01 June 2023: Central Park NYC

Another late sleep in after another late night (one that we thought wouldn’t be late).

We headed straight for the subway, ok, not straight for, after coffee for - and jumped on a train uptown to 72nd street as today was our Central Park day. We started off at The Dakota. I saw the gates, I didn’t want to stop at them though. Walking past was enough. Looked up at the building and felt a little sad. We wandered into the park and tried to dodge all the walking tour groups. There were at least half a dozen with up to twenty people in each group. And they were loud.

Just a little way in was Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic. There was a guy playing guitar and singing Beatles tunes and a few people joining in on the harmonies. The mosaic itself is small, unobtrusive, and simple. I guess that gets the message across.

We walked on, towards the Lake and Bethesda fountain & terrace. There were lots of horse drawn carriages, guys with bikes for bike drawn carriages and just people on bikes or walking or running. It was a really lively place. There were also quite a few school tours. When we got to the fountain there must have been at least three different schools on excursion. There was a guy busking under the terrace (take a look if you go in here, the ceilings have just been restored with replica Minton tiles from the original 1860s makers) and the school kids all joined in on “All of Me” and “Shallow”. The acoustics were perfect for it. And just for information sake, the ladies toilets here are clean and ok to use, except they have very short doors, so when you stand up, everyone is looking at you. It’s a shock to the system.

We came across a large bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen reading his “Ugly Duckling” story to a duck, so I went and sat beside him to hear the story. Oh, there’s no audio, it was just in my head. We walked past the (closed) boathouse and on to the Alice in Wonderland statue. A lady was sitting in the statue, and so I now have a photo of myself with Alice and a strange lady. We strolled past or under lots of little bridges, saw an obelisk, watched two NYC policemen on motorbikes escort a car followed by a large police van (looked like the riot squad to me) and then stop just up from us. There was a driver and no one else in the car, so buggered if I know who they were escorting. We also saw many squirrels (yay).

We jumped back onto the roadside and had a look at the front of the Met and the Guggenheim. Unfortunately you can’t even get into the lobby of the museums without paying. After spending days in museums in London and Rome, we didn’t think we’d see many different things in these ones to justify the price.

Back into the park again to cross over to the other side - so we did a LOT of park walking. The park is very big. You have been warned. We found the Jackie Onassis reserve, which is pretty hard to miss considering the size of it, and looked across at all the very expensive apartments and buildings overlooking Central Park. A bit more wandering, a few more squirrels and a large flock of pigeons all angling for mating rites and we were at 93rd street. 93rd street and Central Park W have the best hotdog stand in NYC. Or so I’ve been told by some world famous video bloggers. Now we haven’t had a different hotdog in New York so we have nothing to compare it to, but I think it’s safe to say that Jimmy’s hotdogs were pretty good. We went back to the park to eat them and I didn’t spill any sauce on myself (bonus)!

We decided we were just too wiped out from the previous few days and there wasn’t much else uptown that we wanted to see, so we headed for the subway to catch back downtown. On the way, Mr Whippy of my youth, be still my beating heart. It was creamy and yummy and everything I remember them to be. And it’s a hot day today (29c) so it was nice to cool down with an ice-cream.

We’re currently back at home (The Hotel Chelsea is now officially my home away from home) resting up a bit before our last dinner in NY tonight at the MO cafe (Mandarin Oriental). My feet hurt.


Later…


We’ve just arrived ‘home’ from our last dinner in NYC at the MO lounge. I got the times mixed up so we arrived at 6pm rather than 8pm! We could have stayed at home for longer and relaxed that bit more. Oh well. We caught the subway up to Columbus Circle and the MO was just around the corner. We left at 5:10pm thinking that we’d arrive around 6pm due to the peak hour traffic and packed subways. It wasn’t packed. It was less packed than a Brisbane peak hour - maybe because the trains are more frequent and so much longer. So we arrived at 5:30pm. We wandered around aimlessly for a bit and then went to Target as Mark didn’t bring enough undies. They have their undies behind glass in a locked cabinet!!! We had to ask the lady to open it so that we could get a pack. And they sell things in logical sizes - 10 pack set of socks, 12 pack set of undies etc. Just buy them once and bam, you’re done!

We headed up to the hotel and explained that we had the times wrong but were hoping we could be seated anyway. The maître D lady was very serious and bristly. Mark mentioned how we had booked a window seat and she very firmly put him in his place with a brusque “requested” as there were no guarantees. *insert eye roll here* We got a window seat and lazily worked our way through a couple of drinks and a meal so that we could savour the lights turning on over NYC.

