So we have survived our first week in New York. No caps in our arse. No nights spent shivering at the end of the wrong line on the Subway.
We arrived in New York late on Tuesday night after a sleepless night and an exhausting day’s travel from Vancouver. The first thing we did was to order in room service, which came direct to our hotel room door from a local Chinese restaurant at 11:30pm. Such flavour. Such massive portions. The meal kept us sated for a couple of days. Which was necessary because we spent our first day in New York holed up in our hotel bunker recovering from travel trauma. But our hotel room, at Country Inn and Suites just over the Queensboro Bridge in Queens, was a great bunker for us.
The next day we emerged and walked into Manhattan. An exciting walk across the Queensboro Bridge and then we started walking downtown on First Avenue. And of course, the first attraction we visited was ….. a cheese shop. After that, the visit to the UN came as a little of a disappointment. The informative tour, the overwhelming sense of importance and a little bit of awe was dwarfed by the smell of cheese wafting out of our backpack.
We arrived in New York late on Tuesday night after a sleepless night and an exhausting day’s travel from Vancouver. The first thing we did was to order in room service, which came direct to our hotel room door from a local Chinese restaurant at 11:30pm. Such flavour. Such massive portions. The meal kept us sated for a couple of days. Which was necessary because we spent our first day in New York holed up in our hotel bunker recovering from travel trauma. But our hotel room, at Country Inn and Suites just over the Queensboro Bridge in Queens, was a great bunker for us.
The next day we emerged and walked into Manhattan. An exciting walk across the Queensboro Bridge and then we started walking downtown on First Avenue. And of course, the first attraction we visited was ….. a cheese shop. After that, the visit to the UN came as a little of a disappointment. The informative tour, the overwhelming sense of importance and a little bit of awe was dwarfed by the smell of cheese wafting out of our backpack.
We continued to walk downtown, stopping only for a lunchtime pizza. Eventually we found ourselves in downtown Manhattan and on a ferry to Staten Island. We visited the Staten Island museum. Take our advice – NEVER VISIT THE STATEN ISLAND MUSEUM. The $3 entry fee was overpriced, and would have been better spent on cheese. On returning to Manhattan we stumbled upon the famous raging bull on Beaver and Broadway and then fell into the subway for the ride home. On returning home we calculated that we had walked about 16km that day.
This started a bad pattern of emerging from our hotel bunker for a day and night exploring New York and then spending a day in our hotel room recovering. My Ra Ra Vee and a nasty cold that Cassy picked up on public transport somewhere kept us hotel bound the next day.
This started a bad pattern of emerging from our hotel bunker for a day and night exploring New York and then spending a day in our hotel room recovering. My Ra Ra Vee and a nasty cold that Cassy picked up on public transport somewhere kept us hotel bound the next day.
Saturday we picked up on the tourist fever. We did a double on the museums, the Metropolitan Museum in the morning and the Guggenheim in the afternoon. The Met is overwhelming and massive. We wandered through taking in Degas, di Chirico, Picasso, Dali, Rockwell, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Japan … Slightly tired and a little overwhelmed, having only seen about a quarter of the exhibits, we fell into the gift shop. A purchase of Van Gogh fridge magnets made us realize that we had missed the impressionists and it was back into the museum to hunt out old one ear and his friends Manet, Monet and much much more.
The Guggenheim is an amazing Frank Lloyd Wright designed building with works of art from 1910-1918. Kaminsky was an obvious favourite of the Guggenheims but Picasso featured heavily along with Simon’s old friend di Chirico. After climbing the spiral we vowed never again to attempt two museums in one day.
The Guggenheim is an amazing Frank Lloyd Wright designed building with works of art from 1910-1918. Kaminsky was an obvious favourite of the Guggenheims but Picasso featured heavily along with Simon’s old friend di Chirico. After climbing the spiral we vowed never again to attempt two museums in one day.
We headed back to Queens and out to dinner at a local Thai recommended by an I-Phone app we had downloaded. Armhan Thai was amazing. We enjoyed three beers over dinner, and feeling like it was too early to turn in, we looked around for a bar. We found Veronica’s, a small suburban bar filled with a mix of “middle American” men. And our night ramped up a gear. As soon as our Australianness was uncovered, and Cassy revealed her dancing technique, we became favourites of the bar. Cassy received two marriage proposals whilst I lapped up travel hints from the locals. We stumbled out of the bar sometime after 2am and played hide and seek on the way home. Cassy won when she curled herself up in a ball amongst bags of trash down a driveway.
Thus continued our habit of one day in Manhattan and one day in our room as we recovered from the big night out. We just can’t cut it anymore as Saturday night party people. Another lazy Sunday followed.
Thus continued our habit of one day in Manhattan and one day in our room as we recovered from the big night out. We just can’t cut it anymore as Saturday night party people. Another lazy Sunday followed.
Monday was another day out. After our 16km walk on our first day in Manhattan we had decided to catch the subway into “town” each day. We have found the subway system fairly simple to navigate, thanks largely to the simply designed subway map. It is world famous as the best designed subway map in the world, although the ease of its design is partly due to the rigid grid street pattern throughout Manhattan. But I digress, and my nerdiness shows!
We took the Circle Line ferry around the bottom half of Manhattan Island, seeing the Brooklyn –Manhattan - Washington bridges, the Statue of Liberty and all the buildings and areas of town. We lunched in Hell’s Kitchen at a local diner and then went to the American Museum of Natural History. Another enormous museum which rivaled the Metropolitan Museum of Art for size and breadth of collection. The highlight of this visit was standing near the entry of the evolution display and listening to the intergenerational invective as families debated the merits and otherwise of evolution. Loudly. Suffice to say that there was a distinct correlation between the loudness of the voice opposing evolution and the lack of interest in learning anything about evolution. Ignorance is bliss.
We took the Circle Line ferry around the bottom half of Manhattan Island, seeing the Brooklyn –Manhattan - Washington bridges, the Statue of Liberty and all the buildings and areas of town. We lunched in Hell’s Kitchen at a local diner and then went to the American Museum of Natural History. Another enormous museum which rivaled the Metropolitan Museum of Art for size and breadth of collection. The highlight of this visit was standing near the entry of the evolution display and listening to the intergenerational invective as families debated the merits and otherwise of evolution. Loudly. Suffice to say that there was a distinct correlation between the loudness of the voice opposing evolution and the lack of interest in learning anything about evolution. Ignorance is bliss.
We had enough time to hurry home and get changed for our first cultural night on the town. We had tickets to Romeo and Juliet at the Metropolitan Opera. It was my first opera and may well be my last. Not because I didn’t enjoy the show – it was amazing! We had tickets on the balcony with an awesome view of the stage, which was framed perfectly before us. The opera was in French which allowed me to practice my translation skills, aided by the actual translation which scrolled before us on tiny screens set into the back of the row of seats in front of us. But obviously it was the spectacle that impressed me most. Stunningly designed and coordinated sets and costumes. Amazing movement and voices. And a gorgeous orchestral arrangement expertly conducted by Placido Domingo. The reason that I may never return to the opera is that I doubt I will ever see an opera this good again. Amongst many highlights, this stands out as a wonderful show and an amazing feeling to be with my beautiful lady at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
