Part 4: New York II and the Return Home

I faded in and out of consciousness on the way to New York after my long walk but eventually we pulled into Penn Station again in New York. I felt like I had only just left.

There was a quite a line for the taxis but I was not going to fight with local transit to save a few dollars so, after winding my way through the roped off line I got in. The taxi driver did not know the hotel but I guided him to the place (I had the address – don't think I actually knew physically HOW to get there!). The hotel, having said that, was quite easy to miss since it only had a plastic banner rather untidily tacked to the outside and had a very small front entrance. Oh dear.

The front lobby, it has to be said, is quite nice. Off of the street you enter into the lower lobby where the concierge is able to handle your luggage but you have to go either up the rather modern staircase or elevator to the main lobby where you actually check in. The whole area has stone floor and makes rather generous use of stainless steel and glass - quite nice. Unfortunate about the rooms though…

I made my way up to my room that was small to say the least. It has a single bed (more the size of a biggish cot) on the left, a window directly in front of the door (with, thankfully, an air conditioner which was immediately turned on), a TV in the corner with the window on the right, a sink and an open wardrobe unit for placing my clothes in. In case you missed it, the toilet and showers are down the hall. The shower next door to me on the left and the toilets on the other side of the elevators on the right – the elevators are RIGHT outside my door, as in, I get out of the elevator and step three times and am at the door, which should make the “DING!” at night very interesting. Yes, the facilities are SHARED, oh dear again. The decor is quite 60s, but not the stylish part of the 60s though. Very plain and not exactly high-class at all. I will not be spending much time here anyway, at least it has a telephone and an electrical outlet so I can check up on my e-mail (though the telephone charges are unbelievable which, I suppose, is to be expected).

By now it was getting quite late and it was already dark so I made my way out to get something to eat. The restaurants I am planning to visit in New York are all VERY well thought out so I decided to start on a high note and walk 3-4 blocks west of my hotel (which is just a block to the south of Central Park and a few blocks east of that) to 7th Avenue (just a short distance from Broadway) and 55th Street (my hotel is on 57th Avenue and Lexington). This where the legendary (notorious?) Carnegie Deli is based (just around the corner from Carnegie Hall). They are well known for their, hum, charming demeanour and fantastically good, HUGE, sandwiches.

I entered the deli and was directly confronted with the deli counter but I turned to the right to enter the restaurant itself and was shown to my table basically in the middle of the room, just a few seats away from some Japanese tourists, but more of them later. The place is actually quite small and the walls are covered with pictures of famous celebrities who have eaten here, many pictures actually having been taken in the deli which has as it's “mascot” a large pickle. My waitress came over and she was every inch the stereotypical picture of a “waitress from hell” – a bit older, not terribly attractive (I am sorry whoever you are!), chewing on some gum and not a smile on her face – I would change that as it turned out.

The Carnegie Deli has a number of famous sandwiches but by far the most notorious is the Woody Allen – it must be a half-pound of wonderful pastrami on rye. Of course, I had to order it (also since I haven't had a heart attack yet I need to get well on my way…) despite the price of $15 (for a SANDWICH!). As they were getting this ready I was given a bowl of pickles which are standard with every meal. This was a rather LARGE bowl with about 10-12 very large pickles in it. They were not all that fantastic, it must be said, I prefer more dill, these were very vinegary, but I guess with the number they have to make…

The sandwich arrived and I must say it was truly magnificent. It towered above the plate cut in half with each half pierced with a long skewer to prevent them from falling over under their own weight. It had to been about six inches high and my mouth stood no chance. Of course, the Japanese ladies from the table a few seats away started pointing and laughing. Of course, this was just egging me on. The coleslaw on the side was also quite generously portioned and was also quite tasty but I started on the sandwich, first helping myself to the absolutely wonderful pastrami on the inside. The fat of the pastrami kept it wonderfully moist. I whittled down the sandwich until it would fit in my mouth then polished off first one half then the…*BURP*…other. I only noticed the mustard on the table afterwards…The Japanese tourists could NOT believe their eyes and started to clap, I took my bows. The waitress was taken aback “You want ANOTHER orange juice? After THAT?” I did myself proud though my arteries some serious damage no doubt. Well, after this I could not bear to face desert but I could not resist the cheesecakes so I ordered a slice of strawberry cheesecake…TO GO…it will make a good breakfast at the hotel. As an aside, I was not able to leave a tip on the table since I did not have any smaller bills but I went back to my waitress after I had paid at the till for my cheesecake and gave her a very generous tip (she was so understanding!) “Thank you, darling.” I think I have just made a friend.

Well, after that meal I needed to go for a walk – a slow one though. I headed all the way up 7th to Central Park where I walked along the southern wall and passed by a number of horse carts giving rides to tourists (the smell where they were waiting for customers was a bit ripe in the warm evening air). I passed by a number of nice hotels and eventually the Plaza hotel which has a wonderful plaza containing a park in front of it with a Donald Trump building opposite on 5th Avenue (the eastern boundary of the park). I also passed by Trump Tower as I headed back to my hotel. The night was so peaceful after a rather hectic day. I can't think things will get any quieter.

Despite the noise in the night, I got a good amount of sleep and was up at 10 o'clock. Surprisingly the noise was not from the elevator – I could barely hear it above the noise of the damn air conditioner but I will sure not turn that baby off…it was keeping my cheesecake cold all night.

I HAVE to have a shower in the morning so I quietly sneaked out into the hallway still in my pyjamas to the shower room which is basically just a bathtub with shower and a sliding glass door and a small area to stand outside (with drainage mats). There is NO ventilation in the room, which meant that it was already quite humid inside from the previous occupant.

It was a bit of a heavy breakfast but not too bad, washed down with tap water…Great strawberries as well…

I began the day by heading south and west sort of in the direction of Times Square. I got distracted by Rockefeller Plaza. It is quite a sight with the many tall buildings including, of course, the NBC studios in the General Electric Building. They are all classics of architecture. I first visited the NBC studios where they have a large store on the main floor where I purchased tickets for both a tour of the studios but also of Rockefeller Plaza itself. I relaxed in the candy section for a few minutes before we were taken into a walkway overlooking the main foyer of the GE building.