Now, I heard about this place through a VBlogger as a way to have a city lights dinner without it costing your first born. Having said that, NY prices and Aussie dollars make for an expensive night out even if you are eating at McDonalds (which we haven’t). But, the $6 for a coffee is $9 for us. So $20 and $25 cocktails are to be savoured when had. Anyway, this place overlooks the lower end of Central Park. You can look across to the expensive apartments across the park, and all the fancy skyscrapers to the right. An ideal place really and cheap compared to many other ‘nightlight view’ places we had seen around.

We had a cocktail each (if you are looking at the menu in the photos, I had ‘Do you speak Mandarin?’ and I almost did after two of them) and then decided on our food, all while the sun was slowly sinking. We had some green chickpeas hummus for an entre, which was pretty nice, and then Mark had the New York Strip Steak (as you do in NY) and I had the Roasted Chatham Cod for our mains. The cocktails were sensational. Enough said. We did however try the Hazelnut Chocolate Decadence for dessert and it was pretty good.

We uber’ed home, still not keen on the subway at night. We were both totally exhausted from the previous few days, and I hadn’t had a bath in that great big sumptuous claw foot piece of magnificence in the Hotel Chelsea, so I decided it was now or never. SO worthwhile. I may or may not have fallen asleep for a bit. Shush. And then we had to pack. Urgh. Hotel Chelsea to be home no more. It was a very sad story, but it was time to move on. It provided the most memorable NYC holiday ever – I still can’t believe we stayed there. Tomorrow, one last NYC brekkie and then Washington DC, here we come!

Central Park prettiness photos here!

31 May 2023: Brooklyn

This was always going to be a big day. Our Brooklyn day. We set out into the subway, headed for Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown. And then we walked. And walked. We had heard about Eileen’s Cheesecake shop, it’s meant to be one of the original and best for cheesecakes (obviously). So we headed in there to buy a couple to have for morning tea.

Little Italy and Chinatown weren’t too far from there and so we headed in that direction. Interesting areas, but probably better to head down there at night for dinner. Little Italy looks like it would come alive. I had read that Little Italy is really now in Brooklyn and that this original one is a bit touristy. We did stop at one of the restaurants for an espresso though (and because this is the best way to use the restrooms LOL).

Chinatown was a bit smelly to be honest, and the one place in NYC where almost everyone was in a mask – so I was happy to not spend long there. It was full of gaudy gold shops and loaded with souvenir traps. There is so much MAGA stuff out there – I did think the bobbly headed Trumps seemed appropriate though. Wobbly, engorged and empty.

Onto the subway again headed for Broad Street, which is back in the financial district and close to the place we’d catch the ferry across to Brooklyn. We popped out of the station at the Stock Exchange, so I jumped in for a photo with the Fearless Girl statue. She had been moved down here rather than in front of the bull (the bull’s artist wanted it moved because he thought it “exploited his work for commercial purposes and altered the perception of the bull”. Pfft. Thanks Google).

We walked down past Domenico’s which claims to be the place that eggs benedict originated amongst other delicacies and on to a little park to eat our cheesecakes. It was the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th garden. It was created to symbolise the friendship and common causes between the US and the Commonwealth people. After 9/11, it was expanded to include dedications for Commonwealth victims. It was a lovely piece of greenery amongst all the concrete. Having said that, NYC excels at little green spaces scattered everywhere.

We sat and ate our cheesecakes, accompanied by a few sparrows who are obviously used to picking up crumbs that humans leave behind. Bold little things. The cheesecake was nice, but not mind-blowing, which is what I had hoped for. It was a nice break to say the least. Tally ho! On to the ferry stop.

The ferry across to Brooklyn at Pier 11 was only $4.00 and was a nice and easy trip. We got a little confused about where to purchase tickets but there was a guy there directing people (it wasn’t crowded at all) who pointed us in the right direction, and said he thought my sunglasses were cool (so I liked him). We didn’t have to wait long for the ferry to arrive and jumped on and sat on the open air section at the back of the boat. The trip across was quick and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to look at where we had come from or where we were going to. Both Views were pretty good. The ferry pulled up right next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

There was a pretty park to wander through to get to the other side of the bridge which is where that postcard picture stuff view is all about. It wasn’t particularly busy but it looked as though it was pretty much tourists only. We took SO many photos. Looking at the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan behind it, and looking the other way at the Manhattan Bridge. I don’t think a trip to NYC would be complete without heading over to this area. The carousel that I’ve seen in lots of movies is also here – it just happened to be playing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ at the time. Go figure!

