1 June
New York day two
Must tell you about 'The Lion .king" last night. I didn't really know what to expect, I have the inter-active story on my iPad which Liam enjoys playing, so I know the story well, but for adults??
It doesn't take long to walk down to Times Square and because we have tickets we walk straight in to the theatre and are directed to the correct door. The Americans are well organised to handle big crowds, and the theatre was packed. We had good seats at the end of the centre stalls and the lights were dimmed exactly on time, doors were shut and late comers were not allowed in until after the opening 10 mins. Easy to see why.... the orchestra started the African high energy music, the percussion were housed up in the box seats, the curtain rises on a dawn in Africa scene, brilliant colours, minimal props and suddenly the actors come in singing in Afrikaans from the back and down the aisles followed by life sized giraffes, monkeys, leopards, hyenas, birds and a huge elephant, I mean life sized elephant which swayed close to David's head. I was just gobsmacked, the puppetry is amazing, there were 4 people inside this elephant and they all made their way up onto the stage singing and setting the scene. It was just so realistic the animals could have been real, so clever.
Today the plan is to do the downtown loop, which leads in to the Brooklyn loop over the Brooklyn bridge. Then back onto Manhattan and down to Battery Park, catch the Statue of Liberty ferry to Liberty Island, across to Ellis Island and back onto the mainland to finish the tour. Might sound a lot, but we ain't finished yet.. We intend to finish the day with the night tour starting by taking in the lights at night at Times Square, Empire State Building, Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy/Chinatown, Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Eastside, finishing back at Times Square where we get off and stagger back to our hotel.
We check out a new place for breakfast, just down a side street from our hotel, a bit like the Mediterranean Warehouse where it's a small supermarket with a cafe in the corner. In the centre of the cafe is a smorgasbord of hot and cold food, not many people here, so not sure what to do. We should have left at that point! Well, we helped ourselves to what we wanted and the Spanish girl behind the counter was quite helpful, showed us where the plastic takeaway containers were (no plates!) dug some butter out of the depths of a fridge and supplied us with plastic knives and forks, made us some milky tea with too much sugar in (in a cardboard cup), and we sat down on a long table. The flavour of the omelette, sausage and bacon was ok, but it was all luke warm, must have been cooked hours ago and not kept warm enough, and have you ever tried to cut through a thick slice of well (as in overcooked) bacon with a soft plastic knife? Ah well, the food was charged by the pound, so at $7.99 a lb, our bill didn't come to much!
We had a map of the route the buses were to take, so decided to walk down to the United Nations building on the waterfront to catch the bus as it is closer than picking it up at stop 1. It was another lovely day so the walk was good. As we were about to cross the road by the UN building a car came around the corner to beat the lights and smashed into a car going straight ahead.
The UN building, the car you can see on the crossing is the one at fault in the accident.
We walked quite a long way to find the bus stop and several tour buses from other companies passed by, but not ours. (We had memories of doing this in Nice last year!). So after waiting for over half an hour David took another more serious look at the map of the route and compared it with the street map, decided we were in the wrong place and we headed back up to town. To cut a long story short we walked for half an hour, checked out the bus stop with one of the bus tour 'touts' that appear on every street corner, and it appears that they have changed the route because several roads have been closed as there is a parade around Central Park! Really not a good start to our already busy day!
John Lennon lived here overlooking Central Park, he was also killed here.
Once we were settled on top of the bus in glorious sunshine we were able to get on and enjoy the rest of the day. Again the commentary was interesting, we learnt a lot and I took masses of photos.
When we changed buses to go on the Brooklyn loop our guide was quite the actor, he and his buddy the driver had been doing these tours forever, they were both born and bred in Brooklyn so he was 'throwing away the script' and giving us the 'real' low-down on his wonderful city. He was very entertaining, not exactly factual, a bit prone to exaggeration, but certainly earned the inevitable tip we give each time.
Back over the Brooklyn Bridge (the story has it that the original Manhattan Bridge is so old that it cannot take commercial traffic), through little Italy and Chinatown and down to Battery Park to catch the other bus again to South St and line up for the ferry.
When we arrived at the terminal we had to go through security checks just like at the airports, it's amazing how security conscious the Americans are, but understandable.
The ferries were large, of course, but not overly packed so we were able to get seats by the window and go outside to take photos. We docked at both Liberty Island and Ellis Island, but decided not to go exploring because we were running short of time, we needed to have dinner and get back out there for the night tour. Besides which there were such long queues to get back on board and as the trips were half hourly it could have been a long wait. Inspite of that it was an awesome feeling to see the Statue of Liberty for real, we sailed within 500 mtrs and to see the fine detail in the sculpture, the folds of the toga, the strength in the arm holding up the beacon and the face which we all recognise, was quite special.
