Wednesday, October 24, 2007

New York: Out and About

We arrived at Penn Station in New York City at about 3pm and navigated the subway to Grand Central. It is a huge and lovely old building with loads of people and funky astrology on the ceiling.
There we met Rob and took our stuff to his apartment up on the upper east side, still navigating the subway but now with an unlimited card. Rob had a meeting and works near Grand Central so we went back there and walked to Times Square. It was amazing. It was like day time at night. We stood there for quite a while before going and getting a beer.



For some reason there were a few dozen cop cars lined up, just waiting, with all lights flashing. None of the cops seemed concerned. Odd.

Llew had asked Rob to book us into Anthony Bourdain's restaurant sometime and he did for the first night we were there. Of course Tony no longer works there, but it is as busy as ever.
Llew had cassoulet.
I had real fois gras. It was a piece of liver and was silky and the best fois gras I have ever had.
Rob had steak tartar and loved it. Quite spicy and salty.

For dessert, I had the richest, smoothest chocolate mousse ever.
Rob and Llew had the creme bulee - really creamy with real vanilla bean.
Friday morning we went downtown to the financial district. We just kind of felt our way around and found this church which was the first church in NYC. Right next to Wall St.





Now the story of Wall St is that when the bottom of Manhattan Island was first "bought" by the Dutch from the natives for about $24 worth of fake jewelry, they put a wall above the settlement where Wall St is today. The city grew beyond that once the British took over and these are some of the buildings on and around it.


New York stock exchange.
Down towards the end there is this famous bronze bull for hope of a bull market.


Its balls are probably more famous.
A monument to the Dutch transaction
This next monument is freaky! Read the sign and the monument is after it.

This was just silly!

The next 3 photos are also silly. They are of the line for the Statue of Liberty. Needless to say, we did not go out to the statue.


So this is as close as we got.


Street art.
Next we walked up to the World Trade Center site. They are building the new stuff so we couldn't get a real good look and it doesn't look like a site of distruction, just building. Still, we knew what happened here and to think that so many people died right there is sombering.



Across the street is this old church which became a centre of prayer on the day of 9/11.




This tree was downed by flying debris, and many trees were damaged, but they protected the church such that not even a window was broken. Amazing.





Next a visit past city hall and surrounding parks and buildings.



Of course the Brooklyn Bridge is right there too. We didn't get to Brooklyn which is a bit sad, but there was so much else to see.


Now, imagine this building without the consturction. Can you tell what it is from? It is the courthouse and features on Law & Order.
Another court building with a protest against dog fighting. Michael Vick must have been appearing?

Up the road is Chinatown.


We subwayed up to the New York City Museum. Had a baseball exhibit which we got photos of, and lots of displays about Jewish history in NYC but we didn't get photos of that.

A side trip to Radio City while waiting for Rob.
This is the view from Rob's apartment. Great. It was on the 7th floor, but still felt like ground level with all the tall buildings around. Tall buildings just never stop between here and the end of the island.
Rob in his "office".

Saturday morning we spent 3 hours walking though central park.
Obelisk taken from Egypt.




The have Shakespeare in the park but it is almost impossible to get tickets. It involves something called "5am" but I don't know what that is.

In the summer there is also puppet theatre.



A statue of a famour lawyer.




Remote controlled boats. Not quite where they filmed Stuart Little, but looked the same even so.
Alice in Wonderland statue.
Hans Christian Andersen.
Renovations.



Yes, it was 80 degrees F outside and they really were ice-skating. This is not the scene from Home Alone 2 because it was the lake in front of the hotel (pic below) which freezes over in winter.


Home Alone 2 hotel and toystore.
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Now this is cool. It is the store front for Apple. It is simply a glass cube with elevator and stairway. The whole shop is underground.
New York cabs!

Last stop in NYC was Greenich and Washington Square where lots of bits of various shows are filmed, including Law & Order.

So inspired by the Union Square markets, Llew decided to cook.
Looking up recipes.

Chicken.
Chicken in olive, pine-nut cream sauce with potatoes and sauteed brussel sprouts.
Pear tarte tatin with ice-cream.

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