FRIDAY 20th SEPTEMBER: METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART; BIG APPLE MEMORIES

Our last day; flight home leaving at 19.40.
Determined not to waste the day in effect waiting around for the taxi to JFK, after an early breakfast we set off for a lengthy 4 hour stint of culture-vulturing.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art:






The 'Met' was created in 1870 by the New York State Legislature as a kind of civic education project, and decamped to its present site in Central Park in 1880 though over time various additions have completely surrounded the original structure.
It's one of the greatest collections of art treasures in the world, owning over two million works of art spanning 5000 years of world culture - almost every civilisation on earth is represented.
We knew this couldn't be a mistake like the Guggenheim, and we were right. You could spend an entire week here and still not have seen everything or been sated by what you had seen. It's mind-blowing to see so many beautiful things in one place; they just keep coming!
There was no sense in bringing a camera as the whole point was to luxuriate in the brilliance here. But the link below will give you a glimpse of what's on offer.

http://www.metmuseum.org/



Like the majority of visitors, we headed first up the Grand Staircase for the European Paintings 1250-1800  (galleries 600-644), but between us we also covered

• Modern and Contemporary Art (900-926 and 917-925),
•  Asian Art (200-253), 
• Medieval Art (300-307), 
• the Robert Lehman Collection (950-965) and
• 19th and early 20th century European Paintings and Sculpture (800-830).

And what a fabulous place to have lunch .... not just for the food (which is delicious and not expensive) but also for people-watching. 

Today was a truly special way to round off a happy, memorable and thoroughly enjoyable week!

Big Apple Advice:
In no particular order ....
If you're planning a trip

• Do it!! You won't regret visiting New York.
• invest in a weekly subway card (we certainly got more than our money's worth).
• check out in advance what subway station(s) your hotel is near. We didn't, but Wall St. turned out to be a great station to be using as all the main lines, including express lines, went through it so we never had to change. 
• be ready to walk MILES.
• New Yorkers are friendly and helpful. They'll stop and help if you're looking lost. Try getting that in London!
• Holiday Inn Express on Water St. was clean, comfortable, very convenient for everything AND has a complimentary breakfast (hot and cold) too. The lady who runs the breakfast room couldn't have been nicer and takes such obvious pride in her work.

And ...Thanks for the memories:

• Pastrami on rye.
• The coffee shop that gave Steve 2 chocolate cakes as the one he had originally ordered wasn't available.

THURSDAY 19 SEPTEMBER: BROOKLYN BRIDGE, KATZ'S DELI and FINAL NIGHT.

The Brooklyn Bridge

'....a shrine containing all the efforts of the new civilisation of America' (Joseph Stella, Italian immigrant painter).

One of several spans across the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge is today somewhat dwarfed by the lower Manhattan skyscrapers, but for twenty years after its opening in 1883 it was the world's largest and longest suspension bridge and - for many more years - the longest single-span structure.

Crucially, it expanded the scope of New York City, paving the way for the incorporation of the outer boroughs and the creation of a true metropolis.

Its construction was not without difficulties:

• early in the project, architect and engineer John Augustus Roebling crushed his foot taking measurements for the pier and died of tetanus less than 3 weeks later
• his son Washington took over, only to be crippled by the bends after working in an insecure underwater caisson: he subsequently directed the work from his sickbed overlooking the site
• twenty workers died during the construction
• a week after the opening day, twelve people were crushed to death in a panicked rush on the bridge's footpath (mercifully, no panic on the day we crossed by the same footpath).

You can safely walk along the bridge on the walkway above the cars, so on Thursday morning we set off.

One of the first things you see is Pier 17, where we visited on our first evening in New York.

 As you walk along you can't but notice the complexity of the construction ......

.....and the constant rumble of vehicles is a reminder of what's below you. But you do need a strong stomach to look down..

Once we got about midway, we looked back at the giants of the Financial District behind the spidery latticework of cables.

 And, of course, there's no better place to admire the architecture.

The Empire State Building

Chris was convinced this one had been designed by the same architect as was responsible for a very similar building in Dusseldorf, near the E-on building he used to work in. 

And, of course, that statue again!

We could have got off the bridge at Downtown Brooklyn but we had decided against it as we had more to see and do in Manhattan, so we retraced our steps across the bridge.

The United Nations

After 1945, New York was the obvious choice as the permanent home of the newly-created United Nations Organisation. Lured by John D. Rockefeller's $8.5 million donation that bought  land on the east side of Manhattan, construction started in 1947 and wasn't completed until 1963. The end result is the product of a suitably international team of architects, including Le Corbusier (though he pulled out before the work was completed).

 The decision to build here was clearly of lasting political significance but, despite the symbolism of the UN, the building and site are unfortunately all- too- obviously the result of  'architectural design by international committee', and  inordinately dull and uninspiring architecturally.

Bikes at the ready for departing Assembly and Security Council members?

 On the day we were there we passed a man carrying a placard declaring 'Obama: Jewish Puppet'. Could this, below, have anything to do with how he drew his twisted conclusion?

