Freemans in NY: Visitors & more visitors..

After the Besanko's visit we took it easy for a day or two before our next visitor, Anne Huggins, a friend from Melbourne, arrived.

We had a few admin tasks to do, and also signed an agreement with the agent to organise the sub-let of the apartment from late December. To get an apartment initially we had to sign a 12 month lease, but were told we could sub-let it for the 2nd 6 months which we're confident will happen.

We caught up with Matthew Adamson, a friend from Fairhaven who lives in Darwin, who was in New York for the Police and Fireman games. The games were part of the lead up to the 10 year anniversary for 9/11. We had a drink and chat at the apartment for a couple of hours. Terry and Pam then headed off to a Mets baseball game. They were playing the Chicago Cubs so we managed to get to the one game the Mets won in a while. They won in the 9th innings by 1 run, great game.

The US Open tennis tournament was into it's final days albeit somewhat delayed because of the amount of rain New York had experienced in the past week. The Flushing Meadows stadium is quite new but for some reason they didn't build a roof into the main stadium so the tennis was suspended for at least 2 days in the final week.

Anne arrived late on Saturday night at Newark airport which is in New Jersey and caught a taxi to our apartment. She was obviously a little weary after the long haul from Melbourne.

Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 so we watched a bit of the memorial service on TV. We walked up to Central Park through Times Square and along Broadway. Anne and Terry hired bikes for an hour to ride around Central Park.

Pam watched a family group of buskers under the Bethesda Terrace, they were wonderful.

We took Anne around the Rockefeller plaza and down 5th Avenue to Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. In Bryant Park they had set up rows of empty chairs to represent the number of people killed as a result of 9/11, very moving.

Bryant Park

Times Square

Got home to watch the US Open Tennis Women's final on TV, great to see Sam Stosur win in spite of the antics of Williams!

As it was Sunday we headed up to a night service in Harlem, however the place we'd been before had a different service so unfortunately there was no gospel singing and the jazz bar down the road, Paris Blues, had a very loud band so we didn't hang around.

On Monday Pam and Anne took the Staten Island Ferry past that statue and back again, then wandered around the Financial District and World Trade Centre construction site. There was a huge floral tribute along one street from the service of the day before. Took a subway over to Little Italy and around Chinatown. Chinatown is such an eye opener, an absolute must for any visitor to Manhattan. After a quick bite to eat in Little Italy we found the bus depot in Chinatown that Anne's bus trip departs from later in the week. Terry had an appointment at an osteopath for a sore neck and headache so had a quiet day. The treatment certainly helped. Later that night we all went out to Queens for a Met's baseball game and the obligatory hotdog. The Mets lost this game to the Washington Nationals, 2-3.

The next day Anne and Pam took in a visit to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. It was a little hazy but still a great view from the top. We also happened to co ordinate our visit with that of Novak Djokovic who had won the US Tennis Open the day before, so there was lots of photographers and onlookers trying to get a shot of Djokovic with the trophy. Anne managed a couple.

While we were up the top, we got talking to a couple of Aussies, ( as you do), who it turned out live in Lorne! He was a plumber and knew Dave Thompson, the builder who built our house at Fairhaven, as well as a few other surf club people. Such a small world. His name was Mark Trickey. Anne and Pam had a sustenance break in the Heartland Brewery downstairs which is a cafe as well as a bar, quite nice and relaxing.

Next task was shopping. Anne had a bit of a list so we walked the shops around 34th Street which is where the main Macy's store is located. Anne didn't break the bank but got a few nice things. We then headed up 5th Ave to Tiffany's, Gucci, Versarce and all the other high end boutiques. A bit of window shopping is always fun. Back down 5th Ave to St Patricks Cathedral and round the corner to Madison then Park Ave for a couple of shots of the Waldorf. Further down 5th Ave is Grand Central Terminal a must see for any visitor to NY. It's such a grand place. Terry spent the day wandering around midtown west looking at various bars, restaurants, cinemas and Jazz @ the Lincoln Centre. He also visited The Plaza Hotel which houses a very special upmarket bookshop - Assouline Books. Terry dressed in his normal gear, t-shirt, travel pants, runners must have looked a little out of place in the bookshop as the staff followed him about asking if he needed help. However by the time he left some hour and a half later they were on good terms; a place to go back to. Anne and Pam went to the Mary Poppins musical that night, such a great show. Thoroughly enjoyed the show even with the distraction of a 1 year old a few rows away who caused quite a ruckus at various times during the show... you've got to wonder ... After the show we stopped for a hot drink and a small snack (no time for dinner beforehand) in 9th Ave close to home.

Wednesday was a day off for Pam; feeling a little weary. Terry and Anne headed off for more sightseeing - Byrant Park to watch the continual activity of petanque, table tennis, chess, piano man, jugglers, sunbaking and next door is the New York public library.

Further downtown to Union Square with its farmer's market and just along the road to Barnes and Noble, a huge general book shop over 3 levels. Walked across town past the Flatiron building and on to Chelsea for a bite to eat at Tiapol's, a lovely tapas bar.

After lunch more sightseeing around Chelsea - Chelsea Piers on the Hudson river, Chelsea Market and the Highline. A subway train over to Brooklyn to walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan and finally a subway train to 42nd street and home! What a day.. Needless to say we stayed in with a home cooked meal, Anne had a very early start the next morning on a 7 day bus trip around some of the east coast including Niagara Falls, Toronto and Ottawa in Canada.