Wikipedia: "The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was designated as a National Monument in 1924. Employees of the National Park Service have been caring for the colossal copper statue statue since 1933."
Ellis Island was next and we could see the Museum and the accommodation for immigrants as we came in to dock, again we decided to stay on board.
Wikipedia: "After its opening, Ellis Island was expanded with landfill and additional structures were built. By the time it closed on November 12, 1954, twelve million immigrants had been processed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration. It is estimated that 10.5 million immigrants departed for points across the United States from the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, located just across a narrow strait. Others would have used one of the other terminals along the North River (Hudson River) at that time. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. The all-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived. After the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed, which greatly restricted immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies, the only immigrants to pass through the station were displaced persons or war refugees. Today, over 100 million Americans - one third of the population - can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country."
Manhattan skyline from the boat.
Back on dry land and onto the bus, we carried on to finish the tour at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and began our walk back to the hotel. Which was not without incident - close to Times Square we were waiting to cross and a guy in a wheelchair comes down the road and stops also, as do two women with dogs, the lights change and the guy in the wheelchair takes off when out off the blue two tiny chihuahua dogs tied together with a bit of rope across their collars come running across the road, we all gasp, and the 'doggy' ladies stop them and look everywhere for the owner, and it's the guy in the wheelchair! He couldn't have cared less. We moved on so not sure what the outcome was. And then..... we turned the corner and there was a man lying in the middle of the road, two people extracting him from the wheels of his bicycle, (he was wearing the long black coats that Jews wear) he was obviously unconscious and bleeding badly from a wound on his head, not sure how he came off his bike, but people were rallying around, one raising his head and putting something underneath it, another one obviously calling for an ambulance and amazingly an ambulance just happened to be passing by. So I have to say that we have been pretty impressed at the kindness shown by ordinary citizens, going out of their way to help, and by the speedy attention given by the police and ambulance services. Having said that it is clear that you run a pretty big risk riding a bike in the busy streets of New York, and very few cyclists wear helmets.
This is the Flat Iron building, close up you can see the lovely stonework decoration.
Our Hotel and the Chrysler Tower again.
So after all this excitement we plodded on to our hotel and decided to go to Central Station for something to eat.
Wikipedia: "Outside the station, the 13-foot (4 m) clock in front of the Grand Central facade facing 42nd Street contains the world's largest example of Tiffany glass. It is surrounded by sculptures Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. The sculptures were designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan and carved by the John Donnelly Company. At its unveiling in 1914, the 48-foot (14.6 m)- high trio was considered the largest sculptural group in the world."
It is right next door to our hotel, we don't even have to go out into the street. Central Station is an edifice, it is beautiful, a complex mix of shops, eateries, markets, shoeshine boys (very popular amongst the men folk here) and the underground hub for 44 railway lines in and out of New York. It is an architectural joy to look at.
Wikipedia: "Grand Central has restaurants, such as the Oyster Bar and various fast food outlets surrounding the Dining Concourse on the level below the Main Concourse, as well as delis, bakeries, newsstands, a gourmet and fresh food market, an annex of the New York Transit Museum, and more than 40 retail stores. Among them are chain stores, including a Starbucks coffee shop, a Rite Aid pharmacy and, as of December 2011, an Apple Store. Other anticipated chain stores include a Shake Shack.
The Main Concourse is the center of Grand Central. The space is cavernous – 275 ft (84 m) long, 120 ft (37 m) wide and 125 ft (38 m) high – and usually filled with bustling crowds. The ticket booths are in the Concourse, although many now stand unused or have been repurposed since the introduction of ticket vending machines. The large American flag was hung in Grand Central Terminal a few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The main information booth is in the center of the concourse. This is a perennial meeting place, and the four-faced clock on top of the information booth is perhaps the most recognizable icon of Grand Central.
The clock, designed by Henry Edward Bedford and cast in Waterbury Connecticut, is made from brass. Each of the four clock faces is made from opalescent glass (now often called opal glass or milk glass), though urban legend has it that the faces are made of opal and that Sotheby's and Christie's have estimated their value to be between $10 million and $20 million. A 1954 New York Times article on the restoration of the clock notes that "Each of the glass faces was twenty-four inches in diameter...". Within the marble and brass pagoda lies a "secret" door that conceals a spiral staircase leading to the lower-level information booth.
There is a "secret" platform, number 61, under the station. This was once used to convey President Franklin D. Roosevelt directly into the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This platform was part of the original design of the Waldorf Astoria. It was mentioned in The New York Times in 1929 but was first used by General Pershing in 1938."
And so after a nice Indian curry we set off again for our 'Night Lights' tour, we had already visited most of the places en route, so were looking forward to seeing them at night. We were not disappointed.
Times Square
Manhattan skyline - again!
Brooklyn Bridge at night
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