Last Day ...
30th May 2006
After breakfast at the diner, we did some gift shopping at Zabar's, then went back to Filene's for a skirt and top that Rosie had spotted on Sunday. It took us rather a long time to pack, and we had bought enough clothes, shoes, books and gifts to need to buy a new bag!
When we checked out, we complained about the level of noise and disturbance from the 'Crew Room', which was inconveniently situated right next to our room - the door had started banging at 6 a.m. every morning, and every time it opened it sounded like there was a party going on in there! However, the customer is always right, and we got a 15% reduction on the bill - which meant we could afford a nice lunch and a car back to the airport!
Once we had sorted all that out, we went for a quick visit to the
American Museum of Natural History (only a couple of blocks away); there is so much to see I could have spent a week there and not seen it all, but we spent most of our time in the
Amazon section, watching a video about a culture about as far as you can get from the one we were aspiring to in the Big Apple. Fascinating to see in the light of the
recent story about a Colombian tribe who have emerged to live in the modern world.
Time to be 'ladies who lunch' again, this time to
Isabella's - we seem to have inadvertently picked a lot of restaurants from the B.R.Guest stable, but they are all really good! This one had great service, and grilled salmon to die for!
Far too soon, it was time to go back to the hotel to sink into the leather seats of our chauffeur car, and head west, taking a last look at the midtown skyline before entering the Lincoln Tunnel and emerging in industrial NJ on the way to the airport.
The Upper West Side is the place for me - everything I need within a few blocks: delis, restaurants, jazz, museums and art galleries, and the Park!
I'll be back!
Memorable Memorial Day
29th May 2006 - Memorial Day
We decided to have a leisurely day today - so a quick lox on rye at Zabar's for breakfast, then took the subway downtown for a short wander around Union Square:
(and some shoe-shopping for me at
David Z:
before meeting Rosie's friends Tom and Erin Moore for lunch at the
Blue Water Grill. Could have talked for hours, but Tom had to leave to get a 3-hour Yoga Massage to help sort out his back problem - ouch.
The time had come for Fifth Avenue shopping (Rosie is wearing the dress she bought at Filene's):
... so we ran around Macy's, Gap, and a few other stores for a while, then decided to walk north to face the madness at Times Square - here's the Flatiron Building:
and then on up to the Rockefeller Center, the most beautiful Mall in the world. We thought about booking to eat at the Rainbow Room, but the prices were just silly (and I wasn't really dressed for it) - so we decided to do the 'Top of the Rock' trip to get the views from the 70th floor. The elevator has a glass roof, so don't look up if you get travel-sick! I thought it was fabulous. And no queues either ;-) I took stacks of pictures - here are just a couple:
It was starting to get a little misty and we were getting hungry, so we found the Heartland Brewery just near Radio City for real American food - the best ribs I've had in a long time! Rosie had a buffalo burger (all the rage in Nepal last summer apparently) ;-). We began by sitting outside but it started raining - not for long but the waiters were anxious about the thunder and lightning so in we went.
To finish off the day, we went back by subway to Smoke where we were treated to 2 hours of great jazz followed by the best jam session I have ever heard, including spots by Mamiko Taira and the staggeringly good Dan Nimmer ... and so to bed ...
Culture and shopping
28th May 2006
A good start to the day - bagels and lox at
Zabar's - just 3 blocks away; what a great neighbourhood. Time for some culture: a stroll across Central Park took us to the
Guggenheim - unfortunately shrouded in scaffolding outside and with an installation going on inside, so the spiral gallery was closed - here it is from the central well.
But plenty else to see! At the top we found a fascinating children's art exhibit: the gallery has an outreach programme to all 5 NYC boroughs. Inevitably, I suppose, the most 'sophisticated' art was from Manhattan but there were some striking pieces from the less well-endowed boroughs too. I overheard a somewhat dismissive comment from another visitor about 'not paying their entrance fee to see children's scribbles' - sad, I thought. Artists don't 'spring fully formed from the head of Zeus'! - they need inspiration, encouragement, and opportunity as well as native talent (and we all know that genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration). On to Jackson Pollock
No Limits Just Edges ... we both loved the 1948 pictures best; my favourite is
Triad: 
and there were some great Picassos as well.
From there, it is a short wander south to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art - which looks surprisingly similar externally to the
Art Institute of Chicago, which I visited only 2 weeks before. Lots of stalls lining 'Museum Mile', selling watercolours, photos, etc. , many photos pre-9/11 with the Twin Towers.
We decided to be 'ladies who lunch', so we splurged on the Petrie Court restaurant in the Museum. After that we went our separate ways - I had to see the
Ikat textiles from Indonesia as well as the Oriental departments (especially the Garden Court):
All 'cultured-out', we decided that the time had come for shopping, so back to Broadway/W 79th to the wonderful
Filene's Basement; Rosie found all kinds of great bargains - though it took her 3 hours!
Then it was time for dinner, so we went to
Ruby Foo's Uptown (next door to the Manhattan Diner) and had excellent dim sum, sushi and a flight of sakes in the most gorgeously kitsch setting. The service could have been better - I think the poor lad who was our waiter must have been new, but he certainly needed more training in how to talk to customers!
After all our walking, culture and shopping, we decided on an early night!
A Brooklyn Adventure
27th May 2006
After a leisurely brunch at the beautiful Art Deco
Manhattan Diner (amazingly only opened in 2000) across the street from the hotel:
We wandered around Central Park on a beautiful sunny day, and we followed our ears to find someone playing 2 trumpets at once:
Then took the subway south to begin our Brooklyn Adventure (following advice from Melissa at work!). The traditional walk over the bridge took us quite a while - not only is it a very long bridge, but we had to keep stopping to admire the views!
We just loved the feel of
DUMBO - lots of urban regeneration going on, warehouses becoming lofts, new small businesses (including a great music store right down by the water), restaurants, and the wonderful
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory in the old firehouse - butter pecan highly recommended! - and the
Torres Chocolate Factory.
A short walk up into Brooklyn Heights (I could see myself living here ... if only I could afford it) took us back to the subway; a
Circle Line cruise was next on the agenda:
... with a great view of the Statue of Liberty just as the light was starting to fade:
To round off the day, we thought we would do the ultimate tourist thing, and go up the Empire State Building at dusk ... there was no line outside so we went right in at 8 pm - and it took us 2.5 hours to get up to the top!! They haven't quite got queuing to the fine art practised by DisneyWorld ... and of course it was dark by the time we made it to the top. Here's the Chrysler Building ...
We made it back to W 77th by 11.30pm - at which point we decided we should have dinner - thank heavens for the 24-hour Manhattan Diner across the street - and fall into bed.
New York New York!
26th May 2006
Rosie and I arrived at Newark and had fun trying to organise transport to the Upper West Side ... eventually got picked up by the Supershuttle and almost immediately found ourselves stuck in Memorial Day weekend traffic! Following a long hot ride (and a very aggressive argument between the driver and a Hilton customer) we got to the
Hotel Belleclaire 15 minutes after we should have met Melinda (Jenkins, an
AMIA colleague) at
Dizzy's ... A quick change and a taxi ride later and we were there - just before Bill Clinton arrived! At Dizzy's we found Melinda, a witty barman who knew how to make a martini, a fantastic view, great food, and
Bill Charlap playing. A great start to our long weekend.