We were shown a digital (they emphasised this throughout the tour) presentation about NBC and the building which was quite informative. After the rather horrible jokes of the tour guides we were taken up to some of the higher floors where we saw a few studios. The first studio we saw was of the Sports Desk that was quite compact and nice looking with one area for the presenter's desk and the other with a regulation basketball basket with the various scoring lines on the floor. The equipment was very modern and we were told this was one of their “digital” studios where they film everything in digital (and convert to analogue for transmission, but are capable of doing digital) so the sets were much nicer than what you would see in analogue studios since digital showed so much more detail. In the analogue sets they use cheaper materials that will not show up during transmission anyway (though do not look too bad in transmission). The next studio was very interesting, as it was the studio that they use for the nightly news. It was a “hot” studio meaning that they could begin using it at any time to allow for any “breaking news”. The anchor's desk also has various television monitors imbedded in it so that the presenter can actually watch other networks to see if they have information that NBC does not. The whole studio was awash with large television screens, very high-tech.

We were then shown to the set of Saturday Night Live which is a favourite show of mine. It is a very long studio with only the monologue and band sections actually always in place. There is a lot of area around these sections for seating (during the monologue only – people must take their chairs and to the floor below after the monologue is over and watch the show on TVs) and to allow for movement of sets when they are required. The show is on LIVE (no delay in transmission at all) so sets need to be moved quickly. We were told that tickets for the show basically go to friends of NBC or other business partners and only 20 tickets are actually made available free to the public and then you have to enter a draw for them at least six months in advance. The public and the “friends” of the show sit in seats above the main floor of the studio (the poor people sitting on the floor are the ones that have to move their seats). The whole studio is also very heavily soundproofed and was originally used for radio broadcast of classical music (orchestras could easily fit) – ideal for the Saturday Night Live show.

It is something to see the compactness of the studios (except for the SNL one that is positively huge) with the low heights of the hallways and the smallness of the building it is amazing that they actually use it at all for actual filming.

After a rather miss-conceived attempt at getting the tour involved in taking part in a manufactured broadcast in a fake newsroom (complete with blue screen) I made my way to where I would pick up my tour of Rockefeller Plaza itself. I spent a few minutes and talked to an employee just sitting drinking some coffee about the city, and, of course, England. It was quite nice but I was called away for the tour where I was given a headset. I was the ONLY one on the tour but the guide was quite good.

He took me around the plaza but it soon started to rain so we eventually used the concourse below the plaza to get from building to building. He pointed out the many pieces of art deco architecture and art which was absolutely wonderful. The murals in some buildings are really something. Looking out of the International Building with its wonderful art deco lobby of marble we could see the front entrance of Saint Patrick's Cathedral through the windows and the statue of Atlas outside the International Building. Quite something.

I asked a lot of questions on the tour and learned a lot. The whole area was purchased by Rockefeller (though there were a few property holders that held out until only just recently) to build these office towers around a square of the arts – the NBC building distributing the works of the Radio City Music Hall just around the corner and the theatre district of Broadway only just a short distance away. Of course, he was out to make money but at the same time he expressed a wonderful artistic sense that can be seen on all the buildings and in the very human design of the place…

After these tours I headed over to Times Square to see about some tickets for Broadway. All the events I had pre-booked tickets for were for last week so I had to get some more tickets…

The line was too big at TKTS so I wandered around the rather large Virgin record store right on the square. I picked up a few things then helped myself to a smoothie at a local shop (100% all natural - quite refreshing in the heat). It was surprising to see the kids outside of the MTV studios on the square, evidently at 3:00 every day they interview people live on the streets for requests…Hum…made quite a site on the sidewalk (pavement). Times Square actually has it's own police force and I saw a lot of them about, there always seemed to be a van full of them parked on a side street somewhere ready for trouble – or so it seemed.

I did take a few minutes to look for the comics my friend from Canada had finally told me he needed at Midtown Comics (which I had visited last week). I managed to pick up a few things for him, so I was quite pleased with myself…

I headed back to the Rockefeller Plaza area as I was intrigued by what my tour guide had said about the Radio City Music Hall so I decided to have a tour. I met two rather nice ladies in the front entrance area who pointed to where I purchased tickets (next door in a shop, for some strange reason) but I then availed on them to let me in so that I could use the toilets (not many public toilets around) so they decided to do so and give me a tour at the same time (since they were due to start one anyway) – all by myself. She showed me the way to the toilets which had a seating area before you entered the washroom proper (very posh indeed). After that she pointed out that all the washrooms had such an area and each was decorated with a different mural. Murals were all over the place including in the front foyer which is magnificent – with a bright carpet and a tremendously high atrium with wonderful chandeliers.

The Radio City Music Hall was recently refurbished so I had picked a good time to visit. The hall was opened originally to bring high-class entertainment to the masses. Evidently the first night show was more than six hours long causing many people with lesser constitutions to fall asleep as they were shown act after act of Vaudeville and other mixed types of entertainment. They learned their lesson from this and then after the shows were a lot shorter and varied from Vaudeville to cinema to dance to classical music.

They were doing some restoration work on the stage where we could see from our vantagepoint on the first balcony the massive elevators and shifting floors that make up the stage. The hall is on some very expensive real estate and as such the back wall of the stage is only a short distance from the front so all sets and people must either be lifted up or lowered down from the stage area.

The shell is absolutely wonderful and provides great acoustics as was demonstrated when my tour guide talked in a normal voice to someone on the other side of the hall. It is a wonderful curved roof that seamlessly meets the edge of the stage. There are two Wurlitzer's, one on each side of the stage that can be rolled out automatically. The pipes for the organs are behind the shell area and are quite large and numerous.

After the main hall we went up in a service elevator to some of the changing rooms where I was asked if I wanted to meet a Rockette, thinking that it would be a recording or something I answered, of course, “Yes”. Low and behold I was taken into a side room where a Rockette came out from a dressing room in full costume. It was a bit awkward with me being the only one in the tour standing in the middle of the room with this wonderfully attired (and attractive) tall lady in front of me trying to rack my brains for questions to ask. Yes, she really does love the work and has a lot of fun despite the numerous shows they put on every year (something like 5 in a day on occasions during Christmas!). They have also travelled around the world and continue to do so. There are quite a number of them and they can only vary in height from the ideal by a few inches so that they present a fairly continuous and level line across the stage when they do their kicks.

