New York Day Seven Friday 7/11/14
This was the day I flew home so I got up had breakfast then packed things up. We rode the bus into Manhattan and decided to take a look at the top of Central Park having only gotten about half way up it on our wanderings. We rode the subway up to 100 and something street at the top of the park then began a gentle walk down. My flight was at six and I had decided I would take the subway and airtrain out to JFK which according to google took about an hour. So I planned to leave at 3pm to allow plenty of time for security and so on.
We walked past the boating lakes found the courtyard gardens which were lovely saw lots of birds Central Park is alive with wildlife which is strange in a big city but I guess it's sheer size means it can maintain a decent population of things. We walked down the various meadows and then it was getting to lunch time so we went out of the park and found a whole foods that did sandwiches and had somewhere to sit. After that we walked past the Swedish cottage and then went up Belverdeer castle.
After that it was more or less time to go so we walked out of the park and found a metro station at 81st street. I said my goodbyes and then went down to the platform. There was some sort of problem and a powercut up the line so trains were running slow so it was a good half an hour before a train turned up. Plenty of express's went by but nothing local stopped. The platform kept filling up and up and by the time a train did come I was a bit worried I wouldn't get on but I squeezed in.
I rode down to 7th ave and changed trains to one that would take me to the airtrain. Here I was a little confused as the normal conventions of uptown and downtown didn't make sense as I was going across the island then out to Brooklyn. I eventually found the right platform and got on a train which turned out to be an express but luckily it did stop where I wanted. Express trains seem to vary and in my short time navigating the metro system I didn't work out the trick to finding which stations an express train will actually stop at. A very few trains had electronic notice boards telling you where they were stopping but not many. Anyway I rode the metro out to the Airtrain terminal and got there to find a train waiting so I jumped on and rode that to terminal 5.
At this point I discovered my plane had been delayed by an hour. Still I was there ready to fly I went through security found the gate and got a sandwich and drink to pass the time. Eventually they called us to board I was sat next to what appeared to be a mother and teenage son who spent the early part of the flight arguing about his homework and then his phone use. After that they went to sleep and the boy slumped over and began resting his head on my shoulder. I discouraged this and he went back to sleeping upright. The flight was otherwise uneventful I read my book and then got a little sleep later on landing in SJC at about 11:45.
I had a fun week got to see New York and visit places I've always wanted to see got to see my parents as well and enjoy some good times. It was quite hard work walking all over the place so it'll be nice to have a bit of a rest before work starts again next week.
New York Day Six Thursday 6/11/14
We got up and got ready it was a nasty day out cold and wet the best of the weather seemed to be behind us now. We got the bus into Manhattan which took a while as traffic was pretty heavy, it didn't help that at the toll booth for the Lincoln tunnel several cars were trying to go across 3 lanes to get to the cash booths.
We arrived and headed straight for the subway to get over to the metropolitan museum. The met is huge it has whole rooms setup as various periods or just to show of a set of statues it’s almost too big. We decided since there was no chance we could do it all we should focus on the things that were unique to the met. So we headed to the American wing on the way there we passed an Egyptian temple which was given as a gift to the museum as the area it was in was being flooded so they shipped it over and rebuilt it in a huge room. Past that was the American wing there was lots of good stuff including a living room that Francis Lloyd Wright created for Francis B Little. It looked very modern in it’s style despite being made in 1912. There were lots of Tiffany glass works as well as some paintings a few very uncomfortable looking chairs. Lots of more classic American art work paintings vases busts of George Washington (who had a massive nose).
We also saw a huge mural called America Today by Thomas Hart Benton, who was a mentor to Jackson Pollock, which is the multipanel piece originally designed for the board room of New York’s New School for social research. Each of the ten panels has scenes from American life rendered in bright stylized paintings with very vivid colors and framed in small metal frames that zig zagged into the frame separating some parts of the image. It was a fantastic piece really amazing to look at and what was more interesting was in the next room they had a lot of the studies and sketches he used to create the thing. They also had works of his contemporaries showing what other artists were doing.
After that we looked at some more of the furniture and things like sewed samplers from earlier American history.
We then grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the Cubism exhibit which had some examples from Picasso Braque Gris and Leger. It was a private collection that one of the Lauder family were allowing to be shown and had some interesting sketches used to make some other works or work pieces the artists had used as well as paintings.
Once through with that it was getting a bit late we decided to try and hit the museum of modern art (MOMA) so went down on the subway to get close. We didn’t have much time so we went for the fourth and fifth floors seeing things like Andy Warhol Campbell Soups and Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. We saw plenty of other modern art including some more cubist work and a couple of Monet’s Water lillys. After that we went to the special exhibit which was of Henry Matisse cut outs where he’d used paper and scissors to cut out shapes and make art much like a child would with sugar paper. It was interesting but the exhibit was a bit crowded.
We left Moma then as we were museum-ed out and headed back to the bus terminal to head home. There was a big queue again but they were running plenty of buses so it didn’t take too long to get back. When we arrived we discovered there was no water in the place we called the landlord and he said he’d find out what was going on. He got back to us later saying the house next door had cut the water for some building work and hadn't restored it as they weren't sure if there were taps left running which was a little odd but they would restore the water in an hour. They turned it back on later and we were able to proceed with dinner.
