New York City Part 2
Monday 29th December
Caught the subway into downtown to go to the half price ticket office (
Tkts), and after wandering down Wall st, we found a great deli which sold lots of nice local and imported food. So we bought some salad from the salad bar, some bread, and continued looking for the ticket shop. By the time we found it, right down near the waterfront, it was too late - there was a huge queue and nothing we knew on the list of shows. So we caught the subway to Brooklyn and walked back over the Brooklyn bridge. The view was magnificent, the sky was clear, and there were lots of other tourists doing the same thing. There were some fascinating signs on the bridge.
What we didn't know was where the bridge ended up - in City Park, near the City Hall. It was there that we discovered two things (of which we'd read) about New York:
- There are no public toilets, and
- The Police are very helpful
The policewoman told us that we should go to Starbucks and use their restrooms. She had just been there. So, we joined the queue of about 10 people in the overly warm Starbucks, and then bought a hot chocolate, because we felt guilty for using their restrooms and not being customers.
After eating lunch in the park, we took the subway down to the World Trade Center site (ground zero) and had a walk around.
It is now just a building site. The subway station has been reopened recently, and was quite busy. Around the site there was a bare steel fence with some professional signs with photos, maps, historical photos. But it was very bare - nothing personal or emotional - there were signs prohibiting leaving flowers, messages etc.
Just as we were heading away and Jo was putting the camera back in the bag, the troublesome pin which the camera strap is secured by, fell inside the camera. When turning the camera over to try and get it to come back out, there was a flash (from the flash) and a phuut sound, and we both knew it was over - the camera did not turn on.
Yes, we should have first removed the batteries, but it probably wouldn't have mattered as the flash capacitor would still have been charged. We then made use of the travel insturance we had taken out before commencing our trip - they have a concierge service, so we phoned them and asked for a camera repair shop in Manhattan. About 15min later, whilst we were taking another look over Ground Zero, they called back with an address of a camera repairer. We made our way north via the subway, to the 21st floor of an anonymous building on 6th Ave, and knocked on a bare door. To cut a long story (yes, quite a long story) short, it was deemed unrepairable/uneconomic to repair. We felt pretty glum - what do we do in a big city without a camera. So, we went to the Rockerfeller Center, with its enormous Christmas Tree (see January 1st) and wandered through the huge crowds all doing the same thing.
We found a quiet pizza restaurant and ate our fill on New York style Pizza.
Tuesday 30th December.
Having located the Tkts office, we arrived there about an hour before it opened (11am) and waited in a much shorter line than we'd seen the day before. Fortunately it didn't rain, though it tried a couple of times. When the ticket office opened they displayed a list of all the shows they were selling tickets for that day. We didn't recognise many of them, and none of the shows on our list were available - there were some well known shows with matinee performances on New Years Eve, but we didn't want to spend daylight hours at a show. So, we picked "Cabaret", as it was the only name we recognised, though we had no idea what it was about. It only took about 15min to get to the head of the line after the office opened. After that we went to... well, we're not exactly sure but we think it was shops, and without a camera ...
We arrived at the theatre about an hour before the show started and ate Subway from just along the street. The theatre had tables with chairs downstairs, and then little tables with a chair each side upstairs, and then normal tiered seating behind. We were sitting in the tiered seating, and still had a great view. Here's a brief description of it:
The goings on at the Kit Kat Klub appear typical of Berlin nightlife in the late 1930's, but they also serve as a metaphor for the chaotic world outside, and the rise of Nazism.
The musical is set in pre-Second World War Berlin. Based on the Diaries of Christopher Isherwood, it tells the story of Cliff, a writer and his acquaintance with a Cabaret performer, Sally Bowles, whom he meets in the sordid 'Kit Kat Klub'. It has a sub-plot of a Jewish couple Fraulein Schneider, and Herr Schultz, who have to come to terms with the uncertainty of their future together. The story is emphasised throughout by the eccentric, and often camp 'Emcee'.
When we bought the programme and took our seats we were a bit worried about what we were there to see, as the programme showed lots of scantilty clad actors (as shown on its
web site). But the show was excellent, there was a band which sat above the stage, and they played with the theme of the show. The story was excellent, as was the acting.
Wednesday 31st December
We went to a camera shop where we had been the previous day, and asked about the camera we were interested in. They didn't have it in stock, and said they would get it in later in the morning.