After taking a picture (of course) we headed down the hall to the guide suite which was quite nice (very 50s) which has not really been changed since the theatre first opened, with many pictures of the famous people who have played here all around. We headed backstage to some of the rehearsal halls but were not able to catch the Rockettes in practice but did see some of their magnificent costumes as well as the areas where they practice (complete with a full scale floor line drawing of the stage in the hall so they can make their marks 100%).

We made our way down a rather narrow and crooked back staircase passing by a number of etched glass facsimiles of some of their show posters that I was told was donated by a fan who simply dropped them off at the back door (wow!) – though the one of “Barney on Stage” was not exactly to my liking…

Back to Times Square where I was able to get a ticket for 42nd Street which I had been thinking about when planning the trip but I knew that I would be able to get a half-price ticket because of the number of tickets I saw being sold and the reviews that they have been getting (very ambivalent ones, I must say). I HAD to see it since it was being staged at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on 42nd Street (42nd Street on 42nd Street…fitting I thought). Having said that, the ticket, though half price was not really all that cheap, but anyway, since I am here…

A few blocks away from 42nd street I made my way for dinner at Sardi's. This is a famous restaurant in the theatre crowd so I knew I had to go…Entering through the rather nice wood, etched glass and brass doors I was immediately faced with the maitre de dressed to the 9s…and me in jeans and a short-sleeve T-shirt. I apologised for my dress and he indicated “It is all right we accept casual dress now…” as he looked down his nose. He had me drop my backpack (rucksack) at the coat check and I was shown to a seat as I walked as humbly as I could across the quite opulent surroundings. The walls were covered with caricatures of celebrities and I was seated right near the back but in the middle of the back wall, beside kitchen (oh dear). I was the only one in the restaurant when I arrived and there were quite a number of waiters standing around in groups of three of four just talking. They would be like this the whole time I was at the restaurant – even when more people arrived.

I helped myself to a tomato with mozzarella and grilled eggplant starter (quite nice and light) followed by chicken with asparagus and a cheese (or heavy cream) sauce. These dishes were included on the set menu and I knew that the chicken was a traditional favourite of the restaurant. Dinner was accompanied by some wonderful assortments of fresh bread that were continuously brought round to the table “you only have half a basket of bread sir, do you want some more?” (or so it seemed).

I debated dessert with my waiter and eventually decided on a light sundae with fresh fruit that was quite pleasant. Actually, the whole experience was quite relaxing but a bit off-putting with all the pretence around me…A quiet time considering what was right outside the door and on the streets all around.

I made my way the few short blocks to the show which started at 8:00, I was a few minutes early so had a bit of time to enjoy looking around the foyer of the theatre. The theatre is actually only a few years old but built, of course, in the classical theatre style though with all the modern electronic lighting and sound systems. Many of the people who were crowded into the area were all dressed up – not many slobs like myself.

My seat was in the stalls – off to the left side about 15 rows from the front. The show itself was quite entertaining as a classic show as 42nd Street should be. The sets were second to the dancing (mainly tap dancing, it seemed) and music which were truly first rate and fun. The acting well…the dancing and music were really good…what can you do, this was not meant to be a drama or stage play.

At 10:30 the show ended and I made my way through the crowd out the front entrance and made my way back to the hotel. It was another quiet night, so much more so then the day…

As I entered the hotel the police were taking someone away from the elevators in handcuffs. Oh dear (again). They had turned off my air conditioner so my room was a trifle stuffy (so it went on right away).

All in all a wonderful day, but I had to set my alarm for VERY early in the morning…

Well, this was a VERY early morning. At 5:30 my alarm went off and I started my day. I quickly had a shower, got dressed and caught a taxi from the front door – I was in a hurry. I made it to the theatre at just after 6:00 am and was the third person in the line already. “What I am I talking about?” you might ask, as I might ask myself…

The latest and greatest show of them all on Broadway this year is “The Producers” which is a musical by Mel Brooks based upon the movie of the same name from 1968. It stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick and it has won just about every Tony Award that exists. It is also VERY difficult to get tickets. The show has been sold out since it first opened with bookings about six months in advance. I, of course, had not thought of getting tickets six months ago, even if I had, I had no idea what days I would be in New York so I had not done so BUT, since I was here I was determined to get in, hence the early morning visit.

I had been determining the best way to get tickets for the past few days, with a visit to the theatre earlier in the week while I was in the area to figure out where I would have to wait and what time I should be there in the morning. The theatre has 18 standing room tickets for each performance that go on sale a few hours before each show and there is also the chance of return tickets and since the limit is two per person in line I knew that I was guaranteed at least a standing room ticket being third in line.

We began our wait against the wall off the sidewalk (pavement) but were eventually moved to the edge of the sidewalk where the line for standing room/return tickets was supposed to be (sitting with my back against the building was far more comfortable than sitting cross-legged on top of my coat on the concrete. Of course, we were all prepared for the wait with books, magazines, some had music others went away for short walks and bathroom breaks (people were reasonable about allowing others to do so). The weather forecast (yes, I had checked that too) had called for the possibility of rain so we were all prepared for that as well. For my part, I spent the time reading over some tour books and played with my pocket organiser (solitaire and my ever-so- important lists of restaurant reviews). Most of the people in the line were actually quite pleasant so I spent some time talking to them, the guy in the front of the line actually wrote and performed music for Broadway so it was almost a professional thing for him to come down and see the show, the lady who was second was actually picking up tickets for a number of her friends as well.

Wednesday I had determined was the best day to wait for tickets since in addition to the normal nightly show there is also a matinee so if I didn't get tickets for the matinee I was already in the line for the evening. At about 9:00 a lady from the theatre came out and went through the lines getting our ticket requirements and names as well as the various procedures that we had to follow.

