h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sunday: we got up early and drove to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 10:30, but they wanted us to be there three and a half hours early, to get past security and immigration (passengers flying from Dublin go through immigration control in Dublin rather than in New York, saving hours of queuing). We did all the usual things, drank coffee, ate danish pastries, and attempted to fill in the bizarre American visa waiver forms. On second attempt, we got it right (having put in the birthdate in the wrong place due to a badly layed out form). Then we proceeded to American immigration, to find that the whole thing was no good because it was in red biro (although it said nothing on the form about this). Eventually got the form filled in and were granted our visa waivers.

The flight to New York is long and boring - seven and a half hours, arriving at 2pm because of a 4 hour time difference. Mrs G's cousin, H, met us at the airport and drove us to her house where we would be staying. This in the suburbs of New York City, but officially outside the city boundary. She then took us to a nearby shopping mall, where there were clothes shops and a good bookshop, where I bought a book on all the jobs in Ancient Rome and a history of mathematicians.

We got some pizzas and had a bite. For us it was already 12 midnight, but for H and her partner, P, it was just 8pm. Odd.

Monday:

Got the train from Tuckahoe into New York City. The train arrives into Grand Central Terminal, which is a huge marble building and very impressive. It's located in the middle of Manhattan in the area called Midtown.

Manhattan can be a bit confusing until you learn the names. The island is long and thin and runs roughly north/south. North, towards the mainland, is called "uptown". South towards the sea is called "downtown". East and West are called "crosstown".

The two main areas of skyscrapers are the Financial District at the downtown tip, and the Midtown area about half way up. We explored Midtown.

Right next to Grand Central is the Chrysler Building, the most elegant skyscraper in New York, with its Art Deco chrome top, and its gargoyles shaped like car parts. We got some coffee in Starbucks, then proceeded to the New York Public Library. The stone lions in front are famous. Inside the library, we wandered around and saw the giant reading room. At Bryant Park, they opening a skating rink where there would be free skating. They'd just got to the speeches, so we went on. At Times Square, the nearest thing to a "centre" to NYC, we saw the famous electronic billboards, but since it wasn't yet dark we didn't get the full effect. There's a Toys'R'Us at Times Square which has a giant ferris wheel inside the lobby.

We had lunch in a New York Deli, something which impressed me very much. There were about 30 people working behind the counter and you could get just about any type of food known to man, either to eat on the premises or to take away. I had a huge salad, all you could eat for 7 dollars, with about fifty different types of vegetables in it. The others had various paninis and crostinis.

Next we went to the Rockefeller Plaza which is a group of buildings spread about six blocks. New York is mostly crisscrossed by nine or 10 avenues running north/south and about 150 streets running east/west. The street are much closer to each other than the avenues, dividing the city into blocks which are about 3 x 1. The biggest building in the Rockefeller Plaza, the GE building, is among the tallest in the city, possibly the second tallest. We went up to the top of it in a lift, which brought us up 67 floors in 45 seconds. There's a viewing gallery on the top three floors, from where we got wonderful views over the city. This cost us a pretty penny, but it was worth it. It's known as "Top of the Rock", by the way.

Next we sought out the Nintendo World shop, where Iz bought a new Nintendo DS to replace one stolen recently, and both daughters bought cuddly Pokemon dolls, and non-cuddly Pokemon models, as well as some Pokemon tee-shirts. Iz bought a Pokemon game as well.

At this stage we headed back towards the railway station - terminal - calling into Build-A-Bear-Workshop and Barnes and Noble Bookshop along the way. El bought volume one of a new Manga. We then returned on the train to H's. H prepared us all a lovely meal.

Tuesday:

Today we walked through the park to the station. Autumn in America is so much more colourful than in Europe. The trees produce these wonderful red and yellow colours and the leaves were all falling. We saw plenty of squirrels.

After our train journey of about 30 or 40 minutes, we ventured into the subway for the first time, New York's underground railway. It's like the London underground but a little more confusing, as there are far less signs, and nothing to tell you where the next train is going to if there is a choice of destinations. You have to read it off the train when it arrives. The trains themselves usually don't have any maps of the line inside either.

We took the subway downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. New York is divided into five boroughs. Four of these are on the east side of the Hudson River: Manhattan on its own island, the Bronx on the mainland, and Queens and Brooklyn on Long Island. The fifth borough is Staten Island. The Brooklyn Bridge links Manhattan Island to Brooklyn, and was the biggest suspension bridge in the world when it was built. There's a pedestrian board-walk along the middle of it, which climbs up above the cars, so you can get great views of the city. We only went as far as the mid point, from where we could see the Financial District (the downtown skyscraper area).

