New York
Wow! Up to now I thought we had been really pushing ourselves each day, but New York has SO much to do that we had a fantastic week, and collapsed late at the end of each day, to start the next one early!
We arrived very late, with the time difference it was something like 4am and there was a very long line at immigration (and we were at the end). It was all straight forward though and our taxi driver made good time, but was pissed off when I gave him $50 for a $49 ride (it was all I had). No tips? he asked.
The Sofitel on 45 West 44th is a fantastic hotel. So nice, quiet, comfortable with wonderful furnishings but not overdone in any way. Our room was large and we greedily sought out the solace of the bed. Surprisingly, we woke at 7am (we had gotten to bed at 2am local time) and we were raring to go! I thought I'd sent Laci and Marilyn an email from Munich (later found it had bounced) and so I thought they would contact me, and we set out.
We managed to change some money (not an easy thing to do at a bank in NY), discovered the difference between UpTown and Downtown and where East and West separated at 5th Avenue. We visited Times Square and ooh-ed and aahh-ed at the electronic signs and thousands of people. We walked up to the Rockerfeller Centre, explored the shops, had a coffee at Dean and Deluca and went up the top of the Centre (called Top of the Rock) which I'd recommend as we had a 360 degree view of NY just by turning around in the one spot. Also the ascent is amazing as the elevator has a clear ceiling and you watch lights wizz by as you go to the 67th floor. We had a choc fix at La Maison du Chocolate and caught the subway to 86th and Lexington to walk the few blocks to the Guggenheim museum. We saw a pioneer architect and her designs (Zaha Hadid) and some Jackson Pollock. I love the inside of the Guggenheim itself, the rest was just a bonus! We thought of Kadty and picked up a brochure for her.
We then walked around the big reservoir in Central Park and over to the other side we worked our way down to the south and visited Strawberry Fields and the nearby Dakota Hoel/appartments where John Lennon was shot. There were hundreds of people in an area called The Sheep Paddock in Central Park, and it was quite relaxing, but a little warm. We then walked down 5th Avenue, passed all the big shop names of Gucci (thought of Rudi), Louis Vitton, Tiffanys and much more. Called in to Tiffanys to look at a new design range by the architect Frank Gehry.
Back at the hotel, I rang Eve who rang Alex and finally I got on to Marilyn who had been waiting to hear from us. I had not received the two messages that Laci had left at the hotel either. Still, we were now in contact, and would spend tomorrow together. It hadn't helped that we had changed rooms from the night before!
We had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant which was OK (the waiter was from Perth), and visited Times Square by night before getting back to the hotel after 11pm.
Phew, and that was just the first day!
Next day we got going by 8am and walked to Grand Central Station and looked at the food markets there which were like a huge food hall or deli (no lama). Eva checked out some shops as did I (me-food, Eva-clothes) and we called in the Grand Hyatt and the Rockerfeller Centre before being picked up at our hotel by Laci at 11. It was SO good to see him, and we spent the whole day and evening together. Marilyn had sussed out the best plays in NY and had given us discount vouchers, so we went and got tickets for "The Faith Healer" with Ralph Fiennes and the british play "The History Boys".
We headed down to the Lower East side in Laci's 2 week old BMW 5 series and went for an ealy lunch at Katz Deli. This is where the orgasm scene for When Harry met Sally was filmed, and the place was packed! The 2 HUGE pastrami rolls we got were too much for the 3 of us, and it was such fun there. We called into a pickle place and a bially place (bially is like a bagel with the hole filled with onion paste). We called in at the Temple Emanuel which is the second largest synagogue in the world (the largest being in Budapest), but the main hall was being renovated. We saw the museum and a smaller chapel. We then went to the huge and ornate St John's church which was MASSIVE. It was being renovated too, and more than half of its 600 foot length was cordened off, but it still was amazing - and so high too. I must admit, I prefer the restrained setting that synagogues have as a place of worship, but maybe this blog is not the place for religeous debate. It was good to see St John's. Opposite was something even better - a hungarian pastry shop. Laci bought the shop out and we then went on to see the labs and buildings at Mt Sianai Hospital where Laci is the director of the labs there. It was amazing. The scale, automation, tracking and testing that goes on there was absolutely fascinating! I had seen his lab 30 years before, and it was interesting to see how much it had scaled up. We also saw a new hospital building designed by a chinese-american who made it so that the patients could get lots of light either from outside or an atrium. We then drove to Laci and Marilyn's home at Port Chester but called in to their local synagogue. It was the most amazing synagogue I have ever seen. It was 30 years old (I think) but look time independent. It was so modern and light with a lovely view out the back where the congregation looked. The high timer ceilings set of the modern setting for the Torah beautifully. It was a nice feeling to have been there thinking of when my mother and Aunt had come there for Paul's Bar Mitzva. After meeting Marilyn at a nearby restaurant and catching up with her, we went back to their place for some hungarian cakes and then Laci drove us home. We were so grateful that they had spent so much time with us, especially since they were going to Baltimore the next day. Thanks Laci and Marilyn!!