Well, eventually, the time came for us to pick up our tickets. She came and got the first set of people for standing room tickets but was surprised when I said I would take a standing room ticket but I would really like a return ticket – she had thought I only wanted a standing room ticket when she asked earlier so she felt a bit guilty and assured me that she would find me a fantastic ticket (even though she had earlier had two great tickets that she sold to people in the line AFTER me). Well, I was pleasantly surprised when about half an hour later she came and got me. “I have good you a GREAT ticket” Seat 101, Row A! That is, the FIRST row, eye level with the stage. Oh dear, actually, I do like it a bit further back, but HEY, I will take it! It was NOT cheap but, as I said earlier, I was here…so, what the heck!

I desperately wanted to rest after my morning on the curb so I headed past Times Square to a place I had found during my wait on the sidewalk – Virgil's BBQ. A traditional BBQ place with absolutely fantastic ribs. It was a very homey (and busy) atmosphere with a large number of seats (not many empty) on two different levels and with lots of wood about – going for the “western feel”, of course. I had a seat beside the wall and had to go for their famous ribs and a number of side dishes. They were absolutely wonderful, with the “rub” that was applied being fantastically tasty. The mashed potatoes (with gravy, of course, can't go half way when hardening the arteries…), corn bread and coleslaw were also very good as I sucked it all in. I topped the visit off with a very nice (if incredibly sweet) peach cobbler dessert.

After the relief of using their…er…facilities, I headed back to the theatre which was just about getting to let people in for the matinee. The line to get in was AROUND THE BLOCK! Quite unbelievable for a show like this to have such a line. I was in the line for about 20 minutes and I only got into it half an hour before the show was set to begin!

The lobby was very busy as I made my way down the aisle to my seat that was right on the right aisle in the front row in the middle section (with a nice view into the orchestra pit). The theatre has about 1,300 seats and even the ones at the back of the balcony I had seen on the Internet going for many hundreds of dollars.

When in the line we had known that Matthew Broderick was not in the show as he was away this week but Nathan Lane's role is really the dominant one (we reasoned), Matthew's role, though VERY ably performed by Jamie Laverdiere, was that of a straight man.

During the interval there was a bit of an emergency with someone in the audience so they had to be taken away by ambulance so the intermission was abnormally long (more than half an hour instead of 20 minutes) which was actually noted by Nathan when the show resumed. He is well known for his ad- libbing during this show which has contributed to making it such a success. The dialogue was superb, the music – not so bad, the sets really good and the acting fantastic. A true farce.

I decided to do a bit of tourist stuff so I headed a few blocks east to visit the Empire State Building. It is actually quite a nondescript building from the street where you cannot actually see the top – you can see it better from some distance away. I made my way to the basement (they were under renovation) to get my tickets – picking up a “City Pass” which has tickets to all sorts of major attractions which I plan to visit over the next few days, it will save quite a bit on individual admission prices.

Without any further adieu they put us into a quick elevator to the 86th floor. As we were going up, of course, the elevator rocked back and forth – my ears popped a few times with the incredible speed we were going. Someone was video-taping the digital floor read out as it went up by 10s of floors at a time. At the 86th floor we passed by some windows but were guided to another elevator for the trip to the 102nd floor where we were able to go outside to enjoy the view. And what a view it was. The view was really unobstructed in all directions with their use of a rather widely-spaced metal barred barrier all around. We could basically see the whole of the city from up there – past the World Trade Center to the south (east) and Central Park to the north. Much of the city, such as Times Square, is actually obscured by the buildings around it but it was quite something – of course, I was also trying to look straight down – untroubled as I am with heights. It was also quite quiet at the top as well with not much wind at all, surprisingly.

I caught an elevator back down and walked out through the art deco lobby, which is something itself as I once again emerged onto the streets of the city. I boarded a train to head south to Chinatown where I had found in my pocket organiser a restaurant that promised very good dim sum (despite it being rather late in the day for dim-sum, which is a lunch event). I exited the subway in a whole different city – very cluttered and busy, with a lot of smaller 2-3 story buildings as well as a lot of rubbish about as well. I followed my organiser's directions as it guided me further south past the Manhattan Bridge and into a small building where I caught an elevator to the 3rd (2nd) floor where I emerged in the restaurant itself. This is the “Golden Unicorn” restaurant. I ordered a dim-sum sampler which consisted of a few different steamed dumplings (all very good, if a bit greasy (!)) followed by a sizzling “black bean and scallops” dish which was VERY black-beany and not very scallopy (well, at least you could not taste them very much).

I was the only one by myself in the restaurant while there were a number of other large groups having dinner including what seemed to be a wedding party on one side of the room and a group of businessmen on the other. I got a few stares but nothing really much as I just enjoyed the experience. The staff were very nice and attentive. I could not finish the main dish so I got them to pack it up for me as I left the restaurant. It was quite expensive but quite good though I would probably come with someone if I was to visit again (mind you, Chinese food is best with many people anyway).

It was getting a bit late but since I was so close to downtown I decided to have a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (another item on my internal “to do” list). I headed south and had a bit of trouble finding out how I would be able to walk across the bridge (my back was also giving me a bit of grief). I wandered under the bridge (which is TRULY massive, about 8-10 stories above the ground at the waterfront) and walked up a gradual incline before I finally spotted a small entrance in the middle pier under the bridge that indicated where the walkway could be accessed – up a number of stairs carved into the concrete pillar. There were a lot of them – I emerged onto a wooden walkway that was between and ABOVE the two sides of traffic which could be seen on the other side of old cast iron railings below – each side also encased in a rather sparse cage of I-beams. The traffic was moving quite quickly so I was grateful that we did not have to walk beside it.

There were a lot of people on the walkway (despite it getting to be a bit late on a Wednesday night) as I made my way across the river. People walked on one side of the walkway and cyclists and roller-bladers on the other (theoretically, at least). As I made my way to the first large pillar of the bridge, the walkway widened out and went around the pillar that emerged through the center of the path. There were plaques on the walls and on the railings discussing the bridge and pointing out various landmarks that we could see through the beams of the bridge all around. I was told to walk across the bridge at night and this chose to be a great time – the lights of the city were truly stunning – I was so close to downtown.