We walked towards the Manhattan Bridge into the ‘Pebble Beach’ area, it’s really called “DUMBO” for ‘down under the Manhattan overpass’. This is THE spot for the perfect photo. THE spot. Except for the day we were there. There was a barge, with cranes and rocks and a whole heap of messiness sitting in the middle of the shot. Oh well. It was definitely a pebble beach, although I’m not sure I’d really want to swim in the Hudson. We sat there for a bit to take in the view and were astounded at the loudness of the trains crossing over the Manhattan Bridge. They were so very loud!

We walked up to a spot that has become Instagram famous. Washington & Water Street. Take a look at the photos and you’ll recognise it. Solid old brick building with a perfect shot of the Manhattan Bridge in between. We joined the throngs and took our own insta pic. It was late lunch time and it was starting to get pretty busy. Early morning would be your best bet if you wanted that perfect shot with no one else around.

A little further down the road we stumbled onto John Fluevog’s shoe shop. I couldn’t help but go in and have a wander around. If you’re into hand made, cool and funk, very original shoes, Fluevogs is the place to go. They told me that they have a store in Melbourne now – but he started up in the 70s in NYC, so this was the real deal. I left without buying any shoes.

We went to the ‘Time Out Markets’ to grab a late-ish lunch but the rooftop area was full. I took a photo and we headed back to street level. We walked past a seafood place with a happy hour sign. It called to us as the happy hour had just begun. Seamore’s sustainable seafood. We had some baja fish soft tacos and helped ourselves to two drinks each from the happy hour menu. I may have already said it previously, but it bears repeating: New York knows how to do cocktails!

We stumbled out of there into the chocolate shop next door – Jaques Torres. This was another Vlogger recommendation. We had trouble deciding which chocolates we’d like to try. We made the hard decisions and headed out with a very prettily wrapped box of 12. Then we wandered, and wandered and wandered some more. We went back past the ferry stop and walked along the boardwalk. The view is just so iconic that it’s pinch yourself kind of stuff to think you’re actually there, looking at it. The Statue of Liberty was off in the distance, people were playing soccer in the park, the sun was beating (really beating) down on us and sheesh, there we were – we were in NYC. (Yes, I was a little gobsmacked, still). Further down was an area that you could hire kayaks and a little past that, one of the docks had been turned into basketball courts. There were lots of courts and lots of people playing.

We headed up (well, under really) the Brooklyn Queens expressway and into the streets of Brooklyn itself. We saw lots of the really beautiful and obviously very expensive brownstones. Most of them were five storeys, if you included the sub street basement like apartments. They all had the little steps leading up to them, again, it looked straight out of a movie set. The back of many of these places looked out over the boulevard and so they had that amazing view. I cannot imagine how much the real estate value would be.

A bit more of a wander along the promenade saw us land at Harriet’s Rooftop Bar where we planned to spend some time sipping and watching the sun set. They gave us a table in the corner, which looked out at the city and the Brooklyn Bridge. What a place to have a cocktail! I promptly sent photos to my friends! We had edamame and lychee cocktails and a ladies room with the best view ever. The sun set behind the skyscrapers and we watched all the pinks and oranges appear.

A few drinks generally means ‘I’m hungry’ and we were both also pretty exhausted from all the walking. We left Harriet’s and headed over to Juliana’s pizza place. Another recommendation – I’d say it was a good one. We passed a police officer on the way, leaning up against his car eating an icecream – he nicely obliged for a photo, hiding his icecream behind him.

Juliana’s was busy busy. We joined the line to get in, and because there was only two of us, the wait wasn’t long. Everyone else seemed to be in groups of 4 and 6 people. This was a no-fuss restaurant. Very plain, very simple, very busy and very noisy. No romantic dinners here as you couldn’t really hear each other. We ordered a classic margherita pizza and it wasn’t long before it was delivered. It was great. We’ve been spoiled by our good wood-fired oven pizzas over here, this was an equivalent. Nice and crispy on the base and a good, solid tomato sauce. A most enjoyable meal after some full on walking.

We went back to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge to take a good, long look at the city all lit up. It really is spectacular. It is “all that”. But we were exhausted and a bit cold, so we rang an Uber and headed back to our NYC home.


Have a look at the many, many iconic photos of both buildings and cocktails here.