Wednesday 3 September 2003

It is not our first time that we fly to New York and we plan to see and do somewhat less obvious things than the big tourist attractions.  We fly with NorthWest Airlines from Amsterdam to Newark Liberty International Airport.  The flight leaves 45 minutes behind schedule, but we do arrive around 2pm - almost on time - at  Newark. Newark is in New Jersey just on the other side of the Hudson River. After immigration we look for and find the Airtrain. This a free unmanned monorail connecting the terminals and the parking lots with each other and the NJ Transit  train station. Every  3 minutes a train pulls up to the platform. At the train station we change to the train for New York Penn Station ($11,55 one way), where we arrive about  20 minutes later. Here we take a taxi to Charles, a friend of ours, who will be our host for the coming days.

We are fairly tired of the journey and we have to rest a bit. After that we can muster enough courage to take in the city atmosphere. We walk from Park Avenue via Fitht to and 34th Street to  Herald Square. Here there a lots of shopping opportunities - mainly fashion - and Macy's, the world largest department store. Tired as we are, we cannot resist buying some clothes. It is raining on and off, but it is not cold. On the contrary: it is damp and warm. .  

Charles is living splendidly in the desirable  neighbourhood of Murray Hill and we are close to anything. At night we eat Italian in a good, yet not so cheap restaurant: Cinque Terre op E38 Street.

Today it is raining unfortunately. Not heavily, but steadily. We first set out for some breakfast. (Charles apparently is not  a breakfast person and we do not feel like shopping for it) . We find a fine address on  E 34th Street (Austin's Café, Park Ave & E34 St). After breakfast we take the Subway (underground) to Times Square. We buy an MTA MetroCard at a vending machine. It is a rechargeable magnetic card, which you can charge with money, off which you can travel on subways and busses. For convenience sake we load it with 7-day unlimited travel ticket for $21. A single ride costs $2 which makes it a good deal: easy and good value. The once famous subway tokens have disappeared. On Times Square we walk around the corner into 42nd Street towards the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Here we collect our tickets for tonight's performance of the musical  42nd Street. We had booked and paid for the tickets from home through TicketMaster on the Internet. They do not come cheap ($100 each), but we do sit in the middle of the 2nd row! 

We walk down 42nd Street Eastward and get to Bryant Park. In the rain the nice park looks a bit sad. On its Eastern flank is the   New York Public Library. This library is based in a magnificent  Beaux Arts building. We do not take the guided tour, but wander around on our own. The most beautiful part is the Reading Room on the 3rd floor. A gigantic oasis of silence, wooden paneling and breath taking frescoes on the ceilings. This is where Leon Trotsky studied on his brief stay in New York in 1917. He introduced his buddy Bukharin. The library has 88 miles of books over 8 floors, but we cannot see those of course.  

We move on to Grand Central Station. This railway temple from 1913 straddles across Park Avenue, dividing it in two. Most impressive is the main concourse with it grand windows and ceiling. The station was saved from destruction only in 1978 when it was declared an official landmark. It was completely restored in 1995 and a couple of restaurants were added, like the Oyster Bar. In the basement we found a market selling vegetables, fruit, chees and fish.  Security has become an issue here since September 11, 2001, as police and military are all over the place. 

A bit further down 42nd Street is the Chrysler Building from 1930. For a very short while this was the world's highest building before it was overtaken by the Empire State Building a year later. It is a fine example of Art Deco with elements inspired on the car and a spire modelled on a car radiator. The architect Van Alen made the spire secretly within the building in order to mislead rival architect who was working on a builidng on Wall Street. When the building on Wall Street was completed higher than the Chrysler building, Van Alen popped out the spire and won the battle.  Chrysler has long left the building, after which it fell into decay. It was renovated in 2000 by the architect Philip Johnson.

We continue to the Empire State Building. After September 11, 2001 this is now the highest building in the city. We want to go up, but first we have to go through a thorough security check. Then they tell us that the view is limited to half a mile today because of the weather...and no money back! We decide not to  go and wait for tomorrow as the weather forecasts are very promising. We go for lunch on 5th Avenue. We eat some delicious wraps at Wonderfood. 

After lunch we are met by David Appleton. He is a volunteer of the Big Apple Greeter Service. This organisation matches visitors to New Yorkers who are keen to show something of their city. David takes us on a walk through Chelsea and West Village. From  Park Avenue we walk via Madison Square Park to the Flatiron Building. This extremely narrow building dating back to 1902 on the south side of this square is one of the well known and one of the first sky scrapers of the city. Across the  square is the  MetLife Building from the same year with its characteristic clock tower. We follow Broadway and end up at Union Square. This busy square is less impressive, but it is the site for the Farmers Market on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Farmers from upstate New York,Long Island, New Jersey and even Pennsylvania come here to sell there vegetables, eggs, cheese, flowers and fruit. 

We walk on in a westerly direction via W 16th Street towards Chelsea. Chelsea is mainly West of Broadway between 23rd and 14th Streets. For a long time this was a bit worn down and neglegted district with a mix of brown stone town houses,  tenement houses and commercial buildings. The brownstones were split up after world war II into one room appartments and the neighbourhood went down market. In the 1980s this trend was reversed by an influx of well to do gays and other yuppies. The brownstones were bought up, combined and renovated or restored to their former glory. Many deserted commercial buildings became shops and appartments and tenements were improved or torn down. Today Chelsea is hip and  happening place full of trendy shops, bars, café's, restaurants and art galleries. Eighth avenue is the main thoroughfare and popular as a gay nighlife strip. The side streets are quiet and well maintained residential streets with relatively much green and beautiful brownstones. Its most Western part, where we find the meat market on 14th Street is obviously still in middle of transforming from  its industrial past to trendy residential future.

From  Chelsea we walk into the West Village. This district was being built from 1822 onwards. It started as a  rural refuge for the rich who wanted to escape the buzz of downtown. The street pattern is a bit confusing, in contrast to the regular grid of Streets and Avenues we saw North of 14th Street. The Village has hardly changed through the years. It has always remained a wealthy and relatively quiet and progressive enclave. In this district grew a strong gay community from the late 1960's onwards. It was here in the Stonewall bar that gays for the first time rose against the systematic pestering by the police in 1969. The rising lasted for 3 days was not success at the time for the gays, but is was the first time that they massively resisted their persecution by the police. Since then relations have improved so much that Village and Gay have become almost synonymous.  We enter the Village at Horatio Street and Bleecker Street. Quiet streets with lovely brownstones. We get to Christopher Street the gay West Village main artery with lots of café's, bars, restaurants and shops. We walk towards the Hudson River, where the Christopher Street Pier has recently been opened. A lovely walking pier with a good view of the river and Jersey City on the other side. Along the Hudson a cycle track has been opened this month that runs the entire length of Manhattan (± 13 mile) from the Southern tip at Battery Park to the far North.

David is keen to take us to SoHo, but we are worn out. Although he is 20 years older than we are, we have trouble keeping up with his pace. But every now and then we can seduce him to take a rest on a bench or café. 

We take the Subway back home to change for tonight. We eat some fast food and head for  42nd Street to watch the musical of the same name. It is a classical Broadway musical, put on the stage in a very professional way. The theatre is nice to look at too. A classic space with 3 balconies. We are seated below in middle of the second row. We can even see the actors sweat! 

After the show we admire the neon lights, billboards, tv-screens and other light effects on Times Square. It is overwhelming. It was a good day and we return home satisfied.