The Chrysler Building
If the UN was disappointing, it did at least afford a splendid view of the Chrysler Building. Dating from 1930, for a matter of months it was the world's tallest building until surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. The building's car-motif friezes, hood- ornament gargoyles, radiator-grille spire, and the fact that the entire building is almost completely fashioned from stainless steel, evokes the golden age of motoring (the Chrysler Corporation moved out decades ago).
There's a delicious story of how its designer, William Van Alen, indulged in a feud with an erstwhile partner, H. Craig Severance, who was designing a building at 40 Wall Street at the same time. Each was determined to have the higher skyscraper. Van Alen secretly built the stainless steel spire inside the Chrysler's crown, and when 40 Wall St. finally topped out a few feet higher than the Chrysler, Van Alen popped the 185- foot spire out through the top of the building and won the day!!

 

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel:
After Sue's disappointing foray into the Algonquin Hotel a couple of days ago, Chris was determined to be more successful with a visit to the famed Waldorf-Astoria.
Originally built in 1893 on the site of the now-Empire State Building and relocated to its present site on Park Avenue in 1931, this is one of New York's finest, and most expensive, places to stay: a favoured choice for presidents and visiting heads of state.

The central lobby is vast and opulent .....

....and the bank of reception desks is redolent of Hollywood movies. All that was missing was the bell-hop: but then we weren't bringing bags!

Katz's Deli.

'Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army' (Katz's slogan that originated in WW2 when the three sons of the owners were overseas).

We took the F subway to Lower East Side-Second Avenue for the culinary high spot of the week: pastrami on rye.
The Lower East Side is the epitome of the American ethnic melting pot. The first tenement buildings were constructed here in 1833, followed soon after by the development of Kleindeutschland (Little Germany). Thirty years later the Irish dominated the neighbourhood, and by the end of the century it was attracting international humanitarian attention as an insular slum for more than half a million Jews, many from Eastern Europe,  who'd come in search of a better life free from persecution but instead found themselves scratching out a living in the burgeoning garment industry.
These Jewish immigrants indelibly stamped their character on the Lower East Side with their shops, delis, restaurants and synagogues. Even now, with Chinatown overflowing into the neighbourhood, the area exhibits remnants of its Jewish past, not least at Katz's Deli at 205 E Houston St., opened in 1888 and the oldest functioning Jewish deli in New York.
In the early 1900s Katz's was originally located on the east side of Ludlow St. but moved to the other side because of the construction of the subway. The present section of the store where we were was added in 1946 to cope with the hungry crowds. What hasn't changed, though, are the same methods of smoking, pickling, spicing and curing that were first used when the store opened.

When we visited on Thursday afternoon there was no obvious evidence of any 'I'll have what she had' moments  (the film was shot here on location, just one seat behind where we were sitting) ......

.....but the place was so packed it would have been difficult to tell!

Waiter-service is available, and if you're a regular who has gone in solely to get something to eat we can see why you might choose it. But if, like us, you want to experience the real atmosphere the only way is to take your place in line and wait your turn.

You're given a ticket as you come through the door and then you head for the appropriate queue. What's on offer is chalked-up on boards and ranges through standard Jewish staples ( like chicken noodle soup and matzo balls) to burgers and fries, but 90% of the people we saw were having what we'd come in for too.

We ordered one of these each and heaven only knows how we managed to eat it all, but we did!!

AND it comes with huge pickles!

Chris looks as if he's nearing the point of no return.

When you're done you queue up with your ticket to pay, cash only. Any lost tickets carry a flat charge of $50. No wonder there's a burly security man at the door!

Our Last Evening:
Despite our mega lunch (we'd been abstemious at breakfast) we, or at least Sue, put on our glad rags and set off for our last night out in the Big Apple.
The plan a few days back had been to meet up with Sue's cousin, Jack Kelly (a native New Yorker now living in Washington), for our final dinner, but unfortunately the arrangements never came together. So our Trusty Guide (Chris, who's been manning the maps all week) directed us to the Knickerbocker Grill in Greenwich Village.
A great choice:

•  good food (oysters, flat iron steak and black fish)
• unpretensious atmosphere
•  reasonably-priced wine (hallelulia after our previous experience of Greenwich Village)
•  a helpful and well-informed waitress
• and even a pianist twinkling the ivories.

CHEERS!!

WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER: EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, TIME SQUARE and GRAND CENTRAL STATION.

Today was going to be a BIG walking day, and so it turned out!

Empire State Building
Another one of those iconic places you just have to go to in NY.
Completed in 1931, well under budget and built in just 14 months, the Empire State Building occupies what had originally been the site of the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (see blog for 19 September) since 1893. Despite having 102 storeys and standing 1454 feet high, its height is so deceptive we stood on Fifth Avenue practically underneath it without noticing it was there.
 The building has seen its share of celebrity and tragedy:

•  King Kong clung to it while grabbing at passing aircraft
• in 1945, a B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor, killing 14 people
• in 1979, 2 Englishmen parachuted from its summit to the ground, to be promptly arrested
• in 1997 a man opened fire on the Observation Deck, killing 1 tourist and injuring 7 others
• in 2010 a Yale student scaled the barrier on the Observation Deck and jumped to his death.