It took some time to make it across the bridge as the path continued in the middle of the road into Brooklyn. I had no maps of the area with me, well, not detailed anyway. As I had walked across the bridge I had noticed that the next bridge over to the north (the Manhattan Bridge) had subway trains running across it so I was determined to get onto one of those trains so I figured out what train I need to catch (one in the wrong direction then transferring to one that actually crossed the river and, coincidentally, right to the station nearest my hotel) and from what station. It took a bit of time to find the station with no signs really around I eventually walked around a park (it was a bit dark and I did not know how safe it would be) and found the station I needed and walked for a good 10 minutes in a tunnel underground before I made it to the platform I needed. I transferred correctly and was rewarded with a great view out the windows of the train as we crossed the bridge – many people on the train just ignored it – I am sure that many of them had seen it many times before anyway - - Hey! I was a tourist!

This was a great way to end the day as I finally made it to the hotel and flipped on the TV for a bit of light entertainment before crashing – also, a LONG day.

I did a lot of walking yesterday but it turned out that I would not be relaxing today as I headed almost directly east to the United Nations building which is on the East River just a few blocks south of my hotel. The UN is not really just a building, it is actually a few buildings – a tall office tower and a squat assembly building – as well as a park on the north side.

I was made to check my bag as I entered from the north onto the grounds. There are a number of very famous pieces of art all around the gardens including the gun with it's barrel tied into a knot and the “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares” statue which is just down by the river. The garden is quite pleasant with wonderful lawns and a lot of flowers on this, another, wonderfully sunny day.

On entering the General Assembly building I had to wait in line as we went through a metal detector but, unlike in Switzerland, they did not demand to see our passports. I proceeded toward the back of the building where I bought a ticket for the tour and had a seat to wait to be called. The inside of the building and all of the areas we saw are VERY 60s with a lot of wood and very muted colours. There were exhibits about the various UN operations all around the buildings and many pieces of art – including the Japanese peace bell we could see out a window in a garden which was made by melting down the coins donated by school children. We were shown a number of chambers where much of the formal work of the UN is performed, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council (now disbanded and used for other purposes) and the Economic and Social Council chambers before being let into the main General Assembly room. It was being tested for sound and lighting when we were there in preparation for the normal session that we were told would begin in a few weeks but it is certainly very impressive. We were told of the various rules for placing of the delegates in the room (alphabetically from the front to the rear of the building, though the first row country is changed every sessions). The facilities for translations and television broadcast were evident in every conference room as well. The art on the wall of the General Assembly it was also noted was of a non-representational form – care was taken not to offend ANYONE with that one…

We were also told about the number of countries and the resources that the UN actually have directly and indirectly at their disposal which is truly incredible. To see the map of the world with the number of countries that are actually members of the UN is truly staggering with only Switzerland (the largest hole on the map) and a few other smaller war-torn countries not being included.

We were then guided to the basement where there were a few shops (including the UN post office which I visited and wrote a quick note to my grandmother – Since she collects stamps I was sure she would get a kick out of it). Most of the souvenirs were quite tacky but the bookstore I found interesting with it's massive volumes of research material including languages (not much on Cantonese though – I checked).

As I left the building I passed by the front of the complex with its row of member flags – quite impressive. I did have time before that to wander through the garden at the water's edge with its wonderful rose gardens as well. Pleasant and quiet – the distance we were away from the road. I can see working nearby it would be a good place to come for some relaxation, lying on the grass…

I headed west and found Grand Central station – my next food destination. I was impressed with the grand hall and it's high vaulted ceiling. A few restaurants surrounded it on the upper level but the floor level was where people were hurrying back and forth to catch their trains or buy their tickets. I descended from the street level to the floor via one of the wonderful stone staircases and asked directions to my restaurant of choice – the Oyster Bar. This is THE famous Grand Central Station Oyster Bar which I was surprised to find located in the basement just off the food court (good Lord, not IN the food court, of course!). It was off to the side and has wonderful, though not terribly high, tile vaulted ceilings. I sat off to the left in the formal restaurant area, but there was a diner-style area to the front and to the right with an oyster bar directly to the right and forward of the entrance. There is even a bar located to the far right through a door (the reason I know this is because I was directed there for the…er…facilities, “just under the fish at the far end of the bar” – hum…).

I was well taken care of (Orange Juice, of course) with a starter of Cajun Shrimps (deep fried – not exactly my cup of tea, ok, but not great) followed by the main course of Oyster Rockefeller (since I was in New York, why not have a New York dish?) which was quite good – I have never had cooked oysters before. Very pleasant as the waiters hurried about filling my bread basket and making sure I was happy (love the service in the US). The menu was a hand-written one and was specific for the day, I imagine changed according to what seafood was available and best for the day.

Next time I visit (!) I will have to visit the Oyster Bar area itself which I only saw in passing – a number of people were lined up along a stainless steel counter dressed in (of course) suits with a number of chefs working on oysters from a large number of tubs containing ice and fresh oysters with large lists of what was available on chalk boards above – they even had a “take away” window on the outside of the restaurant for those too busy to come inside. Nice.

I made my way once again west and found the Museum of Modern Art (ticket two in my City Pass). Unfortunately, MOMA is currently under renovation and their famous sculpture garden was closed (along with many of their exhibits). Only a few areas were actually open, including “Collection Highlights” (which includes a rather large Monet Water Lily painting, a Jackson Pollack, Cezeanne and a few Picassos) and “Miles in Berlin” which I took some time to go through. Miles was a famous architect and this exhibit traced his plans and buildings made while he was living in Berlin (he moved to the US afterwards) in the early part of the 20th century. It was an interesting exhibit with some fairly ordinary designs to the truly fantastic (including his famous house he built for the 1926 world exhibition for Germany). It was quite interesting, something I do not normally see too much of.

As I headed out of the museum I was tempted and gave in to a free lecture (tour) being offered of some of the works in the “Collection Highlights” area. It was a very interesting hour as the art historian (obviously a bit put off by the lack of any such knowledge in THIS crowd) gave us a lot to think about. She described the various influences and aesthetic qualities of the paintings in a (generally) chronological order. I did learn a bit about how to interpret the Jackson Pollack (vibrancy of life…evidently) though I must admit I have always been a bit attracted to his work anyway…

I took a bit of a break as I returned to the hotel via the subway for a bit of lie down before I once again headed back to Times Square to get into lines at the TKTS booth. This time for tickets to the Music Man. I had heard that the reviews for this revival of the classic musical were very good so I decided that it sounded like a nice light and enjoyable event to go see.

