Freemans in NY: Still on the run...

This blog starts on Tuesday November 29.

We headed north to The Bronx, pretty miserable day, rain threatening. Got a train up to Bedford Park Ave and walked down the Grand Concourse, one of the main shopping areas in The Bronx. Very similar to 125th street in Harlem, lots of shops offering cheap goods along with the normal takeaway outlets.
We arrived at the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University (run by the Jesuits) but needed a relevant ID to walk around the grounds, however Terry "sweet" talked his way in. Lovely grounds, situated on 85 acres, beautiful old buildings (some dating back 160 years).

Over the road from the University were the New York Botanical Gardens. We decided to pay the entrance fee as they have a display of model trains running on tracks between mini replicas of some of the famous landmarks in NY. In hindsight it was a bit of a rip off as most of the rest of the gardens were closed for winter, which they don't tell you about when you pay the entrance fee.

The rain had started to fall so after checking the entrance price for the Zoo (next door to the gardens and free on Wednesdays!) we got a bus back to the train and headed back to the apartment.
Later that night we went to the Christmas Tree lighting in Byrant Park, very crowded, raining heavily, poorly organised but lovely tree once it was lit.

Went to a Chinese restaurant over the road from the apartment for tea, as it's always crowded with Asian customers we thought it must be good but it wasn't that great.

Our niece Alli and her friend Charlie arrived from London the next day. We went out for an early dinner but Alli was so tired she went back to the apartment to sleep while the rest of us enjoyed a burger.

Terry headed off to the Rockefeller Centre to watch their Christmas Tree lighting but couldn't get near the plaza, roads blocked off everywhere with police standing guard. The rest of us stayed home and watched the show on TV, Terry got home in time to watch the tree being lit. Pretty spectacular tree, we've seen it many times since.

Took off to the Juilliard Centre for free tickets to a recital but they'd all gone by the time we got there. Took Alli and Charlie down to South Ferry to catch the Staten Island ferry past that statue. Think we've done this about 12 times in the past 6 months! It was bitterly cold outside so a couple of quick snaps before retreating to the warmth of the cabin.

There was a jazz concert at Trinity Church near Wall St at 1pm but it wasn't very good so we didn't stay long. Walked down Wall St and over to Southport for lunch at the Heartland Brewery, a chain of pubs which has pretty decent food, their pulled pork was lovely.

Walked part of the way over the Brooklyn Bridge so Alli and Charlie could look back at the Manhattan skyline before we walked over to the WTC Memorial as we'd booked tickets for a 4pm session.

Got a train up to the Rockefeller Plaza to see the Christmas Tree lights and all the decorations setup around the Plaza and ice rink, it's pretty spectacular.

The Saks department store on the other side of 5th Ave had a screen projection on its wall but it wasn't that interesting. 5th Ave was so packed with people we had to walk in the gutter on the road down to 42nd street and Bryant Park. Alli and Charlie stopped at Times Square to take in the lights and do some shopping, we headed home to cook a meal for everyone and have a night in.

Everyone went their own way on Friday. Pam did some shopping on 5th Ave and Columbus Circle. Alli and Charlie went to the Empire State Building and down to Soho/Greenwich Village around NYU. Terry went to the Lower East side with an itinerary of places to visit:
Galleries - Sperone Westwater & New Museum of Contemporary Art - buildings more impressive on the outside than the inside
Freeman Alley and Freeman's Restaurant off Rivington St - made a note to head back to the restaurant
Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Orchard St and Essex St markets
Eldridge St Synagogue on East Broadway
Community gardens - All Peoples and Brisas del Caribe near 2nd ave
Charlie Parker's house @ 151 Ave B
Across Tompkins Square Park into St Mark's Place and an Aussie pie shop called The Tuck Shop.
Lastly Pommes Frites, a Belgian restaurant, before heading back to the apartment.. phew, big day...

That night we went to an early session of the Birdland Big Band then headed home for dinner with Alli and Charlie who headed out to a Broadway show - "How to Succeed in Business..." Alli's seen it before but was keen to go again.

