Home at last after a long windy morning - at 3pm. Day 3 started at a relaxed pace - a subway to 50th to pick up our hop-on hop-off tickets. We sat atop the bus in our ponchos for an interesting tour downtown.
We managed to catch a free concert by the Juilliard School at Seaport Historic district although the traffic made us late but still able to hear some lovely violin and piano music. We hope to catch another concert at the Lincoln Center this evening but I don't plan on walking!
We walked back through the Financial district, unlocking after the anniversary of the Occupy movement yesterday (explained the sirens and hovering copter) and caught the subway - an express as it turned out - to 86th on the East Side. The objective was the Metropolitan Museum which we missed last visit. Thanks to a navigation error by an un-named person, we turned right instead of left and walked 16 blocks up Museum Mile, away from said objective.
We were now in lower Harlem and the mood was different, as though we were fish out of water. Just at that moment, my weary legs stumbled upon the red line subway station at 110 Central Park North. That is a long walk!
The East side of Manhattan is leafy and salubrious. Full of doctors and expensive apartments. I prefer the vibe here on the west side. Even 72 St station is rather charming, at the confluence of Amsterdam and Broadway, my two favourite NYC streets/names.
There is a tornado alert apparently. It was windy and occasionally sprinkled but I am happy with this morning's outing. We have an Uptown tour tomorrow as well as Brooklyn and City Lights tours in the coming days as well as a sunset tour leaving from Pier 83. I am finally beginning to learn the geography but as our misread today shows, a wrong turn can lead to disappointment and sore legs:-(
I haven't given up on the Metropolitan. Maybe tomorrow.
Location:Beacon Hotel, NYC
2 comments:
The 5th Columnist
Yes it was my mistake that lead to our missing the gallery and walking an eternity of blocks into an area of dubious renown, but in my defense Rob has been married to me for a few decades now and rarely during that time has my sense of direction impressed, so why on earth did he believe me this time. Rob also omitted to say that some of that walk would have been averted had he not dismissed my earlier suggestion to wait once we had left the express train for an all station which would have taken us much closer to the gallery. But nevertheless, we enjoyed the walk beside the park during intermittent rain, stumbling upon glimpses of a quiet meditative garden which beckoned to us weary travelers as did the tranquility of the quaint boat house and lake . In spite of the stuff up, which we both accepted with good heart but weary feet, and a sense of 'we have done it again' we did discover that Picasso's is coming to The Guggenheim on Friday and so we shall return. Earlier in the day, we enjoyed discovering for the first time the historic sea port district, very reminiscent of The Rocks and as we passed through Time Square we became a little clearer on the theatre we would like to see.As always sitting here at the end of the day, having washed off the city grime, consumed a lovely G&T and feeling pleasantly exercised from the walk all does indeed look right with the world. Hopefully, once rested we will venture forth to the Lincoln Centre and a restaurant near by for music and food - what more could we desire? Perhaps, a pleasant glass of wine or two!
The above was not written by me!
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