights and to view Manhattan Island and Brooklyn Bridge from the east. We surfaced from the subway and Mark became increasingly amused by my 'breakfast mission' - to find him a deli serving Pastrami on Rye or in a toasted bagel. We found a deli, ordered a couple more teas and a Cinnamon and Raison toasted bagel with Pastrami (lots of filling, of course, the American way) and walked through the centre of Brooklyn Heights, a beautiful suburb with fantastic houses, and made our way to the boardwalk where we sat viewing Manhattan Island and ate the bagel (now brunch) - truly wonderful - and so darn tasty!
After meandering for a while, kicking through the Autumnal leaves, photographing the delightful ironwork balconies and the fire escapes on the apartment buildings and rating the various Halloween pumpkins in the large porches of the family houses, we made our way towards the footpath to Brooklyn Bridge. I had half expected to be precariously positioned on some small paved walkway and to be the only people crossing the bridge by foot, but was pleasantly surprised to find a boardwalk elevated above the centre of the road, bustling with people. We walked across the bridge back into Manhattan Island and made our way to South Street Sea Port and Pier 17, me stopping in Gap to pick up a body warmer. We ate a Clam Chowder soup for lunch sitting outside in the sun on Pier 17 listening to a band performing on the Pier. We then walked along South Street down to Battery Park and purchased tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We took the Circle ferry out to Liberty Island and walked around the perimeter: since 11th September 2001, visits to the top of the Statue have been banned so we caught the ferry back to Ellis Island, the island of Immigration into America. The main Immigration building and hall are beautiful - it is quite amazing to think that between 1892 and 1954, over 12 million people passed through its gates and over half the population of the United States of America can trace roots to this tiny island.
The Circle ferry took us back to Manhattan Island at dusk and we walked to the Staten Island ferry terminal and took the free ferry across to the island and back again so that we could view the city and the Statue of Liberty lit up. After once again returning to Manhattan Island, we took the subway back to the hotel, and then headed back out, again by subway, for dinner in a more quite Greenwich Village (no longer Halloween). We found a delightful little restaurant in an area very similar to Jericho in Oxford, had a delicious meal and were then rewarded with a couple of free drinks!
The following morning, we spent a couple of hours trying to sorting out 'real life' things, making bank transfers and trying to sort out the tenancy agreement for when we return home. We also booked ourselves into The Hudson Hotel on West 58th Street, a block off the south-west corner of Central Park and Columbus Circus - we were determined to finish our trip on a real high. We took a taxi to our new location and were very impressed - have a look: www.hudsonhotel.com and then walked across 58th to Broadway and found a great little cafe where Mark indulged in an enormous breakfast: bacon and maple syrup pancake(x3). Continuing down Broadway, we stopped to have some of my photos burnt on to a CD and at the same time somehow managed to purchase a magnetic wide angle lense for the digital camera. We then stopped off at the 'Rent' ticket office on 41st street to purchase tickets to the show on Broadway for later that evening. After this we were finally on our way and headed downtown by subway, this time for a walk around Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca by day. We were fortunate in having a further day of bright blue skies although the temperature was now certainly a few degrees cooler, which increased the stares at the flip flops and we occasionally received looks of total disbelief to the point that on the subway, a black 'dude' looked at me, laughed and called me 'crazy' before then staring at Mark and telling him through laughter that he was 'a crazy dude too' - on finding out we were from England, he mimicked a deep intake from a joint and said 'is it true that you guys can smoke wherever you want in your country?' - wow! - Americans truly have no idea about anything outside of their own country: nonetheless, it would seem that we were now crazy and cool... and Dutch?
Our walk around Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca was delightful. It is a trendy yet sophisticated area, somewhere we quite fancy staying when (not if) we come back to the city - it has so much to offer. We spent a couple of hours browsing around before luncheoning with a hot dog off a street vendor and then taking the subway back up to 34th Street. It was starting to get really quite cold, we were out of clean underwear and laundry was not an option so we visited Macy's departmental store and Gap to purchase some 'essentials'! We took the subway up to Grand Central Station on 42nd Street for a more thorough view of the interior and to have a quick nosey at the base of the Chrysler Building and then returned to our hotel to check in.
Having been blown away by the stylish lobby and various rooms/bars, we had high expectations for the room so were a little surprised when we checked into what felt like a ship's tiny cabin with wood panelled walls and a glass partition to the bathroom... great?! Nonetheless, it was elegantly furnished and we spent a little while relaxing before heading back out down Broadway to Times Square for dinner at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company. Mark being a huge fan of Forest Gump was really impressed by the restaurant and even though it was a chain, the level of food was pretty impressive, topped off with quirky deco and signage - a favourite of ours was a tin plate on the table showing ' Run Forest Run', which could be turned over to 'Stop Forest Stop' when you wanted service - all very effective! We enjoyed our meal and then walked down to 41st Street to the theatre to see 'Rent' on Broadway.
... And what a disappointment it was - I had seen it before in London and really enjoyed the show, but on this occasion, the band was too loud and that resulted in the actors either shouting or not making themselves heard at all and therefore neither Mark nor I followed the story line... on top of this, the air conditioning seemed to be set and stuck on absolutely freezing so by the intermission we were both quite miserable. After a short silence, we decided that the singing was ruining our sitting in the cold and we decided to leave... A cup of tea and a slice of traditional New York cheesecake seemed far more appealing somehow? After our delicious snack, we took a taxi back to our hotel (all sensation in our feet now gone... forever?) and decided to have a couple of drinks in the hotel bar to make the most of our last night and to reflect on the trip - we sat by an open fire and discussed what a great time we have had, how much we have seen and what a great privilege to have experienced everything we have come across - it truly has been a trip of a lifetime, one we will never forget.
The following morning, we again spent some time sorting through more 'real life' issues and then took the subway up to 82nd Street and took a walk around the upper west side, visiting Zabars, as recommended by two people from our tour in South-east Asia, and purchased Pastrami bagels and vegetable soup which we took and ate in Central Park. We sat in the sun on benches, the blue sky a perfect back drop to the autumnal colours of the leaves littered across the grass and the trees. After our lunch, we made our way passing the lake, to Bethesda fountain and terrace, Mark stopping for a Banana Crepe too! We walked on along the mall and down to the Wollman Ice rink where we stood and absorbed the views towards mid-town and The Essex and Plaza hotels on Central Park South.
We then made our way to Fifth Avenue and visited Trump tower where Mark, very proudly, 'trumped' in one of Donald's toilets. Our next stop was the Rockefeller Centre where we again had a quick look around and watched the skaters on the ice rink, before heading back up to 59th Street and our hotel to collect our bags and take a taxi to the airport. We were leaving earlier than planned as it was a Friday and people were already heading out of the city because the New York Marathon was on the Sunday, plus there were 37,000 people arriving to compete - plus the many supporters. Our driver decided to take an alternative route out of the city and so we embarked on a tour north, passing the Dakota Building, into Morning Side and through Harlem before finally leaving Manhattan Island and making our way across to JKF Airport. We embarked on the usual rigmarole involved in flying in/out of America and then boarded our 18th flight, the one taking us home.
........... So, That's all for now folks... until next time... which will definitely be very, very soon!
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