NY through a tourist's eyes

I admit it - I am one big ACHE. We walked MILES!  I met my friend Cécile at 10:00 this morning at her hotel.  En route to meet her, a glimpse of NY's Finest on horseback.  I forget how many there are, but they are always a pleasure to see.  He/she (who can tell?) doesn't look too happy about this jaywalker but I have never seen anybody get a ticket in NY for crossing in the middle of the street.  (Or for honking - for which there is ostensibly a $300 fine.) And here -- the symmetry of a NY parking garage.

 We took the subway down to Greenwich Village, where we started at the intersection of W.4th St. and 8th St. (only in NY) and walked through Washington Square Park. Lots of men playing chess and a few desultory guitar players.

From the arch at leafy Washington Square, we could look up 5th Ave. and see the Empire State Building, about 1-1/2 miles away.

Everywhere we went they were doing construction, but at least it looked reasonably attractive. Do you think this was on purpose?

 We think the green stuff on this building was covering up some structural problems.  OTOH - maybe it was decoration.

  From the Village to Soho, where we found a little shop selling fabulous one-of-a-kind resin jewelry

furniture, and accessories(not that you would try to sit on any of it!)

On our way down Lafayette Street to Soho, Cécile managed to liberate some - uh - already broken construction fence. Made her day!  She expected to be arrested, but no worries there.

 Continuing down the street...
we came across this woman, who was cheerfully doing a public service.

In Chinatown these were so pretty I had to take a picture but now I forget what they were called.

 Little Italy, NoLita, Union Square and finally, we went gallery hopping in Chelsea. We saw an exhibit we loved by an artist called Amy Sillman and after that, everything looked like junk.  Here are a couple of pieces we especially liked.

Then, in another gallery -- now, really.  Because of the reflection I couldn't get a good picture of the white-framed fragment of carpet. So sorry you are missing it.

For me, the best art of all was on one of the walls we came across as we walked outside.

Afterwards, we walked up to Hell's Kitchen and had a lovely dinner in an Italian restaurant -  Cécile walked me to the Port Authority and we each went our separate ways.

That's the short story -- I am leaving out a lot.  It was a day of photo-taking, and getting the flavor of the neighborhoods, which Cécile noted changed drastically and often from block to block. Washington Square was serene - and a block away, traffic and people were noisy and busy.  She called my attention to the jackhammer in Soho("dig we must for a better New York") to which I had hardly paid attention; and then to the fact that Mulberry St. in NoLita was so quiet because there was no traffic.  Things I never thought about but will observe with new eyes next time.

I am putting my feet to bed: it was a glorious day!

bridge game

After today's foray to the doctor and the hospital on NY's upper east side for various tests, measurements, and the ultrasound, we breezed over to the East Side Drive and headed downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. The entire trip to Jessica's should have taken a half-hour. An hour later, we were still sitting in rush hour traffic and hadn't even gotten to the Manhattan Bridge, which comes first. Here it is, in the distance. Not normally one to shoot pix while I drive, I nevertheless couldn't resist while I was trapped on the elevated highway, faced with this gorgeous view. We're getting a little closer to the Manhattan Bridge. Aren't the colors of the sky wonderful? See that triangle under the deck of the bridge? That's the Brooklyn Bridge, a couple of miles away. Obviously, I was moving when I shot this. I knew it would be a blur but didn't care. That shot of pale purple toward the bottom right is the East River. These pix were all shot between 5:29 pm and 5:43 pm today and during the last 8 minutes, the sky changed from the one above to this, complete with jeweled necklaces. The lights in the lower part of this photo are on the Brooklyn Bridge. And below, a closer view before I had to stop shooting because we were finally moving. Going home, it took me less time from Brooklyn to West Orange, NJ despite the bumper-to-bumper through Chinatown to the tunnel. I am happy to be home. hugs to all of you.

New York stories, part 2

Business at the jewelers concluded, we headed back downtown to the WTC. We hadn't had dessert at lunch, so we made a small detour to the landmark Ferrara's on Grand Street. This pasticceria has been there sincd 1892, although I will admit I don't remember back that far. However, it was always a treat to go there. It is elegant and European inside - but I didn't take pictures today, sorry. Marty treated himself to a large chocolate gelato and we brought home some pignoli cookies, a couple of biscotti, and my personal favorites - their sfoglietelle - two of which I am eating with a cup of tea as I write this saga. Ferrara's has the BEST sfoglietelle in th world (except maybe one that I had in Florence in 2000). They are so crisp and lemon-y, I could eat 100 of them. And I do not have a sweet tooth, so you can imagine!