I had enough time to go for something to eat so I headed down the street (crossing over Broadway again) to a restaurant called “Sushi Zen” (Japanese, if you hadn't guessed). I had reserved a table while at the hotel earlier but as I walked through the restaurant I spotted something out the back so I told the waitress to skip my reserved table and we headed out the back door, down some wooden stairs out onto some crushed stone into a back, rather small, garden. It was planted up with bamboo trees, with a small Zen (stone) garden, and a canopy to sit under. It was bordered, of course, on all sides by the buildings around but it was exposed to the sky and even so, it was quite quiet and very peaceful. The floor, being made of stones, was a bit uneven but that did not really bother me as I actually began to relax and really got into the quietness of the place - - there was only one other group of two ladies at another table when I first arrived (a couple arrived just before I left).

I ordered the traditional Miso Soup with a side of Tempura as a starter and a Sushi-Sashimi combination platter for the main course. All of which were prepared absolutely wonderfully as I slowly made my way through them. I was eager for more so had to order a California Roll (OK, not strictly kosher Japanese, but I like it – so there!).

I left a good time later, a bit reluctantly, and headed to 52nd Street for the theatre. I was just a few seats off of row R (on the right side of the right aisle). The musical was very well and impressively staged and the singing and music were really enjoyable. The story was a bit drawn out but otherwise very good, if not terribly intellectually challenging. The lead singer (Robert Sean Leonard) was truly wonderful with great support from the music teacher (Rebecca Luker). Of course, most people would recognise one, if not many of the songs in the musical (as I did – I also seem to recall having also seen it on TV at one time or another).

After the initial curtain call was truly one of the best parts of the whole show as the whole cast were dressed up in marching band uniforms and playing trombones (“Seventy Six Trombones” – of course!) – this got a whole new set of ovations from the audience – wonderful!

At 10:45 the show was over and they opened the side doors for us to leave the theatre – the end to a wonderful day as I returned to the hotel via the subway (I was not really interested in walking all the way back…).

This was my last full day in New York and I was determined to make the best of it, though it did not turn out as good as I would have liked…

I first caught the subway north to 86th Street and walked west to Central Park, passing by a number of nice apartment buildings and a number of people walking their dogs. Eventually I found the Guggenheim Museum (ticket 3 if you are counting) – or more correctly, the “Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum” – directly opposite Central Park (on the East Side). I am a great fan of Frank Lloyd Wright so I had to visit. Of course, as with the MOMA yesterday I was lucky enough to be visiting when they were working on both the outside and the inside of the building, closing a number of exhibition halls (and floors) in the process (about 1/2 of the building was closed). The building is striking (nonetheless) with its rounded shape that extends inside to its grand spiral staircase (being painted). I wandered around the rather pleasant, if quite small, galleries that extend out from the central grand staircase outwards (mostly to the north, where the round main building extends in a more traditional building box-shape in that direction). The galleries are interestingly shaped with stairs and odd angles in many different places. Part of the charm of the place was in these eccentricities (in my view, of course). Much of the specific pieces are ones (or at least artists) that most would immediately recognise but it was wonderful nonetheless.

I was truly impressed while walking through the exhibit of Frank Gehry, the architect, to see his design for the new Guggenheim of New York that is to be on the river just south of the Brooklyn Bridge (where I was looking out over the other night). It is a great looking, MASSIVE building that really reminds me of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao except on a massively large scale. The emphasis on unique gallery spaces seems to continue to this new building with massive atriums and wonderful, flying shapes. It is essentially a building on stilts with people entering the building via long walkways/escalators from the street to the main body of the building hovering over the water. Wonderful, hope I can see it when it is done…By the way, his other designs are all very modern and wonderful looking and must provide tremendous pleasure to those that use them (he has designed not only other public buildings but also houses as well).

I left the museum and crossed across the road to enter Central Park. It was once again tremendous weather as I made my way south around the Central Park Reservoir, avoiding the swarms of joggers that seemed to be around (going in a counter-clockwise direction, all of them, for some reason) – not all in tremendous shape I must add as they huffed and puffed past me. The park was quiet as I made my way south to “The Great Lawn” where I found a spot in the middle, just a bit away from the baseball diamonds on each corner to sit and relax for a few minutes, enjoying the view and the quiet of the place as I lie on the rather comfortable grass. I was not alone as there were a few others relaxing as well about, all enjoying the quiet. I noticed a building to the south – Belvedere Castle in the park with a few tall buildings of midtown Manhattan in the distance – the buildings to the east, west and north are not as high.

I made my way out of the park passing through the Shakespearean garden and along a few meandering paths before I arrived at the American Museum of Natural History (ticket 4) a truly imposing, massive structure…so much to do, so little time. The front foyer was a grand space with the skeleton of two dinosaurs in the middle (one of a Tyrannosaurus) which I would later learn were copies of the actual skeletons elsewhere in the building. I started by wandering through the African Mammals exhibit with its huge centrepiece of a herd of elephants charging and surrounded by a number of (sealed) dioramas depicting various animals and their habitats.

The museum is huge, four floors and countless numbers of galleries and I could not hope to see it all so I joined a tour that lasted about an hour and a half (about 45 minutes longer than it should have…) which took us to see a number of key exhibits in the museum including the two halls featuring dinosaurs (one for the Saurischian and the other for the Ornithischian groups of dinosaurs – one reptile-like group and the other more bird-like, respectively). Our tour guide emphasised a lot about conservation and people in the group seemed genuinely surprised about some of the information regarding man's effects on animal populations (I was quite taken aback by the computer display of cities of more than 1 million people through time, showing the huge explosion in the last 50 years).

She indicated that the Genome exhibit was well worth visiting with recent public interest in genetically altered food and the like. It was a good exhibit with lots of information about not only genetic engineering but also the basics of genomic research. They even had a lab where you could sequence one of your own genes (you could watch people in the room through the glass walls).

