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Subway sardines

Posted on September 29, 2014 by John

Saturday. Last day in New York. Breakfast in the diner, pack the bag, check out and leave the bag at the hotel.

It’s pleasantly warm and sunny. We set off walking to the United Nations building which is on our street all the way East. We get almost there to find the roads blocked by temporary fencing guarded by lots of NYPD. One of the friendly cops guides us to where we can get a better view of the building, but we still can’t get very near. The problem is the climate conference, we think, with added lots and lots of foreign dignitaries. There are lots of flash cars all over the place with diplomatic plates.

We head for our next stop – the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This involves a trip uptown on the subway. We catch the subway at Grand Central Station but it is absolutely packed! People are friendly and helpful, but still more squeeze on at each stop! We pop out of the carriage at our stop and walk across Park Avenue to the Met.

The Met has a huge neoclassical facade with rows of massive columns. This is in dramatic contrast to the rows of tacky concession stands on the sidewalk outside selling all sorts of food – pizza, pretzels, hotdogs, gyros, bagels, fajitas, knishes, cornbread, chicken on rice – plus other stuff we’ve never heard of!

First stop is the new roof garden for a beer. It’s a lovely spot, covered in AstroTurf with some wisteria trailing over a pergola. The view over Central Park is great and the beer (Brooklyn Lager) very good. Refreshed, we tackle some of the interior. The place is massive, you could spend weeks here and still not see it all. Jan heads for the Pre-Raphaelites and I go for the arms and armour – just for a change from all those bloody pictures!

The collections are staggering – not just any old flintlocks, but Catherine the Great’s pearl inlaid pistols. Suits of armour belonging to European nobles, Mr Colt’s gold inlaid revolver he displayed at exhibitions, more swords than you could poke a stick at.

There’s stained glass from cathedrals from all over Europe, amazing statues and carvings. It looks like all the fabulously wealthy New Yorkers bought up all of Europe’s most precious art and gave it to the museum.

We also see some art in action – a display of lively and colourful Mexican traditional dancing in one of the massive open spaces.

We take the bus back down 5th avenue to the Algonquin to collect our bag and catch the shuttle to Newark airport. NY gridlock, a slow grind into and through the Lincoln Tunnel to the New Jersey Turnpike. The usual airport horror – queues for the check-in, queues for the security check. I have a full-body scan and get told off for leaving my wallet in my back pocket. The guy says “I’m sorry, I’m gonna have to pat down your butt.” And he does.

We sleep on the flight, grab a hire car at Heathrow and head off to Higham Ferrers. Merry England is lovely and sunny!

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All that jazz

Posted on September 27, 2014 by John

Lovely sunny day, another big breakfast in the diner next door. We have to step round cameras and crew who are making a film shoot in the hotel’s Blue Bar. There seem to be film shoots all over the place in NY. We hop on the subway to Central Park and hire a couple of bikes and set off to explore. Lots of people around. The circular road is one-way and is marked with lanes for cycling and for walking/jogging. We cross into the jogging lane while stopping to take a photo and get severely told off by an old lady for blocking her path!

There are few little hills in the park, but it’s an enjoyable trip. The park is huge. Lots of big trucks in one part as they set up a stage for an outdoor concert.

We hop on the subway again for a few stops up to the Guggenheim Museum. The building is fantastic (but smaller than I imagined!), but some of it is closed while they set up an exhibition. The art is good, more Picasso, Cezanne etc (yawn) and some interesting modern stuff.

We ride the bus back down Fifth Avenue home, a slow crawl through the afternoon traffic.

Later, it’s off to the subway, this time downtown to Greenwich Village and the Village Vanguard, a famous jazz club. It’s through a tiny door, then down stairs into a small basement room. The decor is dark, the walls covered in pictures of jazz greats. The music is from the Kirk Lightsey Quartet – piano, bass, drums and guitar. Great stuff. Kirk is pretty ancient but a terrific piano player.

Afterwards we head deeper into the village and find a street lined with restaurants. We plump for French. It’s noisy and crowded but the atmosphere is great and the food good. We get chatting to the young couple next to us. After we pay the bill, the waiter brings us glasses of champagne, very nice. Lots of champagne being drunk on the other tables. As the champagne is brought out, the waiter lights a little firework on the neck of the bottle and there is a big bright fizz! Truly fizzy wine.