Next we walked back and along Broadway (a road which is neither an avenue nor a street, and goes the whole length of the island). Broadway heads down into the Financial District. We found lunch in another Deli (excellent!), then went down to the very southern tip of the island, and caught the Staten Island Ferry, which takes about 1,000 passengers and is free. It leaves about every 30 minutes and takes about 20 minutes to go out to Staten Island, passing Ellis Island (the old immigration centre) and the Statue of Liberty along the way. There's not much to do on Staten Island, although about a million people live there, so we took the next boat back. The views of the Manhattan skyline from the boat are famous.

Stopped in Starbucks for coffee, then proceeded to Wall Street, were we saw the outside of the New York Stock Exchange, although it is no longer possible to go inside. Then we went to Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center. There's nothing to see there, as it is all covered up, while they build the replacement. There will be two giant square pools marking the sites of the twin towers, and around the outside a series of new office towers, the biggest being even bigger than the twin towers were, and the biggest skyscraper in the world. Partly "remember our dead" and partly "sucks to you".

We returned to the Pokemon center for something we'd missed the first day (a free downloadable Pokemon called Manaphy available only through the wireless link). Then we went to a Broadway show called Avenue Q. As I've said elsewhere, it featured homosexuality, porn and muppets. It was actually very tame by European standards.

Back home to H's.

There are three more days of this, but it's getting late, so I'll post more tomorrow.

Sounds like you had a great time so far! Thanks for all the detail, it helps me get it straight in my head, having never been there.

<>

That's very comforting to hear. Actually, it seemed to receive very few complaints by American standards, even when it came to play in my rather conservative town.

Wednesday - Hallowe'en

Got the slightly earlier train into the city, and the subway uptown to 77th Street. From here, we walked across Central Park, which is about 1km wide and 4km long. In the park we saw lots of squirrels, an American robin, a bluejay and a woodpecker, and some terrapins in a small lake.

Then we arrived at the American Museum of Natural History, which must surely be the biggest natural history museum in the world. The admission fee into this was voluntary, but they suggested a typical price and we paid it. First we look at the African Mammals, which are "stuffed animals". They've been mounted in wonderful trompe-l'oeuil dioramas, so that it looks as if they are standing on the African plain or in a jungle. In places it was hard to see where the display ended and the backwall painting began. Then we went down into the bowels of the building for some coffee and a hallowe'en bun. Next on the agenda was the butterfly conservatory, a temporary exhibition. This was timed so that not too many people would go into the conservatory at a time. Inside, there was a hot, humid atmosphere and about a hundred live butterflies in lots of different colours and sizes. The biggest, the birdwing was about 20cm in wing-span. Some of the butterflies were flying around; many were feeding on little containers of sugared water. One of the keepers had a feather on a pole and she could poke the butterflies and get them to fly around. On the way in and out we had to go through an "airlock" with double doors, and we had to be inspected on the way out in case any butterflies had landed on us.

Next on the list were the dinosaur galleries. They've a real Tyrannosaurus skull! There are not as many dinosaurs on display as in London, but they were arranged much better, with a complete sequence of skeletons from very early creatures right through dinosaurs up to modern birds, mammals and reptiles. Current theory is that the dinosaurs didn't die out. They're still around us as birds.

Apparently the museum has the biggest collection of fossil bones anywhere on the planet with literally millions of them in storage.

Next was a display about mythical creatures called "Mythic Creatures". It showed models of things like dragons, yeti and mermaids, and then presented possible explanations for some of them. They even had the original PT Barnum's mermaid, a repulsive fake made by sowing a monkey top onto a fish's tail.

Got the subway to Spring Street (down near Greenwich Village) where we found an Italian restaurant (Boom) and had a nice lunch/dinner at about 4pm.

At about 5:30, we headed back to the junction of Spring Street and 6th Avenue, which is the starting point fo the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. This is a massive affair. Some of the participants are sponsored professionals, others are just ordinary people in costume. Anyone can enter if they are in costume. These ranged from simple (a Santy Hat) to the most elaborate you can imagine. One I particularly liked was an 8-foot high Death, complete with skull face and black cloak, carrying a small white baby. The baby's face was the face of the person inside the costume.

After about two hours of watching the parade, we got tired and headed home to H's.

Thursday:

Today started much the same as other days: train to Grand Central. Then we got the subway uptown, this time to 86th Street, and walked to the MMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a huge museum, with every form of art: paintings, sculpture, artifacts. It's like a combination of the British National Gallery, Victoria & Albert and British Museum, although it wouldn't be as big as any of them.

We didn't have time to see the full collection, which would take a few days, so we concentrated on highlights: the Egyptian section, with some actual Egyptian tombs, and the complete Temple of Dendur. When one of the dams on the Nile was built, many of the priceless temples were flooded. The Americans organised the moving of the temples onto higher ground, including the great temples of Abu Simbel and Philae. In gratitude, the Egyptian government gave them the Temple of Dendur, which is small. There's an entire wing of the museum just to house it.
Next was the American Wing, where we hoped to see the Frank Lloyd Wright room, but most of the wing was closed for renovations. We did get to see Washington crossing the Delaware, though. A huge painting, it shows the mythic view of the American Founders.
Next was the Japanese collection, an amazing piece of calm in the middle of the bustle as it attracts very few visitors. There were screens decorated in cartoon-like pictures of countryside, with small people doing things like studying the arts; with monkeys; with ducks; and so on. You could see how the modern manga style has evolved from the traditional art of Japan. There was a small Buddhist temple, and a cool, calm room with a fountain designed by a modern Japanese artist. Next we looked at the musical instrument exhibition. I could spend a day or two just in this section. They had examples of just about every type of instrument here, both folk and orchestral.