I had a brief look into the planetarium area that consisted of a large sphere in the middle of a long spiral ramp around it (with a few exhibits trying to emphasise the scale of the universe).

Roosevelt was a great sponsor of the museum and the main, front building is devoted to him and his conservation work. I proceeded to the basement and out into the subway station attached. I headed south and got out quite a few stops later and headed west.

I was beginning to feel a bit light headed so I wandered around a bit and found a corner store and picked up a “pastrami on rye” sandwich along with a great nutritious fruit drink with additives to support “improved memory”, can't hurt I suppose. I had wanted to visit a restaurant in the area called “Hell's Kitchen” if only to say I had eaten at such a place, but it was closed.

The walk was quite long but I eventually made it to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum but was disappointed to learn that it closed at 5 and it was already 4 so I sat outside on a bench and ate my sandwich before heading back towards the Times Square area. The Intrepid is actually an aircraft carrier permanently anchored in the Hudson River almost directly east of Times Square. There is a big road right along the river there (12th Avenue) where, if you were driving along it, has a great view of the carrier along with any other boats moored along there. All in all, a depressing waste of time trying to get there…

I made the long walk back and caught a subway south to Union Square where I went in search of the famous Strand Book Store which I found just a few blocks south of the square. It is a dusty, dingy place that is just crammed with books, mostly used. It was also very crowded with people. It is on the main floor of an older building and has a very high ceiling where many of the bookcases attempt to reach. I wandered through the maze of tables, stacks of books on the floor, the book cases looking for anything that was really interesting but did not find anything. I also visited the basement where they were selling “review copies” of books (those given by book companies for reporters and book stores to review prior to mass publications). There were a few things I was tempted to pick up but my back and the amount of space I knew was available in my luggage would not really permit it. All of the paperbacks and review copies where half price which was quite something but still not tempt me (the Science Fiction area was only three bookcases…).

I next headed over to see the Barnes & Noble store which I was told was the “World's Largest Bookstore” (hey, what about that place in Toronto that I just visited…?). It was a bit difficult to find but eventually I wandered in and was surprised that, contrary to any other Barnes & Noble I had ever been in, the store was incredibly winding and seemingly disorganised (they only had ONE bookcase of Science Fiction). The place was just crawling with students looking for next semester's text books (and believe me, the store had a LOT of those as well).

It was only a couple of hours before the sun went down so I grabbed a subway and headed south for a visit to the World Trade Center, leaving the subway at the Cortland Street station which ends right at the centre of the concourse itself.

The stores in the concourse are quite upmarket but I made my way, following the signs to the Observation Deck in the southern tower. I was able to enter the building directly from the concourse and proceeded up the escalators with a few other tourists. We were brought up into the front foyer of the building and what immediately struck me was the height and simple magnificence of the space. The space must have been about four stories high surrounded by glass and around the central elevator core.

I made my way through the space to the ticketing area where I was motioned through (I had a pass that gave me “free” access) to where they had a large area marked out for people to line up for access to the elevators. This area was empty (it seemed I had picked a good time to visit) and I passed through the metal detectors, pausing only a few seconds before that to have my picture taken standing beside a picture of the tower (having no choice but to do so). I stopped a few more seconds to talk to the security guard as she checked my backpack (rucksack) – She was grateful I did not seem upset that she had to look through the pack. She was just doing her job and I understand their concern about security (especially in light of recent events – fruitless though these security measures were proven to be).

I made my way into the large elevators along with a number of other people, perhaps anywhere from 15-20 of us. The elevator doors shut and we were whisked quickly up the 107 floors to the visitor's centre. The elevator shimmied side to side as it displayed the floors passing, 10 at a time.

We exited the elevator and were directed onto the visitor's floor. This floor has places to sit all around directly in front of the windows but also a large number of shops and places to eat (with the pre-requisite photo-booths and more areas where you could have your photo “climbing” the tower or sitting on top of it (OUCH!)). I spent a few minutes to look out over Manhattan and the rivers. A few areas of the north-west were not visible because of the other tower to the north but otherwise the view was quite good this day, with a fair amount of sun and little, if any, clouds.

I made my way around the floor to where you could catch a series of two escalators that led us out to the roof. I was actually not aware of the fact that you could go outside and was delighted to learn this during my visit. After the first escalator a guide directs you to the next escalator through a revolving door which leads out to the roof. It was quite a strange sight to be all of a sudden out on the roof of the 110 story building. The area had a number of antennas and the like (but far fewer than we could see on the top of the other tower, which also has an extremely tall mast anchored to the middle of the roof). There were a few people walking around the catwalk offset from the edge of the building by quite a number of feet – there is another “roof” just below the edge of the walkway that extends beyond the reach of the catwalk 8-10 feet with a fence lined with razor wire and then another area beyond the fence and then the slopping sides of the building leading down the 110 stories. This was all visible below where we stood and took photographs.

I had picked this time to visit on purpose, around about 6 PM – just before sunset so I could get pictures both before and after the sun went down. I managed to get a few photos of the sun as it set and of planes as they flew by on the west side what seemed like only 100-200 meters away (and below).

The view was quite spectacular and it was, surprisingly, not terribly windy with many people sitting on the benches periodically arranged around the walkway. There were many people enjoying the views of the river, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn bridge, mid-town (Central Park is not visible as it is obscured by buildings and is to far away), Times Square (though that was quite hard to see, being about 50+ blocks away), and New Jersey, including Newark airport. It was a view many people have seen in photographs but to be there was quite incredible. Looking down 7th avenue and Broadway with the never ending stream of traffic, watching the boats on the rivers (including the ever-present Staten Island Ferry)…

I leaned against the railing waiting for the sun to set and was approached by one tourist actually visiting from just across the river in New Jersey but originally from Germany. She was showing her friends around the city and we chatted for a few minutes about various subjects including the best way to see Niagara Falls (definitely the Canadian side, hotels are PLENTIFUL) and the best skiing in the world (Switzerland and Canada). The sun eventually set and I was able to take a few pictures of the city as it lit up (standing up on the occasional telescope they had around the perimeter – for a better view and a stable base I could place the camera on top of to take pictures from).

