WEEK 2

Monday, Empire State Building with Tom on a cold but clear day.  Our first few days we experienced unfashionable warm days but now Autumn is definitely tending towards Winter and there is even talk of snow during the week.  While we are up there a security guard approaches Tom and asks about his short.  after Tom shows him he breaks into a smile and approves. I'm relieved.  There is a lot of security around New York,  as you would imagine.
Rob has done the Whitney, we met up near the Rockefeller ice rink and meander a bit before heading home to have a bit of a rest. We are dining out tonight,  at Red Rooster in Harlem. Now this isn't anything like Red Rooster in Australia but a restaurant famed for its menu ... soul food and where  Barack Obama ate once. Great cornbread,  fried green tomatoes, chicken wings,  roast chicken (Rob) and chatted fish (me) are so good that we are truly sorry that we simply cannot eat dessert .

 Tuesday we have tickets for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island so we head off to get there at the appointed time.  have I learned nothing from the Empire State experience? Apparently not,  so we join the queue and take about half an hour or more to get on the boat.  I think they want everyone to experience steerage as so many stand cheek by jowl for the trip.  We are skipping walking around the statue and head for the more interesting Ellis Island where so many migrants entered the States.  It is beautifully restored and has some very interesting exhibitions, to say the least.
Theatre this week ... Tuesday OH HELLO , Wednesday SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE (where Jake Gyllenhaal excels as George), Wednesday  night IMPROV COMEDY at Insurgent Citizens Brigade, Thursday SOMETHING ROTTEN,  Friday we switch to sport - basketball at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.  We have Tom to thank for some of these, and I thank him for waking us out of our complacency and getting us out more than we might have otherwise. I also thank him for the night walk along the High Line and joining me on a rainy day on a walking tour of Williamsburg, Brooklyn (and bringing an umbrella).
We shall miss him on our last couple of days here. He gets home after us.

Random night scene in town

High Line at night

NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS

A sleep in on Saturday, which turns out cold, wet and windy. Rob decides he will be better off spending the day in bed so I leave him to it and after a bit of a walk, coffee, and lunch I settle on the new Tim Burton film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Sadly, the script is disappointing but it looks good. Rob still not getting up so another cinema, another film - A Man Called Ove which I do enjoy.  It is a heartwarming film and a cheery note to end on.
Sunday is fine and it is back to being a tourist with a visit to the Chelsea Market.

Rob is recovered and is headed to the Whitney Museum,  I take a walk along the High Line, a former elevated freight train line which is converted to a park. It is windy up there and very crowded. I love it in spite of the crowd and will be back when it is quieter.

Just to demonstrate how windy it was, on my way back to meet Rob I passed the fire department,  well not the whole fire department,  putting a wall back on place.  you can't quite see that they made use of available local resources (street rubbish bin) to get the job done.  Sorry,  was in a bit of a hurry.
Rob took a wrong turn, enjoyed a walk at ground level and missed the Whitney. Ah well.
By
After lunch we have the first of our theatre experiences - Anna Deveare Smith gives a magnificent performance delivering a series of monologues. The characters she plays are people Smith interviewed about the "pipeline" which feeds poorly educated children into the prison system, and how to change that. They are lifted verbatim from the interview transcripts and deliver a powerful message.  It is a great start to our Broadway, we'll mostly off Broadway, experience.

NY 2

The weather here continues with record breaking temperatures for October,  good for tourists. It is forecast to end,  but in the meantime. ......
We've done enough galleries for me,  and I leave Rob to The Met. Instead I do a walking tour run by the Tenement Museum,  a tour of buildings in the area which represent the changing population and industries in the Lower East Side.  I also get some advice about eating in the area.  By chance I lunch at a cafe recommended by an Aussie friend  (thank you,  Helen) then saunter back towards our flat.  It is a day to take it easy for me. 

I put the research to good use that night,  encouraging Rob to dine at Katz's deli, an original that's been there forever. As well as being famous in its own right this is also the location for the famed When Harry met Sally "I'll have what she's having." scene.   I have never seen such a big sandwich in all my life.  I cannot eat all the corned beef in my half sandwich so save some for another day,  Rob takes half his Return sandwich away.  Delicious.  As was the ice-cream over the road.  Definitely walking home to recover.
.

Still warm on Thursday,  good day for a walking tour of Brooklyn starting with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Huge crowds walk it, so many that there is talk of putting a dedicated wider path below the existing one. I have to say that seems a good idea,  for one thing it will separate cyclists and pedestrians.  Cyclists here ride as though their lives depended upon getting somewhere fast,  riding through pedestrians at breakneck speed with a complete disregard for red lights, pedestrians' right of way and several other road rules I think.  So far I haven't joined their ranks.

Taking a ferry ride back across the East River we continue our own walking tour through the financial district to Tribeca and the Laughing Man Cafe, owned by Hugh Jackman where Rob has found the best coffee since leaving home.  I cannot comment as I elected not to break my rule about not drinking coffee after mid-afternoon.  I do however plan to put it to the test another day.

Splitting up again,  Rob to the Subway and me to walk home through Soho and Noho doing a bit of window shopping along the way.  I pass m mostly upmarket brands but there are some smaller shops with more local designers etc.  a very pleasant couple of hours dawdling before I do the washing at the nearby laundromat and eat or leftovers from last night. Delicious all over again

NEW YORK NEW YORK

What can I say that hasn't already been said ... wow.  Approaching the skyline it changes constantly and is everything you've heard about it. Spectacular. Getting off my bus ahead of Rob's arrival I  decided to walk the few blocks to his stop carting my luggage, a decision my shoulder came to regret for a couple of days. However, we met up, successfully organised Uber and onto our home for a fortnight. A one room apartment in the Lower East Village.
My first  impression walking around our neighbourhood is that we are in the right place - thank you  Tim Peach, Phil and Anne, Fran and Peter for recommendation and local advice. i think I could happily spend a fortnight just hereabouts.  Food diversity abounds, plenty of bars with happy hour, looking for live music, theatre,  found the laundromat and dinner is great at a local fish bar.  Keep up that standard and we'll be right, mate.

Rob appreciating Strawberry Fields, but is it the right one? 

Sunny Sunday in Central Park, sounds like a song.  There is a well supported fundraising walk in some sections, but the park is of course so big that it hardly matters.  We spend a great deal of the day there,  then walk to Times Square just to see it.  Diwali is being celebrated on the stage there but the crowds do us in and we head off in search of whatever there is to see.  Just being on the street is plenty to see.

A couple of days devoted to Museums, galleries .. I visit the Tenement Museum which is wonderful and The Merchant House which has a death theme for October .. meeting up to thoroughly enjoy The Museum of the City of New York together. MoMA is everything one expects and my reaction to the Guggenheim is mixed. I am sorry I didn't wait for the day of free admission as I don't find the current exhibition very interesting. One cannot help but marvel at the building,  Frank knew his stuff all right.
Having enjoyed twilight cruises elsewhere we add New York to the list.

Exhausted we travel home on the subway we are coming to know and love.  Sleep,  blessed sleep