New York, New York

20 May 2017

We'll be departing today from New York City on a two week cruise up the New England coast and on to Iceland. We decided to come to New York a few days early to do a few things that we have been wanting to do for years. Of course, being The Embees, the weather has been just awful, the hottest days of May in years.  Each day thus far has been in the 90's with humidity and wind. You wouldn't think there were enough trees in NYC to have pollen all over the place, but there must be since our eyes have been weepy, itchy and red. None of this has hampered our enthusiasm or delight in getting reacquainted with this grand city. 

We stayed at a Hyatt on West 36th just up from 6th Avenue - a short walk from Macy's on Herald Square, Penn Station and the Empire State Building - so now you have your bearings. After checking in we immediately walked over to the High Line, a 1.45 mile stretch of elevated walkways reclaimed from an old stretch of train tracks. It is a really beautiful walk, even in 90 degree weather, and it is filled with art, flowers and tons of people. Can't imagine what it is like trying to walk it in summer with all the tourists, but for us, it was a special treat and very much enjoyed especially after having been cooped up in planes and limos for hours.  It really shouldn't take as long to get to NYC from DC, but living in West Virginia we have few options.

After a pleasant few hours walking the High Line, we repaired to an Irish pub next to our hotel. It was dark and cool and had great beers on tap which we needed to replenish our fluid levels. Very pleasant staff, all from Ireland, and we decided to make this our go-to spot for drinks before and after dinners, which we did but only for that night, too many other options in NYC. Dinner on our first night was at a French-Moroccan restaurant which had really lovely food and great service. We finally collapsed at about midnight after a lovely first half day.

Yesterday was spent using the subway system to get to a few places we have wanted to visit. I don't want to suggest that I've been out of touch with the subway system of New York, but there were strange looks when I asked where to purchase the subway tokens! I think the last time I used the subway you could still cast your vote for Miss Rheingold and Miss Subway, things that haven't been around since the sixties.  

First stop was the World Trade Center Memorial. The Cortland subway stop is really quite beautiful with a soaring white Oculus and just huge. Walking through this area truly is inspiring and sets the tone for the two Memorials that sit in the park outside the subway stop. There is a museum, which we did not want to visit, so we focused our attention on the two large square fountains that have the names of each of the people who died when the two towers came down.  A white rose is placed in the engraved name on their birthday and just looking at these two memorials we could see several of these roses, a stark reminder of what really happened on 9/11.  (Note from Cindy:  As we gazed sadly at all the names, Wm said, “It’s amazing what a handful of stupids from Saudi could do.”)

After an hour at the memorial we headed back to the subway and uptown to Grand Central Station. I never tire of walking around this magnificent building but this time I was on a mission to show Cindy the Campbell Apartment, which is one of the classist old-time bars in all of New York. It is a little tricky to find, but oh how very worth the effort.  It is small with an old oak bar with perhaps twenty stools and perhaps twenty tables for dining.  It was only about noon and we were hot and sweaty and not looking very elegant so I just walked Cindy to the entrance and we looked at the almost empty room for awhile, promising ourselves that we would come back (but not on this trip).

As we exited Grand Central on Vanderbilt Avenue near 42nd Street, we started to hear all manner of sirens and horns, and saw a sea of flashing lights heading towards us. This parade of police, fire, bomb squad and ambulances went on for twenty minutes and we knew that something big had happened but didn't know what until we stopped for lunch and they had a big TV on explaining that some drunk had plowed through pedestrians killing one and injuring 20 before crashing into a light at Times Square. Obviously, at the beginning of the event no one knew if it was an act of terrorism or just a lone nut job so they responded as if it were terrorism, thus explaining the huge reaction. This being New York, Times Square is now up and running as usual and filled with tourists. 

Speaking of tourists, we did march ourselves over to Rockefeller Center to see Seated Ballerina, a 45-foot Mylar inflatable by Jeff Koons, which is perched in the middle of 30 Rock overlooking the area that is used for outdoor dining in the summer and ice skating in winter. It really was fun to just hang out and look at the ballerina and see all of the people gathered in front of NBC studios hoping to get their faces on The Today Show.

That night we walked and walked and walked, more or less in circles, trying to find a restaurant to our liking.  In some cases the prices were just plain too high, but in most cases the determining factor was the noise.  My goodness, NYC bars have always been on the noisy side but the Millennials love noise and the levels are astounding.  We stopped for a drink and couldn’t hear ourselves think, although we did our best to chat with a German man seated next to us and bought him a beer before we left.  We finally found a lovely and quiet Cuban restaurant called Havana that delighted us - “old world” charm and service, fine linens, a wonderful waiter and delicious food.  We’ll go back if we’re ever in the area again!

Best wishes, Cindy and William