Tomorrow is my last day in New York I fly home at about 6 so I’ll probably not get much out of the day but it’s been a great time and also quite tiring with all the walking up and down. I’ve had an amazing time it’s been really good, things I was worried about staying in New Jersey and going in by bus have been fine, New Jersey where we are is quite nice and the bus has been a good way to get into the city. Not a relaxing holiday but one where I’ve managed to see some things I’ve always wanted to see the empire state, statue of liberty, central park, the skyline of the city by day and night. Still loads more we could see so maybe I’ll be back some day. All in a great holiday just need to get packed up and get myself back to the airport in time for my flight.
New York Day Five Wednesday 5/11/14
We got up and today decided we would take the ferry into Manhattan so we walked down to Hoboken and got tickets. The previous ferry had gone while we were getting tickets so we got some Latte’s and then sat on the pier and waited for the next ride. The day was a bit more grey and cloudy but still fairly warm. It put a little haze around the buildings across the Hudson.
The next ferry was fairly quick and we were soon cruising across the river in the small ferry. The landing point was almost exactly where the river cruise had left from the previous day we finished off our lattes and then headed into town to pick up the open top bus.
We walked down to Madison Square Gardens to pick up the route and after a lot of confusion found the bus pickup point. This was not well signposted indeed the map they gave out had it leaving from a completely different point. All in all yet another problem with the open top bus thing. We got on the bus and took it past the Empire State and the flatiron down into Greenwich village then on to the financial district past the new world trade center and on to wall street. It was really slow originally it looked like a good way to get around new york and while it’s quite fun to sit on the bus and look about as it slowly rolls through it’s super slow and given the other problems not very reliable. It also isn't cheap if I were doing it in future I’d probably rely on the metro to get around and save the money.
We got off at pier 11 near the cargo boats which are old sailing ships. One of them was built just as the steam ships were replacing sailing ships so was basically obsolete almost immediately it had some contracts then served as a tramp cargo ship trying to get any sort of cargo to transport anywhere. It was nearly sunk in a storm of cape horn and had to put in to the Falkland islands nearly demasted. After that it was loaned out as a floating warehouse in the Caribbean until it was acquired and refitted to be a museum piece.
We grabbed some lunch at a set of food vans I had meatball and ricotta Sicilian pizza slice from Valducci’s Famous Original Pizza which was good. While we were waiting the guy gave us a Zeppoles to try which were sort of like little doughnut pieces and quite tasty.
Refueled we headed off to the Brooklyn bridge and walked up to the first arch to take in the view. It was packed with other tourists and half of it was for bikes which could be hazardous as clearly some of the riders had very little control. Still the views were nice from the bridge we took some photos and then headed back off it.
We had intended to fit in a museum but the time was such due to the slow bus that we didn't think it was possible. We took the subway to Washington square park which has an arch like the arch de triomph in Paris dedicated to George Washington. It’s near NYU so a very student filled area there was lots of people playing instruments mostly badly.
We then caught the metro back up to 42nd street to go visit top of the rock or 30 Rockefeller plaza or the GE building where NBC has a lot of its studios including the ones where it films Saturday Night Live. We booked our tickets which have a time you can go up which was 6:15 and it was then 5 so we wandered through the confusing underground shopping area that there and then out to the Plaza.
The ice skating rink was in full flow with people zooming about they were also installing a platform next to it presumably for the famous Christmas Tree. We looked around there for a bit then headed into the lego shop which is next to the ice rink. It was pretty fun they had a lot of brick sculptures including a replica of 30 rock and the plaza done in lego. They also had this wall that was loaded with little hoppers of all the different types and colours of lego bricks. After that we wandered up the promenade and then back to the entrance to top of the rock and after watching a man make some pretzels in a nearby shop we were allowed in … to join the queue.
After the ubiquitous photo against a comedy background this time actual rather than green screened in, we joined a queue for the elevators. We saw a couple of fairly tedious movies on the history and eventually were allowed into the lift. The roof of the lift was translucent with projected images on it as well as the lit elevator shaft. The projection had sort of key moments in american broadcasting like the moon landings and Nixon resignation.
Soon we reached the 68th floor which is the first of 3 observation points. We went right up to the next level and got some wonderful night time views of the city. After a quick go round that level we headed up to the very top where you are literally on top of the building with only a small antenna section and lift head going any taller.
The views were pretty great with some spectacular views of the various skyscrapers most notably the empire state and the new world trade center. You can make out the statue of liberty just about and Central Park shows up as large dark area with few lights in the sea of illumination.
We toured the roof for a while then after another queue headed down. We made our way to the port authority bus terminal and discovered a huge queue for our bus so we decided to have dinner there rather than wait in the queue and let it calm down. We had spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread in this little fast food place called Villa Pizza it was pretty good considering the vegetables were crispy the spaghetti not too hard or soft nice meatball and garlic bread.
While we were eating this guy came in and for some reason I’m not completely sure why started shouting at the serving staff and then the manager. Things got a bit heated with the guy demanding his food and claiming they wouldn't give him something or other. He was slurring a little so maybe he wasn't completely sober. The military made an appearance and one of the security guards and things calmed a little he got his food and then made a few threats about eternal damnation for all the staff there present. By the time we were leaving he was having a go at the manager because he had no cutlery (which was available from a stand just near the till). So dinner and a show at the port authority bus terminal.
By the time we got back to the gate the queue had vanished so they must have really packed those people on the bus. We went up to the gate joined a short queue and were on the bus pretty quickly and heading out to New Jersey. We got home pretty late at least 9 o clock and having walked 23339 steps according to my watch I was pretty tired. We had a drink and some crisps did a bit of photo organization and then headed to bed. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll manage some of the museums.
