Wednesday, June 25, 2008

United Nations


I always have always been interested in the Food Network, especially shows like the Iron Chef. (the chef in the picture is Bobby Flaychuk). Today we walked to Chelsea Market to see the filming studios and found that next year's shows are already being filmed so tours were not welcome. Regardless, the Chelsea Market was worth the time as it is located in a refurbished bakery and now houses many speciality food stores.


Our next destination was the United Nations Complex and along the way we saw a typical New York happening - someone opened the fire hydrant. Two city workers were standing there watching so there must have been a good reason.


We also took a stroll down the section of the city called Diamond Row with its many Jewish diamond shops. They control this part of the city with their wealth and prestige. Most of the baby strollers were being manned by Hispanic nannies, with the mother and father out of sight.


We thought the United Nations area was another unique section of the city. Throughout Manhattan one often hears different languages being spoken, but as we got closer to the complex we could hear a multitude of foreign languages. It was a very interesting area with lot of security surrounding it.




The last two pictures were taken close to home. The Molly Wee Irish Pub was a common rest stop before going into our small and cramped room. We would watch the soccer playoffs with the some locals before heading home at 5:00 to rest and recuperate for tomorrow's walk. The tall buildings show the view from our 12th story room.

Usually the noise in the evenings is tolerable, but because we are located so close to Madison Square Garden, the last two nights have been extremely busy and loud [Coldplay has been performing].

Our flight is scheduled for 4:00 tomorrow so we are running out of time to see everything we want to. We missed the NY Mets, a Broadway show and Hell's Gate Flea Market, but otherwise we have seen much of Manhattan and some of the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Park Avenue to the Bronx



After a quick stop on Park Avenue to see how another Kennedy [Jackie] lived, we moved on to spend the day in the Bronx. We had a little trouble figuring out the subway system to the area we wanted to see, but eventually we were able to work it out. We had to walk through some questionable parts of the Bronx and could not help but make comparisons to Park Avenue.

We made the trek to the Belmont area of the Bronx to see the new "Little Italy". The old Italian district in Manhattan is being taken over by Chinatown and we were hungry for a traditional Italian meal.





The area was small but it contained many restaurants, cheese stores, bakeries and Italian meat markets. They even have their own cigar companies so we spent time watching the people hand roll the cigars to what we thought was perfection.

We wandered around the Belmont area before starting the 50 minute subway ride back to Penn Station. What was supposed to be an easy day was anything but. It's a long way from Upper Manhattan to the Bronx, both distance wise and economically. It made for a stressful day looking at some of the living conditions surrounding the Belmont area.

Tribeca


Yesterday we were on a mission to find where JFK Jr. had lived and this search took us to the Tribeca area in lower Manhattan, just north of 'Ground Zero'. JFK lived in Tribeca and while looking for his apartment we met a former NYC police officer who knew Kennedy. The tall building in the above picture shows where his apartment was located.

This ex-police officer is now head of security for Robert De Niro's holdings in Tribeca and he gave us a lot of information we would have otherwise not have heard (such as where other celebrities live in the area) and their personalities. He also arranged for us to have a tour of De Niro's new hotel and restaurant - we did just that! Very nice and very expensive.

This gentlemen was also very heavily involved with the aftermath of 9/11. He told us that the Twin Towers blocked the wind that blew off the Hudson River and when the buildings went down the wind was sucked up Greenwich Street thus creating the picture that showed people running from a cloud of ash.


We had a very enjoyable hour with him before starting the long walk back to Chelsea and our hotel. We made a point of checking out the Chelsea Hotel that inspired Joni Mitchell in her song "Chelsea Morning". The hotel was also often used by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and many other performers.

We walked through Greenwich Village and Soho before heading to the Empire State Building. Our hotel is located just minutes from this famous building, but we hadn't bothered to check it up close. We were sorry we tried as it is impossible to see anything but a big, square block from the streets around it. It is only impressive from a distance.


Nearby, we saw some unusual activities such as the restaurant worker bringing in the supper preparations from the street.


After seven hours walking the streets of Manhattan, we had to break down and eat as New Yorkers do - have a soft pretzel on the street.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Central Park







We knew today was going to be a tough walking day so we braced ourselves and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived home in fairly good shape. We caught a subway to half way up the west side of Central Park and walked through what I always believed to be a relatively dangerous part of New York (TV shows do have an influence on attitudes).

Central Park is something special in a concrete city, especially on a Sunday. It is nothing like we see on TV, except for one or two parts that tourists are advised to stay away from after dusk. We watched kids on a carousel, softball games, families enjoying a picnic, hundreds of bikers and joggers, horse-drawn carriages and countless dogs.

We showed our age (along with other Baby Boomers), when we made a pilgrimage to the Dakota Building where John Lennon was killed. The second picture is a front view of the apartment.

Besides the glitter and glitz of Park Avenue and 5th Avenue, we spent a lot of time on Madison Avenue before moving on to Broadway and the Theatre District. New York has always been called a city of cultural diversity and we saw that and more today. We have yet to convince ourselves to go to a Broadway show, even though I guess we can say we saw a show yesterday when we went to see the Yankees. That was a show in itself!

