So come Friday morning, I was ready for NEW YORK, NEW YORK.....
So good they named it....err.....once, One City in the state of the same name.
I got the train from Union Station, Washington DC to Penn Station, New York. I noticed many of the stations en route were named Penn station, I later found out the track was built by The "Pennsylvania Railroad" and so they named their stations Penn. Incidentally, Penn Station, NY is the busiest station in the USA, Union Station, DC is the second.
The trip was beautiful passing through big towns, small towns, forests and crossing huge rivers, literally just the train line went over the rivers, and amazing sight being on a train surrounded by water.
My first entertainment came when we got to the first station and a group of young Indian monks got on with a couple of adults. Accompanying them were an America man and woman (Who looked like they had been their hosts) spent so much time kissing every member of the group and saying goodbye that the train doors shut and we were on our way. Much to my horror, the guy walked up the train looking for the emergency stop, as if the train driver was going to back up a couple of miles to drop them off. Luckily they accepted their fate and took solace in the fact they hadn't boarded the (three hour) non-stop direct express.
My second entertainment came in the way of the kid opposite, but this became annoying within 10 minutes. Imagine, if you will, the most annoying child American accent asking 20 question and pointing out the bloody obvious every 2 minutes. Up until this moment I just thought that some American child actors were very wooden, now I understand they come from the same town as this kid.
We gently chugged through Baltimore, Newark, Philadelphia and three hours after I started, New York. Coming up through Penn Station there was a TV crew and a guy speaking to the public, he was probably famous as many people went up to him professing their love for his work. It looked like an insert for one of the Late shows, Letterman, Leno etc...
Incidentally for any people in the industry reading this, 1 presenter, 1 x producer, 1 x director, 2 x camera, 2x sound. For a vox pop insert....Luxury.
Coming up from from the station you go though Madison Square Gardens, which always reminds me of boxing. I watched a few famous fights on the telly with dad when I was younger, and I arrived on the day before a big Joe Calzaghe fight.
Coming up to street level was “Awesome”, a word I used lightly as it is so often over used and often in the wrong way, but as I looked around me I was rooted to the ground, mouth open at the amount of things happening around me. Hoards of people, cars, buses, trucks, tooting horns, tall buildings, touts, tourists, taxis, commuters, I just didn't know where to turn. This is the first time I have ever understood how a visitor to London must feel, and maybe I might be a little more tolerant of tourists at home.....for a few days.
I had a hit list of things I wanted to do in my day and a half, so I had to get cracking. I got a "hop on hop off" ticket for a tour bus so I could freely get around but I didn't actually use it much as it was much nicer to walk.
The Empire State building was on my list but I had been warned of the lengthy two hour queues. As I was stood next to it, I decided I would take a look but with so much to do would bail out if it looked like a long wait. I needn't have worried, from entrance to standing on the 86th floor took around 15 minutes.
I like starting a trip in a city with tower top view, you get a great chance to get your geography in check and learn quite a lot in the process, then at ground level you can explore everything that looked interesting from above.
Despite being warned at the bottom that the visibility was nil, I was more than satisfied with the distance my eye could stretch, and for once quite enjoyed the information given to me on my hand held audio device, (The audio clips were not too long as so many are..).
On my way out the queue was five times the length as when I went it, I was very lucky, or maybe it's just because I went at lunchtime.
Ready to tackle the city I headed to Times Square for a late lunch and I had already started to get a good idea of the type of place New York was, It had all the elements of London on a grander scale, in a smaller space.
Times Square is Piccadilly Circus with added sugar, if you took someone who had lived with a remote tribe all their life and dumped them in Times Square it would kill them in seconds with over stimulation. Goodness knows how much energy is used up in the thousands of flashing lights and screens. I'm sure we could halt global warming if we just turned Times Square off.
I was meeting my host Ann for dinner with friends later that night so I didn't want to embark on anything I wouldn't be able to get back from on time, (you know me, never one to be late). So I decided that two hours would be just enough time for a tour of MOMA, The Museum of Modern Art.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, if you ever come to New York, plan one whole day to go to MOMA, it was one of the highlights of the trip. It is spread over six floors, so I headed to the top and worked my way down.
The 6th was dedicated to a temporary display of Joan Miró, I spent quite a bit of time round here. Know for his “assassination of painting” it is clear to see this is a man who just wanted to break free from “normality”. Most of his painting are twisted, warped and very surreal, the gallery also had papers from his workings showing how he would cut every day items from catalogues, paste them on paper and set about interpreting them in his abstract way.