But wait! While Marty was contemplating the pastries, I hot-footed it up the elegant, curving staircase to the ladies'. What did I find outside the door? Three women, waiting in LINE. A line at Ferrara's? At Starbucks, yes. Those restrooms are onesies. But Ferrara's has a real ladies' room, so there was no need to stand in the corridor. These women insisted the door was locked. Locked? Woman #1 had touched the door daintily and it did not move, so she assumed someone was in there. I said "PUSH! This door does not lock!" She pushed. It opened. Three empty stalls. Woman #3 turned and said "we're not from around here." Is that an excuse for not pushing the door open?? Apparently. They were from Dayton, OHIO and I guess the ladies' room doors open more easily there - LOL. I wished them a happy rest of their trip. According to Mapquest, our walk in each direction was about 3.6 miles - so we walked about 7 miles today. Enough to walk off the linguini and wine and the other stuff? Probably not. We left Ferrara's and headed through Chinatown, which has the most crowded sidewalks on the East coast. Everybody was shopping for tonight's dinner. The fruits and vegetables were gorgeous - and inexpensive. But we did not buy.

One last story. 4 or 5 women got on the PATH at the WTC, chattering delightedly. A man asked where they were from and they answered "everywhere!" They were staying in Jersey City, NJ (one PATH stop from NY) for some kind of convention or conference - one from Seattle, another from Texas, etc. and they'd been shopping in NY. They, in turn, asked the man whether he commuted every day and when he said yes, they all pulled out their Metrocards, each of which had $1.50 left (1 way on the PATH) and gave them to him. Random acts of kindness...a beautiful end to a beautiful day.

New York stories, part I

This is what started it all. My beloved bracelet, which we bought in Italy almost seven years ago and which I wear every day, broke. Fortunately, the company just opened their US corporate headquarters in New York and we had to take it in there so they could send it back to Italy to be fixed. We had such a terrific day that Marty swears I broke the bracelet on purpose, just to have an excuse to go into the city. I don't THINK so. The jewelbox of a boutique (if you'll excuse the expression) was on Mott St. - just north of Chinatown in what is now known as NOLITA (North of Little Italy). Parking is not fun, nor is traffic on Canal St. in the heart of Chinatown, so we parked in Newark and took the PATH to the World Trade Center. Here is the railroad bridge near Penn Station in Newark. What is it with me and industrial grids?

Here is a sign on a building in Newark I thought was especially informative. We walked up Broadway in lower Manhattan and for a little while, thought we were in Paris. This mini-chateau is a firehouse. I wonder if it was built as one. Anyway, we walked through Little Italy to a neighborhood our grandparents couldn't wait to get out of. Now, it is HOT HOT HOT and people pay megabucks to live in the tenements. It's hard to resist Little Italy, which we approached at around noon (how convenient). I think there are more restaurants there now than there were when it was REALLY Little Italy, if you know what I mean. We stopped at this place on Mulberry Street and Marty asked the guy standing outside (a sort of maitre d') whether the food was good. His answer, "no, we only serve bad food." IMHO, he got the answer he deserved. I turned to Marty and started to ask him in French (I have no idea why) what he wanted to do and the guy started speaking to ME in French. Turns out he is from Morocco and we had a great conversation. He recommended les fruit de mer (frutti de mare on THIS menu). Bottom line, we ate there. Just as if we were tourists in some other country. It was lovely. A glass of pinot noir, an espresso, and I was in heaven. Then we were ready to continue our walk for a few more blocks.This is enough for one installment. To be continued in my next post.

another city day

I started to take a picture of a gritty factory from the PATH platform this morning on the way into NY to meet Jette and Joanie. Before I could, a security person told me I was forbidden to take pictures from the train platform because I might be a terrorist. He said it would be ok to take pix from the train, but I am sure he knew that the grime on the train windows would make it impossible. No problem, I made up for it later. Here are my friends in front of B&N at Union Square. I am not sure what this guy was about, but I don't think he was recruiting for the Gotham Writers' Workshop. We had lunch at Blue Water Grill, where I did NOT take a picture of the food - and then we walked to SOHO to find the Drawing Center. On the way, we stopped in a clothing store where we managed to resist the $450 skirt on this model. Actually, the exhibit at the Drawing Center was amazing. Minimalist work by the late artist GeGo - wire, pen and ink, monoprints - so simple and so interesting at the same time. Jette bought the catalog and I ordered it from Amazon when I got home.I wasn't going to, but later, at the World Trade Center, I saw this wonderful art and it reminded me that I needed the exhibit catalog.But I am jumping ahead. New York is full of visual stimuli. Here are a few as we walked down from 14th St. through SOHO. Jette needed embroidery floss, so we stopped at Pearl Paint's annex and she bought a bunch to take back to Antwerp.Here we are among the crayons. Joanie went on her way and Jette and I continued our walk down to the WTC where I caught the PATH back to NJ and she took the subway back to Brooklyn. We wandered in St. Paul's peaceful graveyard and I remembered that it looked as though it were covered in snow on that day in September.They are filling in the hole now and you can watch from the terminal. It should, by rights, be a park. It will be another multi-gazillion story office tower.