While Anne had a very early start with a taxi ride to Chinatown about 7.15am for the start of her east coast adventure, the Freemans had a quiet day on Thursday. Terry had a 2nd osteo appointment in Chelsea for his neck. Pam spent a bit of time grocery shopping around Little India on Lexington Ave around 30th street. Another night of home cooking, wonderful, and watching baseball on the TV, almost normal...

Pam and Terry took off to Grand Central Terminal for a longer look around. There's a large fresh food market, various shops and a food hall within the terminal which we'd never had the time to investigate before. We had a bite to eat and wandered about for about an hour or so. Later Friday night we'd organised to catch up with a NY friend, Michele, who we'd initially met in Melbourne last year through our Turkish friend, Mehmet. Michele had travelled through Turkey earlier in 2010 and met Mehmet, so when she told him she was coming to Melbourne he put her in touch with us and we caught up for a meal in 2010. So we'd promised when we got to NY we'd get in touch so hence this meal. Michele took us to Blue Ribbon, a restaurant in Soho. Blue Ribbon has a mixture of all types of cuisine but is classified as American Nouveau and includes a raw seafood bar. It gets great reviews and has reasonable prices. They don't take bookings for small groups so we had a drink in a very dark bar close by and got a table within the hour. The food was fabulous, oysters, spicy soup, paella and beef marrow with oxtail marmalade (sounds weird but tasted great). A bit noisy but we had a great night.

Saturday was another lazy day. Took off to Bryant Park as it was holding a festival over a few days but there wasn't a lot happening. Downtown in the financial district, Stone street, which is a small laneway closed off to traffic, but with cafes and bars down each side and tables and chairs in the middle, was holding its annual Oyster festival. The place was packed but we found a small table, had a dozen oysters, a Guinness and a wine or two over an hour or so. Oysters were tasty but quite small. We shared a Norwegian waffle with blueberries and raspberries at the finish, lovely.

Saturday night we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil, Zarkana, at Radio City. Fantastic show in such a great venue and the crowd behaved, must be a first for us!!

After the show we walked home past a place called Pinkberry, just round the corner in 9th Ave. This is a place that sells whipped frozen yoghurt rather than ice cream and has all different sorts of toppings - fruit, chocolate shavings, nuts, waffle chips etc etc. So Terry had a small cup of watermelon flavoured yoghurt with all the fruit they could fit on and Pam had a small cup of chocolate with strawberries, raspberries and chocolate shavings. Lovely way to finish the night.

Usually on Sundays the traffic around the apartment is pretty quiet, however this Sunday it was grid lock, so something had to be happening somewhere. Sure enough 8th Ave between 42 and 59 streets was closed off for a food fair. The traffic with a main access road closed, had to find other ways to get around, hence the grid lock. Americans love their cars but sitting in gridlock for hours on end on a Sunday would not be our idea of a fun time. We walked through the fair late in the afternoon but it wasn't anything special, just a typical market. Headed back to Bryant Park to see what was happening at their festival but that had all finished for the day.

Went over to Penn Station around 8pm as Lisa and Nigel were arriving from DC on an Amtrak. They were a little delayed and when they finally arrived it took awhile to work out where they were in comparison to where we were waiting. It's a real problem at Penn Station, it's huge but even when you know which platform someone is arriving at there's multiple exits from the platform which don't come to a central point. Anyway, via mobile phone, we told them to head for the street and then they popped up right where we were standing, so it's all a bit of a mystery. Walked back to the apartment, only about 15 mins, catching up on all their travel news.

Lisa and Nigel headed off to the Empire State on Monday morning and then walked all the way from midtown to downtown along Broadway to the Staten Island Ferry, the most southern point of Manhattan, stopping along the way to take in the various landmarks.

Terry and Pam headed to St Pauls Chapel, near the World Trade Centre, to listen to the Trinity Choir and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra play Bach cantatas. They have a performance every Monday at 1pm for quite a few months. It was beautiful, great acoustics and such a relaxing sound. Only a small donation required and the performance went for an hour and a half.

Lisa and Nigel met us there. Unfortunately most of the streets around Wall St and Bowling Green (including the infamous bull) were all fenced off as a group of demonstrators were staging an ongoing campaign to bring awareness to the influence big financial companies have on the political system. So the police blocked off any possible areas where a group could congregate, which is all well and good, but makes it difficult to get around the narrow streets as there's always lots of tourists and workers moving about.

Lisa and Nigel took off on the Staten Island ferry for a trip out past that statue. Terry and Pam headed back to Stone street for a bite to eat, sat inside as it was quite cool outside. Later that night we took off to the upper east side just bordering Harlem to a Mexican restaurant Terry had found in the Lonely Planet guide called El Paso Taqueria, it was a little different but OK.

We woke up Tuesday to a pretty overcast and slightly damp day. So we all had a lazy morning catching up on admin and other things before Terry and Nigel headed over to Chelsea whereTerry had another osteo appointment. They then did the Chelsea sights - Highline, Tiapol's (coffee only), Chelsea market, Chelsea Hotel which is well known for various musicians, artists and writers who have lived or stayed there. They then walked past the apartment we first rented when we came to NY. Lisa and Pam headed off to 5th Ave - Abercrombie and Fitch (for once there was no queue outside but there was when we left!) where a very attractive black male around mid 20's bare chested welcomed visitors to the store, which is A & F's thing. Window shopped through the various upmarket boutiques and spent a little longer at Tiffany's where Lisa bought herself a lovely ring. Caught the bus up to the Guggenheim Museum for a few outside photos only, before heading back to Madison and Park Ave, then home on the subway. Had a home cooked meal and then headed out to Times Square to take in the lights, the shops open all hours and the people, including the naked cowgirl! Nigel took quite a few photos...