The skyline of New York is impressive and hard to believe, but ground level 5th Avenue is somewhere beyond that. We went to the top of the Rockefeller Centre and had an excellent view of the city limits and more. Fred was far more adventurous than I was on this excursion, but that was okay with me.

We walked from Central Park North all the way back to our hotel and were ready for a break. We stopped at a well-known Irish pub for a 'wee one' and wings.

Again, I have to say that it was a great day with lots of walking, great weather, friendly people and super sightseeing.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Yankee Stadium




Yankee Stadium was rocking today as the crowd was loud and full of energy. The subway system in New York can sometimes be confusing, but today all we had to do was follow the dark blue T shirts.

The stadium is old and the inside tunnels are small, narrow and dark. History aside, I can see why the Yankees are moving to a new park. It was an experience I would not have wanted to miss, especially watching the people and making comparisons to the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The crowd is very polite in Toronto and the stadium allows movement between innings. Here, the crowd loudly supports its team and, just as loudly, they harass the opposition.

We had made a decision long ago to have a Yankee beer, along with a Yankee hot dog, no matter the cost, but we were blown away by the $8.50 cost of a beer and could not force ourselves to try the $6.50 hot dog.

The game itself was incidental and kind of boring, but the stadium and the crowd were well worth the visit. Even so, the ride home may have been the most exciting part of the day as the subways were jammed and we had to squeeze in hoping that the doors would not close on us. We were almost home when the 'D' train (express) was forced to stop while the police tended to an obstinate rider a few cars back. We saw the 'A' train pull up on the opposite platform so we ran to catch that ride home - making it look like we really know how the New York subway system works.

All in all - a great day.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Little Italy



Another day on our feet! We bought a 7 day unlimited subway pass, but we still do an enormous amount of walking. Today we took the 'E' Train to lower Manhattan and wound our way back to the hotel. In the meantime, we toured Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side and eventually took a stroll down Park and 5th Avenues. The change in lifestyles is very noticeable with homeless people very prominent in the Chinatown area and nothing but "bling" on 5th Avenue.

We stopped for a bite to eat at Katz's Deli which was made famous by the much talked about scene from "When Harry Met Sally". I actually talked with Mr. Katz and he assured me that the deli was famous long before the movie was filmed there.

We feel a little sheepish about our evenings, but we have stuck with habits that have served us best over the years. We eat a mid-afternoon meal at a restaurant or tavern recommended in travel journals, and then head home around 5:00. We eat a late snack of bagels and peanut butter in our room and call it a day. The bright lights of New York and Broadway have no appeal as of yet.

I am so excited about tomorrow's visit to Yankee Stadium! I feel like I have been waiting my whole life to see this park and I can hardly wait - just like a kid on Christmas Eve. The game starts at 1:05, but I have 'suggested' to Fred that we have to be there by 10:30 so I can tour the 'House That Ruth Built'.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Financial District




We are staying in Manhattan and our hotel is located two blocks from the Empire State Building so we have used that as our reference point. We are only one block from Madison Square Gardens and Penn Station so catching the subway was an easy chore this morning. We took the subway to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge and walked back to tour lower Manhattan.

We visited the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers and were amazed by the void left behind. The area looks much like any ordinary construction site, but when they are finished construction it will be interesting to see. The buildings in this part of New York are situated so close to each other that from a distance it looks like one mass. It is not too hard to imagine the panic that must have set in on 9/11 because of the location of the towers. There was actually no place for the people on the ground to flee to - water not far away and nothing but tall buildings surrounding them.

We saw nothing but suits and power lunches on Wall Street. Since 9/11, visitors have not been able to tour the Stock Exchange - in fact, nobody can get very close to the building as it is blocked off.

We walked for what seemed like miles and ended up at the Staten Island ferry terminal in time to take the ferry past the Statue of Liberty. If you take a different ferry you can tour the statue and Ellis Island, but the line to obtain these tickets was blocks long.

We ended today's tour with a walk through some historical areas of lower Manhattan and had an early supper on Stone Street, not far from where George Washington bid farewell to his troops. The weather was fabulous so we were able to eat outside and people watch.

Visit in Waterloo



On Monday, June 16th, Fred and I flew to Toronto, rented a car and headed to Waterloo for a visit with Regan, Jeff and Mason. We spent a very comfortable two days with the family and thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted with Mason. Both Jeff and Regan took time off work to be with us and we appreciated that very much.

Our Wednesday flight to New York was at 11:15 am and to make things easier for us we left Waterloo at 7:15. Thank goodness we left early as we got caught in a major traffic jam and made it to the airport with not much time to spare. We had to jump off the 401 and travel the back roads through Brampton to get away from the backlog of cars.

The flight to New York was comfortable and pretty much on time. We landed in La Guardia and were not prepared for the small and cramped airport. I guess we assumed any airport handling that many people would be big and modern.

Our first impressions of New York were formed from the back seat of a taxi - it is big, crowded, dirty and extremely busy. We were delayed getting into our room so we didn't do much other than get our bearings around our hotel.