The guide book had advised pre-booking tickets, which you can then use on any day and at any time, to avoid the queues and, even though we were going at the end of the 'season', it proved to be very sound advice. That said, once inside, the queues for the first lift (to the 80th floor) were still lengthy.

As soon as we exited the lift at the 80th floor we saw some splendid examples of  Art Deco .....

.... as well as a small but informative series of exhibits about the men who had toiled on the construction of the building.

Then back into a lift for the ride to the 86th floor.

The views from the outdoor walkway were as stunning as we had hoped.

From up here we could see our next stop: Macy's.

Calling itself 'the world's largest store', the building went up in 1902 and takes up an entire block, offering about two million square feet of selling space. We rode to the 7th floor coffee shop. The first three floors had the fashionably upmarket look and feel we had expected, but from there up the drab displays of cheaper utilitarian goods, the shabby decor and the (presumably) original wooden escalators were evidence of the store's continued failure to recover from its economic crisis and bankruptcy of 1990-1992.

Times Square
Times Square took its name from the New York Times newspaper which built its offices here in 1904. Not actually a square at all, it is formed by the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Broadway. Traditionally it was the place where out-of-towners provided easy pickings for petty criminals, drug dealers and prostitutes but today its legendary pornography and crime has largely been replaced by superstores, high-rise office buildings and boutique hotels.
It's a moving mass of people and neon signs pulsate everywhere you look. You either love it or hate it. Quiet and under-stated it's not!

Rockefeller Centre
From Times Square we walked up Sixth Avenue, which more or less separates the business and theatre sides of Midtown New York. The block between 49th and 50th streets houses the Rockefeller Centre, built between 1930 and 1939, and now home to much of America's entertainment industry including the NBC studio.

On the north east corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street is the Art-Deco style Radio City Music Hall, arguably the most famous theatre in the US.

We continued walking up Sixth Avenue and were pleasantly surprised to find Bryant Park. Apparently, a few decades ago it was a seedy eye-sore but, like much of New York, has been transformed. Today it's a pleasant green space filled with trees, flowerbeds and inviting chairs. Nothing more  strenuous than relaxation was going on on the warm Wednesday afternoon we were there, but in summertime there are a host of free activities on offer while in winter the park's Citi Pond turns into an ice-skating rink.

Just behind Bryant Park is the hundred-year-old New York Public Library, faced in white marble and Beaux Arts in style. It's the HQ of the largest public library system in the world.

This corridor gives an idea of the scale, opulence and style of the interior.

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures in either the Map Room, or the 636-seat Reading Room on the third floor  where Leon Trotsky studied  just before the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Grand Central Terminal.
This has been on the 'must see' list since a visit to New York was first mooted. The scene of so many movies, we just had to see it for ourselves!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2013/02/01/grand-central-through-the-movies.html

This massive terminal sits on Pershing Square, where Park Avenue meets 42nd Street.

 The original station was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt on the site , but after the electrification of the railways made it possible to reroute trains underground the rail lines behind the existing station were sold off to developers and the profits went towards the building of a new massive terminal, built in 1913.

Centenary celebrated in window display.

 Grand Central clearly represents a time when stations were seen as miniature cities. Today its traffic consists mainly of commuters (up to 500,000 a day) speeding out to Connecticut, Westchester County and upstate New York.
The station's main concourse is 'one of the world's most imposing open spaces' (Rough Guide), 470 feet long and 150 feet high.

The barrel-vaulted ceiling is speckled like a Baroque church with a painted representation of the winter night sky, its 2500 stars shown back to front - 'as God would have seen them', the French painter Paul Hellen reputedly remarked.

We took an audio tour which was an excellent way to get to grips with what we were looking at and not get side-tracked by the sheer scale and opulence of the place. The chandeliers and marble would not have been out of place in an exclusive hotel.

At first glance these seemed just like windows, but then we saw people walking across them. A walkway had been built between two sets of windows to enable access between the station and adjoining offices.

Mention Grand Central to any movie-buff and they'll think of the magnificent staircases that have figured in so many films. The west stairway was completed in the 1920s, the steps being pink marble from Tennessee and the balustrades Italian marble. For some reason, the east stairway was not then built and it wasn't until the 1990s that they decided to go ahead, by which time the Tennessee quarries had been long closed so they had to be specially reopened.

Downstairs is the bustling Dining Concourse, furnished with the original oak benches that had provided seating for 500 in the upstairs Waiting Room of the pre-1913 building: an excellent example of recycling. Luggage racks from early 20th century trains have been used here too to give the space the look and feel of a railway compartment.

Chief among the eateries downstairs is the Grand Central Oyster Bar (steamed Maine lobster priced by the pound, oysters $2.95 each) in the vaulted bowels of the station. Renowned for its food certainly, but also for its Whispering Gallery: because of the arrangement of the tiles that line its walls and ceiling ....

......by an acoustic fluke, two people can stand on opposite sides of any of the vaulted spaces and hold a conversation. we tried it and it works!!