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Art for art’s sake

Posted on September 26, 2014 by John

A wet day in New York. Breakfast is eggs, potato hash and bacon at the diner with toast, grape jelly and lots of coffee.

We walk to the Museum of Modern Art and join the long queue of damp people for entry. “Waiting in line” is well organised and the line moves quickly. We get a discount for being old. Then we join the line to check our backpack and umbrellas.

The art is worth the wait. Monet, Manet, Cezanne. Wall-to-wall Picasso. Rothko, Warhol, Man Ray. Lots of Lautrec posters. The lunch line is long, so we just grab a coffee to keep going. We take regular sit-down stops.

We head off for a late lunch at the famous Carnegie Deli. We go for the famous Reuben sandwich to share ($29) and a couple of beers. The sandwich is a huge pile of hot pastrami on bread covered with sauerkraut and melted cheese. The place is packed and we chat to the people next to us – two New Yorkers and a dad and daughter from Arizona.

We stagger back to the hotel. We stop on the way at the ticket booth in Times Square and get half-price tickets to This is our Youth.

A rest at the hotel, then change and walk the couple of blocks to the Cort Theatre, a charming old theatre near Broadway. The play is a (revived) comedy set in 1982 in New York about a couple of young guys and a girl, their love lives and their problems. It proves to be extremely funny. The young audience loves it and gets a few of the New York jokes that we don’t.

Big day. PS. Bought new camera Olympus OM-D EM10.

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NY NY What a wonderful town!

Posted on September 25, 2014 by John

We’re in New York, staying at the elegant Algonquin Hotel near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan.

The hotel opened in 1902, alongside the Harvard Club and Yale Club.
It’s known for hosting the Round Table of Vanity Fair writers and critics in the ’20s headed by Dorothy Parker. The hotel has some lovely Art Deco features inside.

Yesterday we wandered around the Times Square area and had a look around Grand Central Station, which is really grand!

Today we had breakfast in a diner. I had French toast with bacon and maple syrup (yum!) and Jan had an egg, tomato and bacon sandwich with fried potatoes.

We then took the subway down to Battery Park, then rode on the Staten Island ferry to get some views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. We had a look at Wall Street, wandered through TriBeCa, then walked along the High Line. The High Line used to be a raised rail track, but has now been turned into a linear park. It’s a great spot to get views looking down along the city streets.

There are lots of NYPD around as President Obama is in town at the UN climate change conference. The traffic is crazy, not sure if that’s the usual NY traffic or made worse by all the visiting dignitaries.

It’s great to be in a place that has become familiar from novels, TV and films over the years. Now we know what uptown and downtown really mean!

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England, merry England

Posted on September 21, 2014 by John

We’ve been having a good time in England – and with some good weather!
I’ve not been able to blog for a while because of limited access to the web, but now we’re at Steve and Ginny’s place with excellent wifi.

Jan’s mum Muriel is in good form and has been very hospitable as usual. We’ve been making plans for her 90th birthday in a couple of weeks.

We had a lovely lunch with Bob and Julie at their place, we’ve met Geraldine and Diana and we took them down to the pub.

Our days at the Mill House in Norfolk have been like an adventure holiday! I’ve played golf and cycled, Jan has been horse riding and we’ve all been for a walk.

Golf was good at Elton Furze – a lovely green English course with nice wide fairways. It was a cloudy grey day, but we were rained upon only once. We all played well and I didn’t disgrace myself. I had some excellent drives and approach shots and some reasonable puts. Steve scored and gave me a handicap of 28 – he and Bernard both beat me, but not by a lot.

The next day Steve offered me the use of his second road racer bike to go for a two-hour ride. He fitted me out with all the right riding gear, including the important padded shorts. The bike is a lovely carbon fibre lightweight job. I had to get used to the clip-in shoes which were strange at first, but then quite manageable.

I’ll let you into a secret – Norfolk is NOT FLAT! There are hills, lots of little hills. I managed all the hills except one where I had to dismount and push. We cycled 21 miles through Willsthorpe, Manthorpe, Witham-on-the-Hill (I told you!) Little Bytham, Careby, Holywell, Clipsham, Greetham, Exton, ending up at Barnsdale Gardens.

Very enjoyable. My legs were a bit wobbly at the end, but I survived. Jan and Ginny came in the Land Rover to pick us up and we drove to Rutland Water to have a little walk. Lots of geese and ducks and swans there.