I spent a number of minutes just sitting – enjoying the view and calming atmosphere – it is quite quiet at the top, surprising considering the traffic on the streets below. The sunset was beautiful with the barest whisper of clouds catching the oranges and reds of the sun.

I reluctantly made my way, after about an hour and a half on the roof, back down to the “tourist” floor. Once again walking around the floor (knowing that pictures were impossible inside with night having fallen and the flash would be blinding) before heading once again back to the elevator.

I returned into the front lobby and noticed something outside so I proceeded out onto the Piazza (pausing only to take a picture looking straight up the tower I had just left) and stopped to watch a humorous ballet being performed on a stage to a crowd of a few thousand between the two towers (I learned later that this was part of a Lower Manhattan music festival – “On Stage at the Twin Towers”). It was a free performance and quite pleasant but I was tired and once again returned to the tower to descend to the concourse and catch the subway back to the hotel which I was lucky enough to catch right from Cortland Street.

I spent a few hours just relaxing but eventually dressed up as nicely as I could and headed east and a block north to the Russian Tea Rooms for my 10 PM reservation. This is a very famous restaurant that I just had to visit, if only for the historical nature of it. A different group has recently, I am told, purchased it but I found the experience truly memorable. I entered through the revolving front brass, etched glass and mahogany front doors into the restaurant which immediately assailed me with it's bright red interior with the occasional accent of gold. Art, both contemporary and classical, adorned many of the walls as I was escorted to my table that was right in the middle of the room. The main floor of the restaurant (as I learned there were a few floors – the others for parties and the like) was not terribly big but very opulent and quite relaxing. Parts of the walls were in aquamarine and the ceiling was in gold. The front of the restaurant had a bar to the left and the seating area for the restaurant was at the back. The whole thing struck me as being stereotypical 30s style.

I started my meal with a “Russian Caesar Salad” which was quite nice and surprisingly light accompanied by some Sparkling Mineral water and home-made Cranberry Sparkling water as well (a bit sweet but not bad). My main course was the Cote de Boeuf that was very tender and quite enjoyable with a rich red wine sauce – it was cooked to perfection and was very moist and juicy. For dessert I had a raspberry sorbet which I found terribly sweet (only three small almost melon-ball sizes of sorbet) but quite nice. After dinner I decided that since I was at a tea-house I should have a tea so I helped myself to a wonderful fruit tea (though I can't remember the name) which was served in a full tea service (though I only drink tea straight, if at all, no milk, no sugar – want to taste the real flavour of the tea). Quite pleasant.

The service was wonderful and the whole atmosphere was very quiet and relaxing so I took my time with the tea before leaving a healthy tip and leaving – the meal was my most expensive during this visit but was well worth it…

I wandered east for half a block, passing by Carnegie hall before heading north only one block to reach, once again, the southern reaches of Central Park. I wandered once again past the horses and their carts, some pawing the ground with their shoes…I passed by the Plaza Hotel once again and returned to the hotel. There was a LOUD party going on in the hotel (invite only – they have to make money SOME how) for some perfume company or something. I made my way through and returned to my room to pack.

I finished my remaining packing but my plane left at 7:00 that evening so I had lots of time left in the city yet, so I dropped off the luggage with the concierge (after checking out), picked up a shared van ticket to the airport for later in the day and headed out. I took the subway to 23rd street and wandered over to Madison Square Park – I was looking for a store selling comics (to look for some things for my friend) which I spotted but was closed (for some strange reason). The Park had some really cool sculpture in it – works that looked like taxis suspended by four large poles at each corner with seating underneath. Very interesting.

I wandered north and into Macys just off of Broadway. I wanted to see the store before I left so I wandered around in search of a area selling foodstuffs – but was disappointed since all they had were a few restaurants. As I headed up into the store the escalators turned to wood and were very narrow (and squeaked as well). The main floor is wonderful with a very high ceiling with the ornate plaster. Quite busy as well.

I once again headed east to attempt to eat at Hell's Kitchen which was once again closed (nice), I found another restaurant on my organiser only to find that it was being renovated (strike two) but eventually found a quick Chinese noodle place just off of Times Square (Ollie's) where I had a light snack of tea, a LARGE shrimp roll and hot & sour soup.

In Times Square itself they were setting up for tomorrow's “Broadway on Broadway” which I am very disappointed to be missing. This is a free performance on a stage in Times Square from a number of the shows on Broadway performing some of their famous hits, sort of a free preview, if you like.

7th Avenue surprised me as it was closed from the square all the way north to 57th Street (just two blocks south of Central Park) for a street market. A BIG street market. The side streets had basically been closed to street traffic though an occasional taxi would attempt to cross (VERY slowly) with the massive crowds of people. There were stalls selling everything from ties, shirts (a hobby looking for the cheapest NY souvenir T-shirts, the best I saw was 6 for $10), crafts, foods (fast, prepared and otherwise) and toys. I helped myself to a few snacks along the way and slowly made my way north towards the hotel.

The market was causing chaos with the traffic in the city but I understand that it is held every Saturday. I was a bit nervous about my ride to the airport but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. My van turned up only a few minutes late (as opposed to someone else waiting with me for a few minutes in the lobby whose van was more than an hour late) but was full so I had to sit in the front with the driver (suits me fine). It was an interesting trip through the city as we made our way to JFK where we stopped at a few terminals to drop off others before I finally was at my terminal.

I struggled with my cases and but managed to check in with several hours to spare (I believe in being VERY early as opposed to a little late…). I took the time just to sit and read, along with a fresh fruit salad and some birch beer that I had picked up in the food court. The hours went by quickly and then we boarded the plane for an uneventful trip during which I was not really able to sleep at all (despite having a free seat beside me on the 777, I just could not relax). The films were absolutely awful…

Customs was a bit of a problem with a rather large line (or, should I say queue since I am back in England now?) after which I pick up my luggage and headed back to Woking with a local bus shuttle. I wandered down the street from the station dragging my luggage behind me (always seems to me to be something like a dog on a leash…) to finally arrive back home, struggling to push the door open with all the mail stacked up behind it…I am home…I am tired.