Day 5 - Peace in our time

Feeling guilty about our hedonistic lifestyle, we decided to do something good for the world.  Being in New York, the site of the United Nations headquarters, world peace seemed like a worthwhile goal.  To help achieve this we called once more on Jan Muir, whose advice and support have been fantastic, and she organised for us to visit the UN. 

While at brunch on Saturday, Jan invited Amanda (an Aussie working as a waitress at the restaurant, when not making documentary films or working as a photographer) and Amanda's father Rob (visiting from Australia) to join us on the tour.  Jan met us outside the UN and escorted us in.

Richard, Rhonda, Jan, Amanda and Rob



After signing in and receiving our visitors passes Jan took us to the gardens to look at some of the statues and sculptures donated by member nations of the UN.  These were very interesting and quite moving.

A section of the Berlin Wall

Part of a sculpture commemorating refugees

Then it was on to the serious stuff.  Jan showed us the Economic and Social Council Chamber, the Trusteeship Council Chamber, and the Security Council Chamber.

Economic and Social Council Chamber

 

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Security Council Chamber

We were mildly surprised, given the troubles in the world, that the Security Council wasn't dealing with anything while we were there, so we headed off to the (temporary) General Assembly (the proper one is being renovated at the moment) where I called for more effort for world peace.   



Richard speaking to the General Assembly at the UN

The entire audience (of 5) agreed with my resolution (Jan will be impressed that I remembered the term 'resolution') and Rob and Amanda represented Australia with dignity and a steely resolve. 

 



Rob and Amanda voting support for Richard



After our tour Jan took us to the staff canteen for lunch and then we visited the visitor centre and souvenir shop.  We were all very impressed by the UN precinct and have a much better understanding of how things work.  Jan was a fabulous host and very generous with her time (it was a normal workday for her).

We said a fond farewell to Amanda and Rob and set off for the hotel.  On our way we stopped at the north-western corner of the UN precinct to look (through the fence) at one final sculpture.  It is a very large (pretty much full size) elephant, shown below.

The elephant is surrounded by a 'modesty hedge' because, apparently, it is a bull elephant with a very large appendage (we kid you not).  During our stroll back to the hotel I noticed the following sign in the window of a tailor shop.

It would seem that they have branched out into the field of plastic surgery.  After a short rest at The Hotel (close to Times Square) we set off to Pier 62 to meet up with Jan for a sunset champagne cruise around the bottom half of Manhattan Island.  It was fantastic.  The crew were welcoming, the boat comfortable and the views of Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty, were amazing.  Seeing the lights start to come on as the sun set was beautiful.  Some happy snaps are below.

Our boat - thankfully not the "Minnow"

 

 

 

All in all another great day.  Tomorrow we're becoming more cultural, visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA - not to be confused with the Metropolitan Museum of Art [MMOA], we'll be there the day after tomorrow) and attending an Off-Broadway play.

Day 4 - Quiet contemplation

Sunday was a day for quiet contemplation, so we headed south on Manhattan Island to visit the 9/11 Memorial.  Our friend Jan had lent us a set of cards with self-directed walking tours on them, so we picked one for the 9/11 Memorial and one for the Wall Street precinct.  The walks are quite easy and take you to points of interest, with some notes given to explain their significance.  After a subway ride we reached a point near the memorial.  While walking there we saw a new item of Police equipment, shown below.  It's a van with a box that can be raised hydraulically to give the occupant a better view of the surrounding area - very cool.

The 9/11 Memorial is very moving.  Two huge holes in the ground where the towers stood, each surrounded by a wall engraved with the names of all the victims who died there, including the emergency service personnel.  Water cascades down the walls, and the sound is quite soothing.  The photo below, showing Rhonda taking a picture of one of the two holes, gives some indication of the scale of the site.

 

I noticed a few white roses, inserted into names on the memorial, which are engraved quite deeply, and Rhonda saw the sign below, which was incredibly poignant.  We were both very moved by the experience.

