We had a potential tenant look through the apartment, she was very keen to take it and tentatively told us she would but had to get approval from her UK office. It turned out her actual budget was substantially lower than the rent we are paying so it didn't work out.
After that appointment Terry took off for the Upper East side, Carl Schurz Park with a view across the East River to Roosevelt Island and further on to Astoria in Queens.
Next day was our day at the Metropolitan Museum. Pam stayed for a couple of hours, Terry spent all day. It's a huge museum similar to the Louvre and the Hermitage, so many displays that it is impossible to get around to them all in a day. The impressionists display was very extensive. The building itself is very grand, light and airy and can obviously hold thousands of people without being crowded. It is also a place where there's only a suggested entrance fee, it's up to you what you pay.
That night we had dinner with our friend Karen at a diner over the road from the apartment, West End Cafe. Even though it is very close to the apartment we'd never been before and it was very nice. Karen and Pam went to a play - Maple and Vine - over the road at an off Broadway theatre, good play, unusual but interesting storyline. Terry went to St Patricks Cathedral to listen to a Christmas Choir. The cathedral was packed, his comment was that it just highlighted how good the Trinity Choir at St Paul's really is.
On Friday Pam went to Bryant Park to wander through the market stalls at leisure while Terry headed up to Harlem. He went to a few different places he hadn't seen before - Spirit of Harlem mural - street art by Manny Vega; Graffiti Hall of Fame which is setup in a functional schoolyard. He got permission to take photos through the wire fence.
Terry headed further north to the Bronx to see if Stan's Bar, a big Yankee watering hole during the baseball season, was open but none of the venues along this street outside Yankee stadium are opened in the off season.
Back down to Harlem and checked out the Smoke Jazz Bar and Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, supposedly the largest church in the US and Morningside Park between 110th & 123rd streets behind the Cathedral.
Looked for the ticket booth sculpture (made out of met tickets) at 110th subway station but it wasn't there although the sculptor still works there. At 5pm the Trinity Youth Choir was performing Benjamin Britten music at St Paul's Chapel but it's very difficult music and not suited to young voices, we didn't stay. That night we had tickets for the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra was great but they had a couple of guest artists, John Pizzarelli and his wife Jessica Molaskey who dominated the evening so we didn't get very much of the Pops Orchestra, a bit disappointing.
Saturday was a very cool day, top temperature around 3! Pam went to Union Square to wander through the markets. Terry did a bit more sightseeing - Villard Houses behind St Patrick's Cathedral which are now converted to the New York Palace Hotel, beautiful architecture from 1881. Over to Madison Square Park & the Flatiron Building - one of his favourite buildings. A quick visit to Barnes and Noble his favourite bookshop and Union Square's green market and christmas stalls. The top floor of Filene's Basement, a big discount shop about to close down, has a panoramic overview of Union Sq. Caught a subway to Prince St. to see St Patrick's Old Cathedral and Cemetery which was built in 1809 and used until 1815, in a similar Gothic style to the current Cathedral. A quick visit to the AIA Centre for Architecture but not enough time to explore properly.
That night we had a dinner engagement with Michele Melnick and her husband John. We met up at a bar called Fusion on 10th ave near 55th St, no one there as it was only 8pm, so nice and quiet. We then walked to 52nd St between 6th and 7th Ave to Bar Americain for dinner, lovely meal, great night, very cold outside.
We ventured to the Upper East side on Sunday to look at the Frick Collection. This is a mansion built back in the 1800's which has been turned into a museum and has an extensive art collection. Some beautiful Turner & John Constable paintings. We visited the Assouline bookshop to buy a couple of books Terry was keen on but they were sold out, a new shipment was due in the next day but we never got a phone call so can only assume they never turned up! We'll have to buy online. We walked down to Carnegie Hall for a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir which was inspiring.
After the show we went to the Dream Hotel but the Ava lounge didn't open until 5pm and we didn't feel like waiting around for an hour so we headed home. We went via Margon's cafe, a Cuban place, Terry was keen to have a cubano sandwich but they are closed on Sundays. The weather was freezing, we're amazed it wasn't snowing. We had a skype call with our Canadian friends that night before celebrating with a bottle of champagne as we'd come to the end of our sightseeing in New York.
Monday we started to pack up for the trip home on Wednesday. Pam had a manicure and pedicure at a local nail place around the corner of the apartment. She got challenged as she was leaving that she hadn't left enough tip!! Basically ignored the comments and left. The tipping thing is ridiculous and won't be missed. Terry took a number of video's from the apartment to show people at home our view from the 35th floor. We went to Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Centre for a performance of Handel's Messiah by the Trinity Choir and Orchestra. Firstly we had a quick bite to eat in their cafe which is very casual but very pleasant. The performance was amazing, they couldn't do it any better in Heaven! Terry quietly filmed the Hallelujah chorus, great to have. A wonderful way to finish our trip.
Maria called by on Wednesday to say goodbye and talk through some more of the details for sub letting the apartment, hopefully it will happen sometime in January. Had a farewell with our friendly doormen which we'd done a few times now before getting a taxi out to JFK airport. The flight was fine, Pam slept about 6 hours, Terry rested without fully sleeping. We totally missed Thursday Dec 22, arriving in Melbourne at 10am on Friday Dec 23.
We'll catch up with everyone over the coming months
Pam & Terry
Home - How good's the weather !!
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