New York, The Met, The Blue Man and 10,000 Ibs of Pastrami

CRAIG WRITES;

22/06/13 We finally arrived in New York after a five hour drive from New England. Longer than we expected but we did spend an hour or so in New Haven, the home of Yale University. Established in 1701, it is one off the eight famous Ivy League schools in America and the second oldest behind Harvard, est 1638. The town centre where we stopped for lunch had a movie set feel to it. Very tidy and neat with lots of very clean cut Yale types wandering around. Magnificent buildings, centuries old, standing regal and with a reverence that comes with being one of the older bastions of learning.  There are shops here that sell nothing that doesn't have the Yale Blue Bulldog mascot or the word, Yale, emblazoned on it.

We dropped the car back, complete with drivers wing mirror taped back in position courtesy of a run in with a tree in our drive way back at Dartmouth, and caught a taxi to our apartment in the lower east side of Manhattan. We were advised to get a fixed price on the trip and I nearly choked at the $65. But, our options were limited so we went with it. It turns out it probably was a fair deal.  The traffic from the car rental place out near La Guardia into our apartment was chaotic. We we're in the cab for nearly an hour. 

No doubt we were spoilt for space in Dartmouth with our three storey home complete with pool room and basement with big screen tv, built in bar and massage chair. Our tiny two bedroom apartment in New York would literally have fitted into the double garage.  

The only thing more expensive in New York than R/E is more R/E

But, location wise it's not too bad. While not in the part of town where you step out and fear for your personal safety, it's also not in the part of town where your doorman will make sure you don't chip a nail opening your front door. It had a little grunge about it which I think added some character.  We were warned that the Sapphire Club downstairs could pump out tunes till late so we came prepared with the latests in wax ear plugs.  Turns out the rowdiest night was when a few "girls of the night" had a party in the street under our window.

23/0613. Big day today.  We caught the subway to midtown Manhattan for a trip up to, "The Top of the Rock". Thats 30 Rockefeller Plaza. 

This guy look like he's sliding into home base.

From all the way up there we got to see this....

Looking North all the way up Central park to Yankee Stadium 

Looking South past the Empire State Building to Statue of Liberty and Statten Island

The Rockefeller Centre is a complex maze of 19 buildings spread over 22 acres We were headed to the building with the famous flags out front, the skating rink and the big golden fella that looks like he's just slipped on the ice .  The ice skating rink today is full of tables and chairs. When the ice retreats it becomes the Alfresco dining area of a restaurant on the bottom floor. 

We bought our tickets and joined the line. Before you get to take the express lift with the glass ceiling that propels you the 67 floors to the top, there is a short movie on the building of this amazing complex. The views form the top are simply iconic. Every direction you look you see something amazing. Down the lower side you look out passed the Empire State building over the Hudson River and out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. To the left of the Empire State is the famous art deco designed Chrysler building with it's unique crown of seven radiating terraced arches.

The Chrysler Building                        

Looking towards upper Manhattan is 840 acres of the most expensive grass in the world, Central Park. It was a brilliant way to get a little familiar with this amazing city.  After we had our fill of looking it was time to get down to the streets and get amongst it. We walked Times Square and took in the theatre district of 42nd street.

Spot the aussie in Times Square

Spider Man with a bum bag and an Asian accent

Tom Hanks is there at the moment in a Nora Ephron production called Lucky Guy with an ensemble cast of a dozen familiar tv faces. Oh yeh, it's the girl from ER and there's the guy from that CSI show, you get the picture.  

It had been a big day of walking for everyone and the boys were starting to feel it but we had a little further to go. We kept walking and ended up at Grand Central Train Station. 

Trying to talk a tired Charlie down from the ledge

Success, the CVW caravan continues, for now.

What a stunning building, and considering the traffic that goes through the place, so beautifully maintained.  From here we caught a train down to Whitehall Terminal then hopped on a Staten Island Ferry. Unfortunately Lady Liberty and Ellis Island were both closed for repairs courtesy of Hurricane Sandy's destructive visit in October 2012. The next best thing to landing on the island was a two way cruise on the John F Kennedy Ferry. We got within about 500 metres which is close enough to get a good look. 