 

We walked from the memorial to Wall Street, hoping for some fiscal inspiration.  Both of us found Wall Street to be quite underwhelming - it's not a very big area.  The New York Stock Exchange is near the middle of the area, and it's also quite small.

 

From Wall Street we walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, another of Jan's recommendations, for a free harbour cruise.  The ferries run every 30 minutes and we arrived at the terminal with 15 minutes to wait - but it seemed to take forever.  There were quite a lot of people waiting and we hoped that the ferry wouldn't be too crowded.  We needn't have worried because the ferries are big, each can take over 1400 passengers.

 

The route of the Staten Island Ferries takes them past the Statue of Liberty and you get a great view back towards the southern tip of Manhattan Island.  Unfortunately the day was a bit misty, so the view wasn't the clearest, but it was still a great experience, and fabulous value for money.  A couple of happy snaps are below.

 

 

Jan had told us that there wasn't much to see on Staten Island, at least within walking distance of the ferry terminal, so we were happy to go straight back to Manhattan.  Because our ferry was going out of service after arriving at the terminal, we had to disembark, find the next ferry and get on board before it left.  We were a bit concerned that we'd miss the ferry and have to wait a whole 30 minutes for the next one.  Thankfully about 90% of the other passengers had the same idea as us, but, unlike us they knew where to go, so we just got carried along by the crowd.

 

Americans certainly like anything "labour saving".  In a pharmacy (the grocery shops on Manhattan seem to be pharmacies as well) I saw the following item in the Men's Grooming section.

 

I like the fact that the label states: "Helps stop razor bumps".  Of course it does, because the instructions on the back of the can tell you not to use a razor.  By the same logic, growing a beard also stops razor bumps.

 

That's all for today, tomorrow we're visiting the United Nations (with Jan as our tour guide)and going for a dusk cruise around Manhattan.  Hope this finds you all happy and healthy.

 





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.

Getting there is half the fun

Day 1
Actually the title should read: Getting there is only half fun.  Things started well in that we arrived at Canberra airport on time (5am) and headed to the Qantas Club for first breakfast.

Then things took a dramatic downturn.  Our flight was delayed for maintenance reasons - by about 45 minutes.  Still, better safe than sorry.  We travelled to Sydney and headed to the Qantas Club for second breakfast.  It was even better than our first breakfast (they had baked beans in Sydney), and we had extra time to enjoy it because our flight to the USA was delayed, due to the late arrival of the incoming flight.  About an hour late we boarded the plane, and settled in to enjoy our first complimentary champagne - sorry, sparkling white (to be fair to France).

We started to taxi out in preparation for take off, and the flight crew announced that there was a problem with a heat sensor in the cargo hold - so we returned to the departure gate to allow the engineers to check things over.

That only delayed us for just over another hour.  (Wow, writing this blog this is going to take forever!)  After about another hour we took off and flew safely to Los Angeles.  Rhonda slept quite well and I watched the complete third season of Game of Thrones and the first three episodes of The Blacklist.  We entered the USA, collected our bags (they must have had a lot of baggage handlers on duty because the assembled multitude of passengers could barely keep up with the speed of arrival of cases and assorted other belongings on the baggage carousel), took them to the transit area and checked them in again, and then reboarded the plane (or one that seemed almost identical) for the flight to New York.  We landed without incident and then went to collect our bags.  Apparently, JFK International Airport only had a single baggage handler on duty, because it took forever (or over 40 minutes if we're honest) for our bags to arrive on the carousel.  Actually it was only Rhonda's case that took that long, but she enjoyed watching everybody else get their bags and leave the airport to start their holidays.  I enjoyed standing beside the baggage carousel while people (who had forgotten they were wearing backpacks) kept turning around next to me.

While we waited I noticed a poster on the wall which might provide a partial explanation for childhood obesity in the USA - it's a lack of understanding of English grammar.

The poster might be more successful if it read: "Replace fast food and junk meals with fruit or vegetables."  Thankfully we had a very quick taxi ride to Manhattan and our hotel (The Hotel @ Times Square) and both had a good night's sleep.  We'll take you through Day 2 tomorrow.