Day 3 - Red/white colour blindness

A new day dawned and we were off to meet up with Jan Muir, a friend from Toastmasters in Canberra who now works for the United Nations.  Jan has given us great advice about New York, covering public transport (we bought 7-day unlimited Metro cards for the subway and it is the best way to get around), tipping, and other things to do.  Unfortunately she didn't give us any advice on what to wear, so I was channelling my inner American tourist.  However, to my great disappointment, I discovered that Americans only dress like American tourists overseas. 


The ugly Australian tourist

Jan lives near the almost-Central Park and we went to a restaurant on the shore of one of the lakes in the park for brunch.  It was a sublime setting, and very popular with the locals.

Rhonda and Jan

After brunch it was time to do some serious touristing, so we set off to the Guggenheim Museum.  There are some lovely sights in New York, and so far we have been impressed by the lack of garbage and graffiti.  One of the really nice things they do here is put flowers around trees along the pavements.

In due course we arrived at the Guggenheim, and it is an amazing building.

 

The collection at the museum featured Italian Futurism, 1909-1944.  Not really my thing, but there were some very interesting pieces on display.  The inside of the building is even more impressive than the outside, and a lot bigger then you'd think.  After the Guggenheim it was back into Centralish Park.  We enjoyed walking through the park and there is a lot to see - it is very popular with the natives and is a real oasis in the midst of the city.

Photographs just don't do it justice - it's an fabulous place, and you can almost forget that you are in New York while you walk around it.  Still, it was a hot day, and eventually even we decided to quit the tranquillity and indulge in some retail therapy.  Our first stop was at Macy's Department Store, apparently the largest department store in the world.  It's so big it contains it's own McDonalds restaurant.  We tried to find a café to get a cuppa, but were directed to a Starbucks instead - big disappointment.  Rhonda bravely set off to the counter to get us a coffee and a tea.  After what seemed like an hour, but was in fact only 30 minutes (I kid you not) she returned.  Rhonda's coffee was OK.  You'd think tea would be pretty easy to make: cup, tea bag, boiling water, milk.  It doesn't work quite as well when the milk is off.  Rhonda went back to the counter to get a replacement and this time they overfilled the cup, so that there wasn't enough space for milk.  We left not impressed.
For dinner we went to a Columbian/Mexican restaurant near our hotel and tried a couple of Columbian-style dishes.  That's another cuisine ticked off our bucket list.

It seems that people in new York develop red/white colour blindness.  They just don't seem to be able to distinguish the red, hand shaped "don't walk" crosswalk sign from the white "walking figure" do walk sign.  I thought pedestrians were bad in Canberra, but in New York they've taken social irresponsibility to a whole new level.  Mind you, the drivers don't pay a whole lot of attention to the traffic lights as they turn red - it pays to be very careful crossing roads.

That's all for today, tomorrow we're off to the 9/11 memorial, Wall Street (for some financial inspiration), and the Statten Island Ferry (a free harbour cruise).

Day 2 - a bad apple in the Big Apple

Hello again, sorry about the delay in writing up the next bit of our blog, but we're simply having too much fun.  We're staying at "The Hotel @ Times Square".  It's quite comfortable and the room rate includes free breakfast: a limited range of cereal (I favour Sultana bran - it's probably got less high-fructose corn syrup in it than the other ones), bagels (very nice toasted), a range of small Danishes and pancakes.  We certainly can't complain (I could, but then even I concede that not every place offers baked beans).  Our room is shown below, it has a small but functional bathroom and a large walk-in robe with a safe.  We also have tea and coffee making facilities.  Overall we're quite happy with our choice.  The front desk staff agree with us because they just sent another couple to stay in our room.  We were here first though, so we had to disappoint them.

However, clearly some instruction in map reading is required here because the hotel is actually about 500m from Times Square - admittedly only a minor quibble.  The hotel is all about location - it's within easy walking distance of many tourist attractions, including: The Rockefeller Centre, the Museum of Modern Art, Grand Central Station, and Saks Fifth Avenue (an exclusive Department Store).  When we had settled in to our room we went for a quick walk around the local area and noticed a lot of jewellery shops (literally hundreds).  Amazing, we thought, until we checked the map and realised that we're in the "Diamond District" of New York.  It pays to check the map first.  We even found our own jewellers, shown in the photo below.

One interesting thing about the Diamond District is that some of the street lights are shaped like diamonds, as shown below (we didn't notice this, somebody had to point it out to us).

We're staying on Manhattan island and it is very easy to find your way around.  The roads running North to South are Avenues, while the roads running East to West are Streets.  To make it even easier, the Western half of the Streets are called "West (name) Street" while the Eastern half of the streets are "East (name) Street".  Most of the Street names are numbers, running from 1st Street to 193rd Street.  Sadly there are streets south of 1st Street and north of 193rd Street which have non-numbered names.  Most of the avenues also have numbers as names (we're between 5th and 6th Avenues.  A very logical system - I love it, apart from those instances where they have strayed from the strict logic of numbered names.  On the subject of logic, New Yorkers need a few lessons.  Grand Central Station is grand, but it's not in the middle of Manhattan.  Central Park is also not strictly in the centre.  If they were then Grand Central Station would be in the middle of Central Park.  My last point about logic features the back of a tea bag tag shown below (from morning tea today).  Blaise Pascal might think that we know truth not only by reason, but also by heart, but, as a paid up sceptic, I have to disagree.

To finish off our first day in New York are a few more happy snaps.



The Rockefeller Centre

Times Square
 

Grand Central Station

We had an apple each (not very big) last night, and one of them was 'off' - the bad apple in the Big Apple.  That's all for today.  We'll be back tomorrow, when we're catching up with a friend for brunch and visiting Not-quite-Central park and the Guggenheim Museum.