Incredible Lady Liberty, standing tall and proud..and green

Looking back to Manhattan from the Staten Island ferry, the tall building is The Freedom Tower

Now you cant go to the lower east side and not go to Katz's Deli. Anyone who has seen When Harry Met Sally and remembers Sally's fake orgasm scene will know this place. Famous for more than being a movie set, Katz's is renowned for its sandwiches. So much so that in one given week Katz's customers will consume 10,000 Ibs of pastrami, 5,000 Ibs of corned beef and 12,000 hot dogs. Having now been and seen for myself the masses that stand at the takeaway counters and swamp the tables, and, having seen for myself the sheer mass of meat that is sandwiched between two skinny pieces of rye bread, I don't doubt those figures for a moment. It was a big sandwich to finish off what was a very big day.

Where Harry met Sally, see the sign hanging from the roof.

Doing my part towards that 10,000 pounds of pastrami

24/06/13. Today we decided to give the trains away and catch cabs. It meant our travel budget went from $10 to $20 but it was door to door, guaranteed seating and meant we could all keep our walking energy for the museums.  Our first stop was The Met. The Metropolitan Museum Of Art. What an amazing place. We did the Impressionist's first. Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas sculptures and paintings, Lautrec, Rodin's and more, more, and more. 

Cat lover Claude Balles on the left , Painting by Claude Monet on the right

Nice hat Vincent

A stunning bronze Degas

Anyone stood on this bridge?

Arms and Armour was a collection of armour, swords, massive shields and guns including armour belonging to Henry the XIII and jewel encrusted and ivory inlaid flint lock pistols and rifles made for Emperors and Empresses. 

Tally Ho

I like to lend a helping hand wherever I can

Stunning, stunning, stunning Faberge Eggs

You cannot take a turn in this building without running into something astonishing. We saw a lot in the few hours we were there but by no means did we do it justice. You really need to spread your visit over a couple of days to get the full measure of the place.

Time for a walk in Central Park and a grilled chicken sandwich under a shady tree. The Dakota Building where John Lennon lived and was shot wasn't far from us so after lunch we walked through to the other side of the park to the corner of W 72nd and Central Park West. It's a beautiful old building built in the early 1880's in an English Victorian style  and one of the most exclusive in New York.

Lennon was shot as he passed through these gates.

You'll pay between four and thirty million to call this place home. There are no plaques here to commemorate what happened here  on December 8 1980. If it wasn't for the constant hum of tourist's , like myself, wanting to see the spot he was gunned down, you would just think it was another old lovely New York building. It's just over the road in Central Park where you'll find Strawberry Fields, a 2.5 acre garden dedicated to his memory and a large mosaic of inlaid stones with the simple word "IMAGINE" in the middle.

Our taxi ride today took us down the posh part of town, down Park and Fifth Avenues and all the tall lime, tan, cream and brownstone apartments with their light racing green canopies out the front and their uniformed doormen opening and closing doors and tipping their hats. Your just waiting for Carrie Bradshaw to come stumbling out in her Manolo Blahniks or Don Draper to come swooning through like a moody 60''s Brian Ferry.  Such a different energy about the place today. Yesterday as we walked through Times Square and down to Grand Central people were constantly at you and in your space, hustling to sell you this and take you here and there. It was all grab, grab, grab and it eventually really got under my skin. Apologies to members of my immediate family for my crabby behaviour. But today, catching a cab and then walking through the hallways and galleries of this amazing place they call The Met, the energy was so different. To be surround by and to drink in all these unbelievable pieces of art was uplifting. It completely refilled me. 

25/06/13 We had big plans to go to the 911 Memorial and then up to do the High Line Park walk which is a one mile elevated walk along an old disused railway line that runs along the lower west side of Manhattan. It has been landscaped into a serene walkway full of places to sit and enjoy a cool breeze off the bay, take in some quality busking or maybe get your fortune read. Instead, it took forever to get the passes we needed to get into the memorial, then we had to join the throng and walk the six blocks to get in. Here we joined another long queue. All on a day that was 102 F. Like all things though, once we were in and leaning against the cool granite of the monuments, feeling the refreshing spray of the cascading waterfalls and taking in the sense of the surroundings, the heat and the annoyance of the queue quickly faded.  The memorial was impressive.

