New York - day one

31 May

We had a great nights sleep last night much to my surprise, I guess being up for 34 hrs might have something to do with it?

We went back to Pershing Square again for breakfast - only had to queue for 5 mins before we were shown to our table!  So busy, totally not used to seeing so many people eating out and the through put for that cafe was constant the queue was even bigger by the time we left at 9.30am. We were served quickly and they brought us a nice pot of English breakfast tea straight away, there are no tea making facilities in our room. I ordered an omelette with smoked salmon, spinach and mushrooms, and David ordered Eggs Benedict with bacon.  Mine came with toast, and a side dish of butter and real strawberry jam (mmm.....interesting?) but David and I polished off the strawberry jam, I expected jelly, but it had real strawberries in it.  David was disappointed with his bacon, it was round and had been cut from a roll.  Our tall dashingly handsome waiter came and asked us if we were enjoying our meal...... so.... of course David looked at him sideways, and the waiter leant on the side of the partition and said "OK man, give it to me", don't you love that? And David duly "gave it to him" - I won't bore you with the details.....  a good exchange of ideas about bacon was had!

We had planned our day around booking our Gray Line Hop-on Hop-off tour, our pre-paid vouchers were for 48 hours from time of booking, so we wanted to time it so that we had the afternoon, all of tomorrow and the morning of Monday, which meant getting to the booking office around 2.00pm. We also wanted to walk around and get a feel of the place, essentially heading for Times Square, must see a Broadway show, so that would take up most of the morning.  

These are brass plaques inserted into the pavements.

It's a great feeling seeing the road signs that are so familiar, our hotel is on 42nd Street, close to Park Ave, a block away from Madison Avenue, and two blocks away from 5th Avenue.  

Everything is super size, 2-storey fashion shops, high rise apartments which are good looking and interesting, stretch vehicles - including rubbish trailers, SUVs and trucks. 

This is a trailer load of garbage being taken away.

 The only things not super size are the food venders on every street corner selling everything from hot dogs, kebabs, popcorn, to fresh fruit, smoothies, and of course magazines, snacks, cigarettes, etc. There is a pervading smell of rotting garbage that wafts in and out and the eye watering smoke that builds up from the kebab stands.

All pedestrian road crossings are controlled by stop go lights, which are mostly obeyed except when the crush of people means that one or two foolhardy people in a rush don't stop and then everyone else thinks they can make it across too, which ends up in a cacophony of horn blasting while the vehicles try and manoeuvre their way through.  There are so many people here all in a hurry to go some place.  Such a mix of races and languages but generally people are polite and considerate.

Wikipedia : "New York is home to the largest African-American population and the second largest Asian-American population in the United States, although New York's Black population declined between 2000 and 2010.  In addition it is home to the largest Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Jamaican American populations in the continental United States. The New York City neighborhood of Harlem has historically been a major cultural capital for African-Americans of sub-Saharan descent, and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn is the largest such population in the United States".

We made it to Times Square and WOW it buzzes, the neon lights say it all, progress in any direction is slow, that goes for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, mostly because everyone is looking at the neon lights changing and adverts flicking on and off the huge signs, all the broadway theatres are in close proximity and the trailers are so enticing - how to choose?  

My NBF Liz had advised us to see The Lion King, so we took her advice and queued up at the Minskoff Theatre.  We thought we would go tonight and although the show has been running for 16 years, there were only a few good seats left, it did cost us the price of a small car, but you only get one chance to do this.

Wikipedia:   "Opened in 1973, the theatre was named for Sam Minskoff and Sons, one of New York's distinguished real estate families.  Over 200 craftsmen and artisans worked nearly six months to extensively refurbish the Minskoff Theatre to welcome Disney's The Lion King. Architectural designer Mariuca Brancoveanu has created a dramatic new environment that starts with the terrazzo walkway through the promenade into the theatre. The main lobby area features hand-painted, gold-leaf sculpted tableaus that adorn the theatre's expansive interior walls and showcase its panoramic views of Broadway.  The Minskoff has 1,597 seats and is one of The Nederlander Organization's nine Broadway theatres."

We then made our way to the Gray Line office to get our vouchers exchanged for tickets.  New York is divided up into 'Uptown', 'Downtown', 'Middletown', and then there's the Bronx, and Brooklyn.  Our tickets covered the lot, so we chose to do the Uptown loop this afternoon, this included the Bronx and a visit to the Yankee Stadium. 

We climbed on board our bus and headed upstairs for the best view and photos.  The weather was a little cloudy but a warm 19 deg, a gentle breeze which turned to whiplash once we got going!  Riding in the top of an open bus gives you all the sights and sounds, the traffic is so congested and yet the bus drivers manoeuvre in and out of lanes like they were driving minis.  EVERYONE leans on their horn, basically all you can see from the top of the bus is a sea of yellow cabs jiggling about like a Rubik's cube, glaring down at them because they 'ain't going nowhere' is as meaningless as their horn blowing. 

And yes, it did start to rain, we were all issued with plastic ponchos, and these two stalwart troupers stayed put.  The rain stopped soon, fortunately and we resumed our seats.

This is the Guggenheim Museum on museum mile.

A busy sidewalk in the Bronx

We had a quick stop at the Yankee Stadium, it was very busy as there was a game on and you could hear the crowds pitching in, I thought it would be great to get a picture of an actual game being played, so without a thought I made my way to Gate 6 only to have my way blocked by a giant in uniform who just stood in my way, what was I thinking, people must pay mega bucks to get in here....I looked all the way up to his dark brown eyes and said,  "Oh do I need something to get in here" (what a dumb thing to say!), and he replied in a deep rumbly voice, "Yes Ma'am".  So that was my one and only chance of getting a photo in Yankee Stadium blown away!!

I took lots of photos of course, the commentary was very interesting, hard to remember details but basically Manhattan was an Island of hard working immigrants back in the day whose children's children have been well educated and resourceful, and then the influential rich recognised what a great place it was and began to take over prime land, to such an extent that they had to build up as flat land is limited on an Island. Hence the beginning of 'skyscrapers', the first, the biggest, the most, the most expensive, the highest, etc. The commentary was full of records that NY has achieved. 

The greatest thing that the city fathers have done is to have the forethought to build Central Park, an oasis in the middle of high rises and a place accessible to all who and live and work in such a busy environment.

Next stop, 'The Lion King'