So we went to Central Park and wandered around - it looked just like we'd seen pictures of it - bare trees, large grassy areas, meandering paths. We went to the visitors centre and looked at maps and bought some excellent
postcards - view of the park amongst the city from the air. It really is a huge park, covering a significant area of Manhattan Island - it is 2.5miles (4.02km) long and 0.5miles (0.8km) wide and covers 6% of Manhattan island. We also walked to the ice skating rink, and watched some children learning to skate whilst the rest of the rink was flooded (resurfaced). There is a great movie of how Central Park fits into the rest of the world at
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
We then returned to the shop and bought the
camera. Finally we could take some photos of the amazing places we were seeing!
We went back to Central Park armed with the new camera and walked through Strawberry Fields, named for John Lennon. There was a plaque showing names of 121 countries who endorsed it as a Garden of Peace. We walked past fountains and ponds and statues, to an Egyptian Oblisk and then onto the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir where we caught the beginning of the sunset.
After a quick dinner at the appartment we went to the annual New Years Eve
Concert for Peace at the
Cathedral of St John the Divine,
the worlds largest Gothic Cathedral. It was an excellent concert, with orchestra, choir, and solo performances, of classical and contemporary music. There were thousands of people there - we lined up outside over an hour before the concert and were amongst tourists, and locals for whom it was a yearly event, and it took about an hour before we made it inside. Admission was free for general admission, or $55 for a reserved seat. Where we sat we could barely see that there was an orchestra, let alone any of the artists. The sound was excellent, though it took a couple of minutes to get used to the 20 second (or more) reverberation. We had seen the Cathedral (without realising it) on TV a week or more beforehand as they have a Christmas tree which is covered with oragami peace cranes. We were given a candle when we entered and near the end of the concert everyones was lit. It was magnificent sight when everyone raised their lit candle at the end.
Afterwards we took the subway to the stop before Times Square (you know, Times Square, New York City, New Years Eve), but were unable to get closer, as streets had been blocked off earlier in the day. We walked to the southern end of Central Park where we could see down 7th Ave to Times Square - we stood on top of a grassy knoll for about an hour and peered down 15 blocks to Times Square - fortunately we had brought binoculars and food with us! We stood amongst the crowd, and in front of a woman who had a loud voice but kept us entertained with her comments about the goings on, and her desire for everyones attention. The count-down to 2004 happened, there was much cheering, and then the fireworks in Central Park started. We walked through Central Park watching the fireworks and then to a subway station and home. A memorable New Years Eve it was.
Caught the subway into downtown to go to the half price ticket office (Tkts), and after wandering down Wall st, we found a great deli which sold lots of nice local and imported food. So we bought some salad from the salad bar, some bread, and continued looking for the ticket shop. By the time we found it, right down near the waterfront, it was too late - there was a huge queue and nothing we knew on the list of shows. So we caught the subway to Brooklyn and walked back over the Brooklyn bridge. The view was magnificent, the sky was clear, and there were lots of other tourists doing the same thing. There were some fascinating signs on the bridge.
It is now just a building site. The subway station has been reopened recently, and was quite busy. Around the site there was a bare steel fence with some professional signs with photos, maps, historical photos. But it was very bare - nothing personal or emotional - there were signs prohibiting leaving flowers, messages etc.
Yes, we should have first removed the batteries, but it probably wouldn't have mattered as the flash capacitor would still have been charged. We then made use of the travel insturance we had taken out before commencing our trip - they have a concierge service, so we phoned them and asked for a camera repair shop in Manhattan. About 15min later, whilst we were taking another look over Ground Zero, they called back with an address of a camera repairer. We made our way north via the subway, to the 21st floor of an anonymous building on 6th Ave, and knocked on a bare door. To cut a long story (yes, quite a long story) short, it was deemed unrepairable/uneconomic to repair. We felt pretty glum - what do we do in a big city without a camera. So, we went to the Rockerfeller Center, with its enormous Christmas Tree (see January 1st) and wandered through the huge crowds all doing the same thing.
the worlds largest Gothic Cathedral. It was an excellent concert, with orchestra, choir, and solo performances, of classical and contemporary music. There were thousands of people there - we lined up outside over an hour before the concert and were amongst tourists, and locals for whom it was a yearly event, and it took about an hour before we made it inside. Admission was free for general admission, or $55 for a reserved seat. Where we sat we could barely see that there was an orchestra, let alone any of the artists. The sound was excellent, though it took a couple of minutes to get used to the 20 second (or more) reverberation. We had seen the Cathedral (without realising it) on TV a week or more beforehand as they have a Christmas tree which is covered with oragami peace cranes. We were given a candle when we entered and near the end of the concert everyones was lit. It was magnificent sight when everyone raised their lit candle at the end. 