I really better speed up with what we've done, but New York just goes on and on and on (bit like me).
We started out early the next day (Thursday 29th) and caught the suway down to the World Trade Centre and saw Wall St and surrounds before waiting in the queues to get on the boat to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We didn't get off the boat to see the Statue of Liberty, but the immigration Museum at Ellis Is was fantastic. The audio tour was what made it - the voices of actual immigrants telling you stories as you looked at the rooms where they were examined etc. It was good seeing the NY skyline too as we went back to Battery Park. We then walked back through Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa areas and then all the way up Broadway back to Times Square. We had a break along the way at a wine bar, spent time chatting to a gay guy near the Village, bought umbrellas to keep off the thunderstorm and had a good time. The Flatiron (wedge shaped) building was so unusual - knife thin at one end and then "normal" at the other. We also called in to a huge Dean and Deluca gourmet foods and bought some dried fruits to eat (they had TONS to choose from). We got back to the hotel at 9pm and went out to a fantastic Japanese restaurant for dinner. I was stuffed by the time I went to bed at midnight!
Friday, up at 7am - breakfast at the "diner-styled" Red Flame diner nearby and off to spend a few hours at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). They had an exhibition on DAD and that, along with their normal exhibitions were amazing. The range of artists was fantastic, the best collection (in the one place) I've seen. And the building itself was amazing - great use of internal space. The audio was nowhere near as good as that on Ellis Is, but helped.
We ate at the bar/restaurant there, browsed at the MoMA shop then headed for Columbus Circle at the south west tip of Central Park to look at the food court and shops at the Time-Warner building. I bought some sushi and cherries and bread for dinner back at the hotel, which we had and then went to see The Faith Healer. It was quite a show. There were 3 actors and each gave a 30 minute monologue and then Ralph Fiennes gave another 30 minutes. I found it a little heavy and although I thought the performances were excellent, I thought the directing could have been better to keep me better focused (maybe it was just me). We enjoyed it very much - never seen anything like it before.
Saturday - shopping day!! Eva went shopping for 6 hours and I went walkabout. I revisited Greenwich Village, Little Italy, more dried fruit at Dean and Deluca, Empire State Building (didn't go up), Madison Square Garden, Penn Station. I had a couple of coffees and a couple of beers in two bars as I watched some of the Brazil vs France soccer game with very pro-Brazil fans.
I walked back up all the way and we went out to dinner at Sardi's (no famous people there beside us) and then went to see "The History Boys" which I really enjoyed. The theatres here all have an infra-red hearin system and I used that in the second half and it was fabulous!
Sunday our last full day, and we were getting a little touristed out. I went over to 9th Av and W 34th St to the huge camera and video store B&H. It is run by orthodox jews and they are closed on Saturdays (which I found out yesterday, and remembered Alex telling me that!). They had an amazing range (got a cattle-dog) and when you buy something, they put it in a bag and attach it to a conveyer belt that takes it via the ceiling to the checkout place where you pay and pickup. Caught the subway back to 5th Av and 50th and walked to Columbus Circle to meet Eva in the Warner building. Had coffee on the 4th floor looking out over a huge internal space over to Columbus Circle itself. Very relaxing and cool - it was SO hot outside.
Eva had bought tickets to see Chicago and had managed to get seats in the 8th row in the middle. We are going tonigh for our last thing in NY. We leave tomorrow around 9am from out hotel to fly to Monreal and see Miri and Robi. I'm so looking forward to that.
More later, and maybe photos too.
