On the 12th of May two years ago I posted a very brief statement on Spirit of Place about our visit to New York as preamble to a piece about our stay in Memphis. Right about now we are approaching the 10th Anniversary of that amazing two weeks in New York City which began shortly after we returned from our visit to Sydney, which I documented in detail on this Blog during November and December of last year.
I received a call from my cousin Lynda Gilfillan sometime during either February or March of 2012 inviting Pat and I to join her and Rob for two weeks in New York to celebrate her birthday. They had booked an apartment on 42nd Street and had just discovered that it had two double bedrooms, and wanted us to take up the 2nd bedroom at no cost to ourselves, which despite my protests, she insisted was part of the deal………. otherwise the offer was off. Wow! What could I say but ‘thank you’, and immediately started trying to figure out how we were going to afford the trip so soon after our six week stay in Australia.
It took a bit of fairly deft juggling, but an opportunity like this only ever comes once in a lifetime, so one way and another we found ourselves landing at JFK very early on the morning of the 23rd May ……….. a drizzly, damp day - but who cared, we were in the Big Apple, and we just spent the day walking and walking and walking - looking up at all the amazing buildings that surrounded us and grabbing a bit of culture during a quick visit to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, with its beautifully painted ceilings and well appointed reading rooms.
A terrible shock, but nothing in life is insurmountable, and priority No. 1 was to find somewhere to stay for the night, and a quick trip through Google told us that in spring in NYC, there is little or nothing available at short notice - but right across the road from Madison Square Gardens there is 1 Penn Plaza - a huge hotel that seems to double more as a Backpackers than a hotel, and there we found a room (albeit a smokers room), with a double bed and the promise of a gurney for the third person. Poor Rob - not only was he the third person, but he had to put up with my snoring as well.
The 24th presented us with the challenge of meeting Lynda at Grand Central and breaking the bad news to her (which Rob preferred to do alone), and finding somewhere to stay for the ensuing fourteen days. This I tackled via the online facilities at a MacDonalds that gave access to AirBnB, where finally we were able to get a two bedroomed apartment on 116th Street East - Spanish Haarlem - at a cost that split between us at least made up for some of what Rob had lost on the 42nd Str. booking.
Each day we would take the subway from 116th Street station down to wherever it was we wanted to explore that day …….. essentially the train ran underneath Lexington Avenue almost as far down as Delancey Street if I remember correctly, which was hardly more than a hop, skip and a jump down to the Battery, Wall Street and the World Trade Centre.
Funny story: The day we decided to visit Wall Street it was raining and ‘just in case’ Pat and I took along a few of those pocket roll up yellow plastic raincoats. I was dressed in my everyday shorts and shirt - and my faithful Crocs. Hardly had we stepped up to the daylight from the station when the Crocs became ice-skates on the granite pavers that covered the area. I had no option but to take them off and carry them much to the disgust of Lynda and Pat ………… imagine walking down Wall Street in the company of an aging Boerseun barefoot and in shorts and carrying a pair of worn Crocs ……… they were very careful to keep their distance and quietly ignore me.
Each day would find us somewhere special, with the abundance of NYC art galleries seeming to take priority - the best by far being the Metropolitan Museum of Art with its floor dedicated to the Impressionists which took up most of my day there - also the amazing American Western art and sculpture - the Frank Lloyd-Wright room and gallery - the incredible Willy’s Jeep Gallery and so on and so on and so on. To do the Met justice one really needs to spend each and every day for weeks and weeks there, building a total mental picture of what is has on offer that one can carry around in a little pocket of the brain for evermore ………….. much as I compiled at the Tate when we lived in London all those years ago …… unfortunately now spoiled by categorizing all the various eras of art rather than the wonderful rambling institution that it used to be. One of my favorite paintings there was La Suerte by Wyndam Lewis - hidden away in a corner near some small stairs as I recall - I would spend ages there, mesmerized by the woman’s eyes …………… sadly it is now nowhere to be found in the gallery.
We of course also spent a good few hours wandering around NYC’s most visited building - the Guggenheim Museum, possibly Lloyd-Wright’s most iconic building. Unfortunately on the day we were there they were busy with maintenance and access to the spiral gallery space was not allowed ………… not to worry, the important thing was that “We Were There”.
One of the best things we did was buy a New York Pass which was quite new at the time, but which got us to the front of the lines almost everywhere we visited - (Top of the Rock / Empire State / Radio City Music Hall and numerous other places) - all the while saving us a ton of money on entry fees - I would recommend it to anyone visiting the city.
On the Subway (Guess where?)
Bleecker Street was a disappointment - we were hoping to be able to relax for a while with some nice Jazz - but everywhere was a total rip-off on entry fees, and when Rob asked if we could look in before paying he found there was absolutely nothing going on. Sad …….. it would have been nice! At the Magnolia Bakery we each bought one of their famous cookies and took time out in the Bleecker Playground to relax for a while, where Rob had us in fits as he shared a table with a local tramp.
On another day Pat and I visited the Irish Hunger Memorial and the NYC by Sea (Tribeca Sailing) Yacht Club and took a leisurely walk all the way down the Boardwalk to Battery Park
The highlight of our visit was in many ways time spent at Ground Zero where One World Trade Centre was nearing completion. The 9/11 Information Centre was extremely moving and literally had me in tears to the point where I simply had to leave the exhibit.
When we eventually left New York via the New Jersey Turnpike on our way to Memphis we looked back at this magnificent tower which at a distance stood up out of the Manhattan Skyline like a giant finger to those who thought that their act of terror might destroy the spirit of a nation.
All in all our stay was without doubt two of the most wonderful and exciting weeks we have spent anywhere, and the company of Lynda and Robin simply made it so much more special than it might otherwise have been. Thank you so much for the invite guys …………. we’d do it again tomorrow at the blink of an eyelid.
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