The 5th and 4th floor are the painting and sculpture floors. I wasn't prepared for amount of paintings I recognised, but so many incredibly famous painters and their pieces an inch from my eye. Some were bigger, some were smaller than I had realised and a few somehow just looked slightly different (light, brushwork, perspective etc.), which made me realise how much you can lose in a print of a painting.
At this stage I started to realise just how much I had underestimated this museum. I was now into my allocated time to make my way to Ann's apartment when I decided on a very very brisk trip round the 3rd and 2nd floors. The Print / Media room took my eye and I wished I could stay longer, I think dad would have enjoyed the print room, many displays on the development of printing that he would have experienced as an apprentice printer.
I left with a promise that I would dedicate any spare time tomorrow to come back here.
Now being a person that is routinely late (although I'm getting better), I had actually left MOMA with a reasonable amount of time to walk back to Penn station to pick up my bag. This meant a night time walk through Times Square, but as I was in a rush and had seen it earlier I was soon back to my tourist bashing walking at speed though Central London mode.
With my suitcase safely back in my hands (Amtrak kindly looked after it all day for $4, can't see South West Trains at Kings Cross doing that). I ventured for my first experience of the subway.
A ticket to anywhere is $2 and if you buy in bulk much cheaper, I realise I keep comparing prices and the London Underground may be a much bigger system to run, but I do think public transport should be much more affordable than it is.
I found time to regain my sympathy for London tourists as I tried to make sense of the Subway. The trains and destinations make logical sense, the direction and more importantly which platform you need I found more mystical. However I stepped on the first train I thought was right and got lucky.
I (as a self-confessed train/transport nerd) would also like to point out that the NY Subway in some points has many tracks for the same line, this has two advantages. First of all, the system runs 24/7 (They can shut parts down and keep the system running) and secondly they can run express trains that only stop at major stations, that is a major luxury.
After a short walk through Lower Manhattan I arrived at Ann and Chris' flat and had a good catch up before heading straight out to dinner with some friends, which I kindly been invited to attend.
We went to a nice restaurant in the Lower East Side, described to me as the East London of New York. On the way home. Ann and Chris kindly offered to point out some interesting buildings and stories of New York which included walking past the site of the World Trade Centre.
Now a few people had mentioned this to me before I went, some said there was an amazing feel about the place, some said it's a building site. The latter is very much the case. I had no intention of visiting the WTC as a tourist attraction, Something just does not seem right about it, but having said that, I was interested to see the site just to put into perspective the pictures that will be engrained in my mind for many years to come. More about this later.....
Saturday 8th November 2008
On a day off, I'm not an early riser, on holiday with a mission things change. I was raring to go Saturday morning and set off with my list of objectives for the day. The beautiful Autumn sun of yesterday was now hidden under a grey drizzle, so I decided I should tackle the ferry trip whilst it was relatively dry.
The ferry terminal is over on the East side of town, so I decided to walk to it so I could see a bit of Lower Manhattan. On the way I again passed the site of the World Trade Centre.
As I said before I had no real interest in this as a tourist attraction and found the people selling memorabilia round the edge of the site slightly odd.
On one side of the site is a small church, so I decided to have a little poke round, but soon after entering I realised it was more of a museum of 9/11 with artefacts and pictures adorning the walls. Something just didn't feel right at the amount of people snapping away at anything pinned to the wall, I left saddened that such a place had almost been forgotten as a church and a place crucial to the rescue effort to make way for a tourist attraction. I feel it would have been nicer to have one memorial and put the tragedy and people of those terrible events to rest.
With a lot to think about I continued on my path across Manhattan stopping off at Wall Street on the way. There really is nothing to Wall Street but a lot of famous names above buildings.
The literal jewel in the street being the New York Stock Exchange, which given the recent worldwide credit crisis seemed to give the building a sad feel.
One other building of note is Federal Hall where George Washington took the oath. This was home to the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices. A popular "Grip and Grin" photo opportunity with George available here.
Purely by chance, I arrived at the ferry terminal five minutes before it set off, and given my tight schedule I was delighted with that. Many people will tell you on a trip to NY to get the free Staten Island Ferry for a good view of the Statue of Liberty. I however had a free ferry trip included in my bus ticket so opted for the one hour round trip which went under the Brooklyn bridge as well.
Leaving the city behind was quite a spectacular sight as the rain was starting to set in, a rain cloud hung over Lower Manhattan, almost attracted to the towers.