We've had a fabulous time, and I'm sure I've left out heaps that we did. It has been hard keeping up my diary (which is now 200 pages long) and the blog. I will update again from Montreal.
We arrived very late, with the time difference it was something like 4am and there was a very long line at immigration (and we were at the end). It was all straight forward though and our taxi driver made good time, but was pissed off when I gave him $50 for a $49 ride (it was all I had). No tips? he asked.
The Sofitel on 45 West 44th is a fantastic hotel. So nice, quiet, comfortable with wonderful furnishings but not overdone in any way. Our room was large and we greedily sought out the solace of the bed. Surprisingly, we woke at 7am (we had gotten to bed at 2am local time) and we were raring to go! I thought I'd sent Laci and Marilyn an email from Munich (later found it had bounced) and so I thought they would contact me, and we set out.
We managed to change some money (not an easy thing to do at a bank in NY), discovered the difference between UpTown and Downtown and where East and West separated at 5th Avenue. We visited Times Square and ooh-ed and aahh-ed at the electronic signs and thousands of people. We walked up to the Rockerfeller Centre, explored the shops, had a coffee at Dean and Deluca and went up the top of the Centre (called Top of the Rock) which I'd recommend as we had a 360 degree view of NY just by turning around in the one spot. Also the ascent is amazing as the elevator has a clear ceiling and you watch lights wizz by as you go to the 67th floor. We had a choc fix at La Maison du Chocolate and caught the subway to 86th and Lexington to walk the few blocks to the Guggenheim museum. We saw a pioneer architect and her designs (Zaha Hadid) and some Jackson Pollock. I love the inside of the Guggenheim itself, the rest was just a bonus! We thought of Kadty and picked up a brochure for her.
We then walked around the big reservoir in Central Park and over to the other side we worked our way down to the south and visited Strawberry Fields and the nearby Dakota Hoel/appartments where John Lennon was shot. There were hundreds of people in an area called The Sheep Paddock in Central Park, and it was quite relaxing, but a little warm. We then walked down 5th Avenue, passed all the big shop names of Gucci (thought of Rudi), Louis Vitton, Tiffanys and much more. Called in to Tiffanys to look at a new design range by the architect Frank Gehry.
Back at the hotel, I rang Eve who rang Alex and finally I got on to Marilyn who had been waiting to hear from us. I had not received the two messages that Laci had left at the hotel either. Still, we were now in contact, and would spend tomorrow together. It hadn't helped that we had changed rooms from the night before!
We had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant which was OK (the waiter was from Perth), and visited Times Square by night before getting back to the hotel after 11pm.
Phew, and that was just the first day!
Next day we got going by 8am and walked to Grand Central Station and looked at the food markets there which were like a huge food hall or deli (no lama). Eva checked out some shops as did I (me-food, Eva-clothes) and we called in the Grand Hyatt and the Rockerfeller Centre before being picked up at our hotel by Laci at 11. It was SO good to see him, and we spent the whole day and evening together. Marilyn had sussed out the best plays in NY and had given us discount vouchers, so we went and got tickets for "The Faith Healer" with Ralph Fiennes and the british play "The History Boys".
We headed down to the Lower East side in Laci's 2 week old BMW 5 series and went for an ealy lunch at Katz Deli. This is where the orgasm scene for When Harry met Sally was filmed, and the place was packed! The 2 HUGE pastrami rolls we got were too much for the 3 of us, and it was such fun there. We called into a pickle place and a bially place (bially is like a bagel with the hole filled with onion paste). We called in at the Temple Emanuel which is the second largest synagogue in the world (the largest being in Budapest), but the main hall was being renovated. We saw the museum and a smaller chapel. We then went to the huge and ornate St John's church which was MASSIVE. It was being renovated too, and more than half of its 600 foot length was cordened off, but it still was amazing - and so high too. I must admit, I prefer the restrained setting that synagogues have as a place of worship, but maybe this blog is not the place for religeous debate. It was good to see St John's. Opposite was something even better - a hungarian pastry shop. Laci bought the shop out and we then went on to see the labs and buildings at Mt Sianai Hospital where Laci is the director of the labs there. It was amazing. The scale, automation, tracking and testing that goes on there was absolutely fascinating! I had seen his lab 30 years before, and it was interesting to see how much it had scaled up. We also saw a new hospital building designed by a chinese-american who made it so that the patients could get lots of light either from outside or an atrium. We then drove to Laci and Marilyn's home at Port Chester but called in to their local synagogue. It was the most amazing synagogue I have ever seen. It was 30 years old (I think) but look time independent. It was so modern and light with a lovely view out the back where the congregation looked. The high timer ceilings set of the modern setting for the Torah beautifully. It was a nice feeling to have been there thinking of when my mother and Aunt had come there for Paul's Bar Mitzva. After meeting Marilyn at a nearby restaurant and catching up with her, we went back to their place for some hungarian cakes and then Laci drove us home. We were so grateful that they had spent so much time with us, especially since they were going to Baltimore the next day. Thanks Laci and Marilyn!!