We stopped for lunch in one of the cafes - very expensive sandwiches. In contrast to other food in NY, the museum cafes are ferociously expensive. It's a captive market. After lunch, we looked at an exhibition of Rembrandts and other Dutch School works of art. I recognised quite a few of them. Also saw in passing Caravaggio's Lute Player and El Greco's Toledo. This last one is one of my favourite paintings.
The Museum Shop is the premier place for buying reproductions of ancient jewelry, but it is pricey, so I limited myself to a mathematical mosaic kit, featuring little magnetic tiles in the shape of a rhombus, with angles all based on 360/14 degrees.

We left the museum and headed back to Midtown, where we did some more shopping. Home to Tuckahoe, and went out with H and P for a meal in nearby Bronxville.

Friday - Our Last Day

Got an especially early train into the city. Took the subway "Shuttle" which is a line with only two stops, Grand Central and Times Square. Transferred to another line which brought us right into the Lincoln Center, a huge center of the arts. He there is a concert hall (the Avery Fisher Hall), a theatre and an opera house (the Metropolitan Opera). You may have see the Opera in "Moonstruck". We were here for the concert hall. The New York Philharmonic were performing Dutilleux, Martinu and Rachmaninov. They are an excellent orchestra, truly world class. They were joined in the Martinu by the Lebeque sisters, two French (French-Canadian?) "girls" who are famous for their flamboyant and dramatic piano playing. They looked in their early 20s, but they looked the same when I last saw them many years ago. Did some final shopping, and had a wonderful lunch in another New York Deli. Then hurried back to the house where we had fifteen minutes to pack our suitcases, then we bid goodbye to H. P drove us to the airport. We got there at about 6:30pm. Thanks, H and P, for sharing your house, for driving us around and for all the beer!

The flight back to Dublin is two hours shorter than the flight to New York, due to the prevailing winds across the Atlantic. our plane which was supposed to be at 8:40 didn't take off until 10:30. We were back in Dublin at 4am American time or 8am Saturday morning Irish time, confused, exhausted and happy.

Sounds like a great holiday. Got any photos (especially of the gargoyles)?

I've tons of photos. I'm still sorting through them, but will probably get them up onto the Web this evening.

A few other things I noticed about New York.

It's a very friendly place. Everybody is very polite and helpful. It feels like a very safe place, and statistics show it is the safest city of over a million people in the United States. You obviously have to mind your bag when you walk around, but that applies to any city. My daughter dropped her purse, and a very kind man ran after us to return it.

Some parts of the city are ultra-efficient - the transport system and the delis are designed for handling thousands or millions of people each day, and they work very well. They're even reasonably fast in Starbucks, something I've never seen in any other Starbucks anywhere!

I also encountered some extremely slow service in some of the shops - there was one person in the queue in front of me, and the assistant was trying to sell her a guarantee for the item she had just bought. This took quite a while.

Some of New York is pretty grim looking. Our train went through the Bronx and Harlem, and they looked like the sort of places we wouldn't want to ever visit. Other parts are delightful - around Tuckahoe, which is a suburb and not technically in the city, there are timber-clad houses, leafy streets and squirrels. Because it was Hallowe'en, people had pumpkins on their doorsteps, and ghosts and witches hanging up in the gardens.

When I visited New York in 1986, I stayed in Bronxville, just one stop from Tuckahoe on the Metro North line.

Do they still sell cocktails out of a little trolley on the platform in Grand Central Station? It struck me as very New York: the cocktail hour on the train home from work, a Dry Martini please (if only in a plastic cup!).

Zube

I didn't see that, but there is a drinks trolley on the rush-hour train, I've been told. I saw a guy going home from work with three opened bottles of beer - one in each hand and one in his back pocket. He wasn't reprimanded in any way by the ticket collector on the train.

I shall have to post my Tales From Sweden.

For now, I'll leave youn with my overeiding thought: 'If that's what their engineers look like, I can't wait to see their supermodels.'

sorry for the typos. The very thought of them sets me all a-quiver.

Help! A bonobo who is attracted to engineers!

I'd never seen them in that shape before.

I work with a Swede. Absolutely gorgeous! Beautiful voice, fabulous body - he bakes good cakes too.

Well...yes...I could be 'turned' by some of them!

I was so tickled by the bill we got for a coffee in MoMA that I kept it. It says at the top

EAT MORE
DRINK MORE
FEEL GOOD