The ferry was very enjoyable, but for no advertised reason. The boat was 70% full of Japanese and most of them were men. From the time we slipped the mooring they lived up to their photographic stereotype by snapping their shutters non-stop. As we got close to the Statue of Liberty I became more interested in watching the rush to be photographed many times in an array of poses
Now some of these people had top of the range digital SLR cameras, and these display your picture on the back as you take it, I was having a sneaky peek at their dreadful composition. Now I realise I'm sounding pretentious, but there really was no care to place a face next to the item at all.
So for the best part of the trip I was happily on the opposite side of the boat to the attraction we were passing, happily watching the tourists instead of the sights. The guide on the boat was pretty useless, so I quite happily read my own history on the boat.
We passed Ellis Island which used to be the main entry point for immigrants to America until 1954, when it closed, 12 million immigrants had passed through the Island.
Then we passed the Statue of Liberty, a present from the French to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence, (probably more of a “two fingers” to the British knowing the French). Although they struggled with funding, so fundraisers and lotteries were run either side of the Atlantic whilst they were building it, so as the Americans contributed to the cost I'm not sure how much of a present it was.
The inside structure was designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower).
After a brief stop here to facilitate each tourists 20 snaps in a variety of poses we headed back to the Brooklyn Bridge (Which I'll come back to) before arriving back at the dock.
The weather at this point had started to turn for the worse, but as I had just been under, and was next to the Brooklyn Bridge it seemed a sensible point to walk over it, as I headed to the walkway the heavens opened, and being in a light jacket I decided it would be sensible to head back to the apartment to get my umbrella and waterproof cagoule.
Now prepared for any weather, I walked back to the bridge and crossed over on the public walkway that runs through the middle of the bridge and above the traffic. It's a really nice walk and a great way to enjoy the architecture of the bridge.
Designed by German-born John Augustus Roebling. Shortly after construction started in 1870, he got his foot stuck between a ferry and a pylon and soon died of Tetnus. His son, Washington, took over and whilst working in compressed air got Decompression sickness, (The Bends). He was bedridden with the disease so his wife Emily finished it off whilst Washington directed from his bed. She was the first person to cross it when it opened.
Anyway, enough history. Entering Brooklyn feels a bit like East London, lovely old dis-used industrial factories and areas that look much poorer than much of Manhattan. It felt like the "real" New York, where the "normal" people live away from all the Glitz and glamour".
Central Park was next, I negotiated the subway again and whilst checking I was heading in the right direction, a quintessentially English voice to my right asked to borrow my map. A nice chap from Cambridge (I think) was over visiting his dad-in-law. We had a nice chat before I left to negotiate the park.
It's around Upper Manhattan and the city tower blocks literally run right up to the start of the park. The transition between the City and Park is strange, and given that it was October and about 5pm it was pretty quiet inside.
I had considered an Ice Skate, but it is strange doing it on your own and given my time constraints I had already ruled it out, but I still wanted to see the rink. When I got there, it was open, music was playing over the loudspeakers but there was nobody to be seen, not even any staff, it was quite apocalyptic.
I had a nice stroll through the park as the light started to dim. I vividly remember my time in New England when I was 18 and the colours here were as stunning as I had remembered them further up the country. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the City.
I walked for the best part of an hour and when I decided that it was getting a bit too dark I popped out the side to get the bus back. I checked where I was on the map, only to discover I'd only made it a third of the way through.
I got the tour bus back to the top of town and had a walk down 5th Avenue, I walked into a few shops but the volume of people, horrible commercialism and people that were just there to push others out the way so they could shop shop shop, soon had me moving on.
My list was now complete, so I decided to head back to MOMA to spend my evening there, but it was shut, it only opens late on a Friday.
I walked back through Times Square to see it at night time. I passed the Ed Sullivan theatre where the David Letterman show comes from, I used to watch that when we first got cable at home.
I thought I may as well use my bus ticket and take their night tour. About half an hour in, I was bored to tears, the guide was worse than the one on the boat. In just a day and a half I had notched up a fair amount if history, facts and stories, and he mentioned none of them as we passed famous buildings. As the bus reached Lower Manhattan I jumped off in search of food.
I decided to treat myself to a farewell meal and found a stunning Italian Restaurant in "Little Italy" and had a great meal. After which I had nothing more to fulfil and so headed back to the apartment to say farewell (I had a early flight) and to bed.
In the morning, and I didn't realise at the time, I trundled my case to the next major road and hailed a cab, jumped in and just said "JFK please mate" in a scene straight from any Hollywood film.
The ride to the airport was lovely, the miserable weather that had accompanied me for Sunday had passed and it was a clear sky with a low bright winter sun rising as I crossed the Brooklyn bridge and left New York behind me to come home.