I really better speed up with what we've done, but New York just goes on and on and on (bit like me).
We started out early the next day (Thursday 29th) and caught the suway down to the World Trade Centre and saw Wall St and surrounds before waiting in the queues to get on the boat to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We didn't get off the boat to see the Statue of Liberty, but the immigration Museum at Ellis Is was fantastic. The audio tour was what made it - the voices of actual immigrants telling you stories as you looked at the rooms where they were examined etc. It was good seeing the NY skyline too as we went back to Battery Park. We then walked back through Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa areas and then all the way up Broadway back to Times Square. We had a break along the way at a wine bar, spent time chatting to a gay guy near the Village, bought umbrellas to keep off the thunderstorm and had a good time. The Flatiron (wedge shaped) building was so unusual - knife thin at one end and then "normal" at the other. We also called in to a huge Dean and Deluca gourmet foods and bought some dried fruits to eat (they had TONS to choose from). We got back to the hotel at 9pm and went out to a fantastic Japanese restaurant for dinner. I was stuffed by the time I went to bed at midnight!
Friday, up at 7am - breakfast at the "diner-styled" Red Flame diner nearby and off to spend a few hours at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). They had an exhibition on DAD and that, along with their normal exhibitions were amazing. The range of artists was fantastic, the best collection (in the one place) I've seen. And the building itself was amazing - great use of internal space. The audio was nowhere near as good as that on Ellis Is, but helped.
We ate at the bar/restaurant there, browsed at the MoMA shop then headed for Columbus Circle at the south west tip of Central Park to look at the food court and shops at the Time-Warner building. I bought some sushi and cherries and bread for dinner back at the hotel, which we had and then went to see The Faith Healer. It was quite a show. There were 3 actors and each gave a 30 minute monologue and then Ralph Fiennes gave another 30 minutes. I found it a little heavy and although I thought the performances were excellent, I thought the directing could have been better to keep me better focused (maybe it was just me). We enjoyed it very much - never seen anything like it before.
Saturday - shopping day!! Eva went shopping for 6 hours and I went walkabout. I revisited Greenwich Village, Little Italy, more dried fruit at Dean and Deluca, Empire State Building (didn't go up), Madison Square Garden, Penn Station. I had a couple of coffees and a couple of beers in two bars as I watched some of the Brazil vs France soccer game with very pro-Brazil fans.
I walked back up all the way and we went out to dinner at Sardi's (no famous people there beside us) and then went to see "The History Boys" which I really enjoyed. The theatres here all have an infra-red hearin system and I used that in the second half and it was fabulous!
Sunday our last full day, and we were getting a little touristed out. I went over to 9th Av and W 34th St to the huge camera and video store B&H. It is run by orthodox jews and they are closed on Saturdays (which I found out yesterday, and remembered Alex telling me that!). They had an amazing range (got a cattle-dog) and when you buy something, they put it in a bag and attach it to a conveyer belt that takes it via the ceiling to the checkout place where you pay and pickup. Caught the subway back to 5th Av and 50th and walked to Columbus Circle to meet Eva in the Warner building. Had coffee on the 4th floor looking out over a huge internal space over to Columbus Circle itself. Very relaxing and cool - it was SO hot outside.
Eva had bought tickets to see Chicago and had managed to get seats in the 8th row in the middle. We are going tonigh for our last thing in NY. We leave tomorrow around 9am from out hotel to fly to Monreal and see Miri and Robi. I'm so looking forward to that.
More later, and maybe photos too.
We've had a fabulous time, and I'm sure I've left out heaps that we did. It has been hard keeping up my diary (which is now 200 pages long) and the blog. I will update again from Montreal.
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