New York day three

P2 June 

New York day three

Today we want to go to Ground Zero and pay our respects. We ask the concierge the best way to get there and he said 25 mins in a taxi or we can get the subway just around the corner and it will take us all the way there. So off we go checking we take the correct line, we need to go North, we work out how to get a ticket out of the machine, admittedly with a little help from a young lady from Montreal who had been here just two days! And jump on the next one to Fulton station.  It was a really hot day with little wind, we found the Tribute shop and went in and bought our tickets for the next tour. While we were waiting we looked around the displays of memorabilia, there was a window out of the plane which was twisted and burned.

 

There were cards all over the walls from people seeking their missing relatives,

there were graphic scenes of people as they fled with the descriptions of what was happening.

 

 There was also a large piece of iron girder which had been twisted in the heat.  

So unbelievable and the feelings of fear and dread for these poor people came flooding back. 

Our guide was called Vic and he was a survivor, he had an elderly lady with him and her daughter was murdered there on that day. She was to tell her story later. Vic told us a little bit about himself. He was a firefighter in the building operations area of the Fire Department and was about to end his shift early on that day. I can't remember the details but only a handful of his unit got through the day, he lost his best buddy. 

We put in earphones and moved outside, he pointed out the new tower 'One World Trade Center' and the proximity to the FD building we were now stopped at. 

There is a mural on the wall 35 ft long, to the left are the twin towers on a normal day, and as you look along the mural the scene changes to smoke and then debris and fallen constructions and ends on the right with rubble and the few girders that were left standing. As this is a tribute to all Firefighters 'May we never forget' there are no numbers or names on the men and machines depicted on the mural as the catastrophe worsened. No one person or station is highlighted.

He then carried on with his story and as we made our way across the road, passed the building sites regenerating the barren business areas, we reached memorial park where just about everything is special with story of its own.  The newly planted trees are identical except for one which was the only survivor that day. When it was discovered under the rubble it was nurtured like no other and when sturdy enough was planted in the park and 'roped' to withstand the wind, and the branches the same.  It is not the sort if tree to have a long lifespan, so it is cared for with kid gloves. 

The 'Survivor Tree' - Callary Pear tree.

His story was long and poignant and I think he lets go a little bit more every time he tells it. He tells of employees taking that day off for various reasons and so the death rate although horrific, could have been far worse, of not believing the emergency calls when they first started to come in as the buildings  - like the Titanic - had been proven beyond all  doubt to be safe . He decided to stay on after his shift finished. He was in the FD across the road and he could feel the shake and rumble and then he put out an alert for all firefighters to report for duty.  

His story was bravely told and made all the more real because he was caught up in the thick of it. Then it was Lorraine's turn, and for an old lady she spoke quite firmly, determined to let us know how her daughter was murdered.  Her daughter was not well that day and her family tried to make her stay home, but she had to finish a job so went in. She never came home. She has never had a funeral because insufficient body parts have been found to make a definite identification. So sad.

Wikipedia: "The names of 2,983 victims are inscribed on 76 bronze plates attached to the parapet walls that form the edges of the Memorial pools. This includes the names of 2,977 victims who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Arlington, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, as well as the names of six victims who were killed in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing."

We wandered over to the memorial waterfall and on top of the wall around the square are the names of the 437 firefighters who were murdered that day etched through.

 There is an occasional white flower stuck into the etched name and that is in remembrance of this persons birthday. Each night the flowers are removed and the next days birthdays done. It is very moving and so wonderful to see that these brave men will never be forgotten, and not just the firefighters, but the police, the medics and everyone who served and died in the line of duty that day. 

And so we moved on to see the new museum that opened just this month.  It is shaped like the first Tower, had it fallen on its side. It contains more unbelievable items that have been exhumed, and had we had more time we would definitely have made a visit there. However it would have been hard to take in another half day of sadness.  

So we left with a verse from a song written for the Vietnam War Vets which Vic read to us:

"All gave some

Some gave all

Some had to die

And some stood tall"

We said goodbye and thank you to Vic with the reflections of the new One World Trade Centre in the museum wall.

And so with a heavy heart, but a lightness in our step knowing that these brave people will never be forgotten we headed for another trip on the subway, this time on the red line to 34th St, Penn Station. 

No problem finding the Empire State Building, all you do is look up to the sky and head in that direction. On every street corner there are touts trying to sell you tickets, "Express Pass, ma'm, save yourself a 2-hour wait in the queue, 50 bucks and includes the IMAX experience, you don't know what IMAX is?  etc,etc".  Just doing their job, fortunately we already had tickets, but it would be easy to think that was the way to go as everywhere there are long queues.  

Wikipedia : "The Empire State Building is a 103-story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high.  Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center's North Tower in late 1970. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York (although it was no longer the tallest in the US or the world), until One World Trade Center reached a greater height on April 30, 2012."

Once we had circled the block to find the entrance we were able to go straight in, through the inevitable security checks of course and then walked through the 'maze' of roped queue lines, with no queues!  We did however have to queue for about 10 mins to be guided into the lifts.  Everywhere there are uniformed guides, all very smart and all very helpful so I guess when it's peak time they will have their hands full. 

It takes less than one minute by lift to get to the 80th floor, which contains a gift shop and an exhibition detailing the building's construction, and my ears popped twice!   From there, we took another lift to the 86th floor, and stepped out of the lift into the observation lobby and through the door to the exterior platform.  Wow what a view, 360 deg, just spectacular, so incredibly high and it was such a beautiful day, in the far distance the horizon looked grey.

The Manhatton skyline in the distance

A close up of Central Park 

We stepped back onto the lobby and back down to the 80th.  Checked out the souvenirs and bought a much more up-market fridge magnet!  Back again to ground level in one minute, rubbed our ears and stepped out into this wonderful lobby and then into the heat of the day, having taken more photos of the Art Deco architecture of this famous building.

We wandered back to our hotel and put our feet up for a while, sipping on a very nice red and indulging ourselves with cashews and chippies!

Refreshed we went looking for a nice restaurant to have dinner.  It was still very warm and most restaurants had their doors shut to conserve the air conditioning inside.  We tried peering in the windows, but they were darkened glass, so in the end we saw a pub that looked promising called Muldoon's Irish Pub!  The bar was quite busy and at the back were these old fashioned high booths, we were ushered into one and we had a really enjoyable night.  David had a huge tender and juicy steak and I had a big lamburger both came with Parmesan chips and salad.  David washed his down with a Guinness of course and I had a light lager.  Just the way to end another interesting day. 

New York day two

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.  

And that was just the beginning, the main characters wore lion headgear, so were not puppets,

 

Simba was played by a young boy to start with and he was so good, the interaction with his Dad was just right, then he grew up and obviously became 'King'.  

The music and lyrics are by Elton John and Tim Rice, so very memorable.  It didn't finish until after 10.30 and it took a while to exit the theatre onto the busy streets.  It was still around 20deg, and we became part of the Time Square buzz all the slow way back to our hotel.

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.

Fortunately no one was seriously hurt - and the car going straight ahead had an ambulance driving behind him!  So it was all action and sirens, the guy at fault got out of his car and some people on the other side of the road went over to the other driver to check out he was ok, the ambulance guys were on the scene and on the phone to the police. So we carried on - and tried to catch a glimpse of Helen Clark, but to no avail.

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!

Entrance to Central Park.

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. 

Over the Brooklyn Bridge we went taking in the famous Manhattan skyline and into the Flatbush area, along Atlantic Ave and around Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.  

It was so hot on the top deck that we were grateful for a refreshment stop, we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we got a hot dog each and a drink and sat down In the shade by the recently opened library.  

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 

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'