I am Linda and along with my husband Richard and our dog Muffin we enjoy our summers on the UK's canal system

Tuesday 23 June 2015

New York - Friday 12 June

My feet haven't touched the ground since we got back home and I'm only just getting round to blogging about New York.  I will publish one day at a time so you don't get muddled up!


Friday

We had decided to eat breakfast out while we were in New York so headed out about 8.30am.  We went to the deli at the bottom of the street and had a nice breakfast but at $25 we won’t be doing it again!  Back at the apartment we met our Apple Greeter, Barbara.  Big Apple Greeter had been recommended to us by friends and we thought we would give them a try.  Big Apple Greeter was founded in 1992 by Lynn Brooks as the first “welcome visitor” program of its kind in the United States.  The 300+ volunteer Greeters bring approximately 7,000 visitors a year to more than 100 neighbourhoods throughout the City. Since its launch, Big Apple Greeter has welcomed visitors from all 50 states and 124 countries, with visits conducted in over 20 languages.  It is a free service but if you would like to make a donation then that can be done through their website.

Barbara had a plan and we followed her lead.  We started off by getting the subway to Madison Square – it was so hot and stuffy in subway not like the underground in London.  We walked round the square and saw the Flatiron Building which is considered to be a ground-breaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city at 21 floors high, and one of only two skyscrapers north of 14th Street. 



 We walked through a farmers’ market and I saw the most amazing radishes!


From there we took a bus (lots of transit education going on here!) to the High Line.  This is a 1.45 mile long linear park built on an elevated section of a disused railroad spur called the West Side Line.  The High Line Park uses the disused southern portion of the West Side Line running to the Lower West Side of Manhattan.  There was a lovely breeze up there but it was still very hot.  We walked from one end to the other, admiring the lovely flora and fauna on our way.




By the end of the High Line we were extremely hot and fairly exhausted but ever keen to carry on we followed Barbara until she stopped at a bar where we collapsed!!  It had been a long, hot morning but we had learnt so much and seen places that I’m sure we wouldn’t have seen on our own.  Barbara is so knowledgeable and obviously loves her city very much.  It was a great experience and we were so lucky to have found her.

After lunch and lots of water we walked on to try and get our pre-booked hop-on hop-off bus tickets.  Our paperwork told us that there was a store just up from the bar that had a ticket booth so we wandered off only to find that the store closes at 1pm on a Friday – I guess it must be owned by Orthodox Jews as they were everywhere.  The next place was about 3 blocks away so we walked up there only to find that the booth is only manned in the morning!  The next office was at the Empire State Building where we finally got our tickets.  However by this stage we were so exhausted after walking around 2.5 miles in about 33° C that we didn’t fancy going on the bus and took a taxi back to the apartment. 

After a well deserved rest we put on our glad rags as we were going to see Jersey Boys – well you can’t come to New York and not see a show on Broadway can you??!  We stopped for dinner first which was appalling – the worst meal we have had for years L  However Jersey Boys made up for it – it was fantastic and even Richard said the enjoyed it (not a great one for enthusiasm my husband!)  We sat tapping our feet and no-one wanted it to end.


We were shattered when we got back to the apartment and just fell into bed.

A few more photos from today



These are knitted pigeons - she wanted $25 each!
Found on the High Line - I guess it's a bovine bone as it's near the meat packers


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