It's a beautiful space, it now radiates a feeling of peace and quiet contemplation

A fitting monument to those who lost their lives

Two enormous sunken squares with cascading waterfalls on all four sides, the water forming a shallow pool before overflowing into a small square chasm in the middle. Around the perimeter of each pool, deeply etched into thick bronze plaques, are the names of each of the those who lost their lives on the 11 September 2001. I would like to come back when all the construction is finished, when the memorial museum is open and it becomes a large open air park that you can wander in and out of. 

By the time we had finished, caught a cab to Greenwich for a very nice veal chop with spaghetti putanessca at Trattoria Spaghetta, walked down to the original Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street for cupcakes and Pecan and Caramel Cheesecake it was 3pm. Time to catch a cab home for a feet up cuppa. 

The original Magnolia Bakery with a new creation, The Dexter

Then, off to the 8pm session of The Blue Man Group.

So not what you'll be expecting, a unique experience

We heard about these guys in Orlando. They have different performers all over the country doing the same show and they are supposed to be particularly brilliant. At what exactly we didn't know, so we were prepared for anything. It has been playing at the the Astor Place Theatre since 1991, so you have to think their doing something right. None of the three members speak during the show but they communicate so much by their expressions and their exhilarating and explosive performances. There is some background dialogue by a narrator and a small backing band but the performance is all in front of you, sometimes beside or behind you and at the end, literally over the top of you. It is a total family show and one like you kids would never have seen before. The boys, particularly Charlie, were spellbound.

26/06/13 The American Museum of Natural History. WOW. How we thought the other day that we were going to do the Met and the AMNH in one day is beyond me. We spent over four hours there today and skipped a lot of stuff. There are five floors packed full of amazing things. 

This monster greets you in the foyer

Like the Met I reckon you need a couple of days. It is of course the place where Night At the Museum with Ben Stiller was set but if your expecting to see any similarities you'll be disappointed. There's no Teddy Roosevelt on his trusty steed with sword held high, no Lewis and Clark the famous explorers and their pretty indian guide, Sacajawea, no minature romans or cowboys, all the exhibits are behind glass, no Ghengis Khan, AND, Dum Dum the Easter Island statue is a fibreglass fake. That I didn't know till we went up close for a photo and tapped on it. Dum Dum was hollow as a drum drum. 

Impressive, but not the real thing

But, there is a boat load of other amazing and very cool things. The Planetarium is a must see. It's an Omni vision production narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Over a very entertaining 25 minutes your taken back on a journey to the literal beginning of time. Very well done. After that you can spend ages wondering the Cullman Hall of the Universe learning more about Black Holes, listen to a short film on the Big Bang Theory narrated by Liam Neison, touch meteorites, learn about Quarks and more. On the first floor you'll see the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, this is not a few stuffed sea anemone and a couple of rubber sharks. They must have every living thing that ever crawled or swam in the great oceans of the world. The Hall of Human Origins where you can meet Lucy the 3 million year old Hominid that looks like a hobbit, 3000,000 year old  Neanderthal tools and skulls 400,000 years old belonging to what we now call Peking Man.

The list goes on and on, each one as impressive and worthy as the next. All of the Halls with their stuffed mammals, reptiles and birds are so beautifully presented they do such a marvelous job of honouring the animals that are on display.

I've never seen anything like this

Add some sound effects and you'd expect them to come to live

The attention to detail is amazing

One of the highlights would have to be the dinosaurs on the fourth floor, in particular the Saurischian Dinosaurs and the nastiest one on the floor, T-Rex. He is beautiful in his ferociousness.

The most complete T Rex skeleton on the planet

For our final night in New York we did the only sane thing any parents would do under the circumstances. We double locked the kids in the apartment and went out for a lovely Greek feed and a couple of glasses of wine.

Ahh New York , New York, we're gonna start spreadin the news. You are tops with us.