Headed out early Sat morning to a "Hidden Gallery" exhibition at Carnegie Hall of images of The Beatles from 1963-64, apparently not available to the public before.

Went to Central Park with the idea that Alli and Charlie might have a skate at Wollman Rink but it was all too hard - queues, cleaning of the ice regularly etc etc.

Watched the Bubble man at Bethesda Terrace, again, he does amazing things with a special formula before we headed to the Plaza Hotel to see Eloise's Christmas Tree (Alli advised it's related to a children's book) and to visit the Assouline bookshop, one of Terry's favourite places in NY.

Walked down to the NY Public Library to show Alli the reading room, another of Terry's favourite places. We tried to see about ice skating at Bryant Park but it was a 45 minute wait so Alli & Charlie decided they'd get up early on Sunday morning, before the crowds and have a skate.

Alli & Charlie got on the ice at Byrant Park, sunny morning but very cold.

They wanted to go to "The Book of Mormon" broadway show but as tickets are booked out weeks in advance they had to put their name in a ballot a couple of hours before the matinee show and wait for 30 minutes for the ballot to be drawn. They were in luck as Charlie's name was called out in the 2nd last draw (only 12 drawn from about 100 names) and he got 2 tickets at $30 each, tickets are normally $65 each. They enjoyed the show.
We had an open house for the apartment on Sunday afternoon with our agent, Maria. Not much interest only 1 person showed up. Terry says he's coming back if we can't sublet the apartment.

That night we went to a restaurant called "Robert" which is located in the Museum of Art & Design on Columbus Circle. It has a great view over Central Park, up Broadway and Central Park West. We had a table by the window. As Alli won't be back in Australia for Christmas this was her family "Christmas Dinner". Lovely food, great service and spectacular views, most enjoyable night.

On Monday, Alli and Charlie went to Katz's deli for lunch. Katz's is a retro diner down in the East Village made famous in the movie "When Harry met Sally". They walked over the Highline in Chelsea and visited the Chelsea market. We went to our weekly recital at St Paul's Chapel which was just wonderful. Pam walked up 6th Ave to the apartment. Terry had his list of places to visit around Greenwich and West Village:
Astor Place - lovely architectural buildings surrounding the square
Grace Church
Strand Books - has an amazing 18 miles of books over 3 levels
Union Square market
Checked out various restaurants - La Nacional tapas bar, Tea & Sympathy (English Tea House), A Salt & Battery (English Fish & Chips place), Village Vanguard (Jazz Club), 176 Perry St., Wallse (Viennese), The Spotted Pig, Market Table (Burger joint), Pearl Oyster Bar, Diablo Royable (Mexican)
St Luke's in the Field Church.

We all went to the Rockefeller Centre to have a bite to eat before going to Radio City Hall to watch the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular Show which was brilliant. Lots of dancing and singing mixed in with a bit of 3D..

Up very early on Tuesday, Charlie had to catch a bus at 6am to Newark Airport to catch a plane back to London. Luckily it was just round the corner at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. We all headed back to bed once he'd got on the bus. It was a wet and overcast day. Had a nice lunch at the Hummus Kitchen in 9th Ave. Terry went with Alli out to JFK as she was flying down to Nashville for the night to do some research for a documentary her UK office is producing. She had to drive to Kentucky the next morning and then back to Nashville to fly back to NY later that day. Great experience for her.

We went to a recital at the Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday at 1pm. Another from final year Juilliard School students - firstly a duet of singers accompanied by a pianist and then a soloist accompanied by a harpist. Terry took off for a walk around Riverside Park on the Hudson River.

It was a wet day so Pam spent most of the day indoors. Alli got back from Nashville around 11pm, a little tired. The weather was very cold, very windy and wet.

We spent Thursday morning doing last minute stuff with Alli. Back to the Strand bookshop, Alli was very controlled, bookshops are her weakness. We saw our personal banker Demi at Chase Bank nearby to say farewell as we won't see her again before we leave on Dec 21. We had lunch at Freeman's which Terry had found a couple of days before. Lovely food.

We ventured over to Bleecker St in Greenwich Village so Alli could go to the original Magnolia Bakery and buy a cup cake, then back to Times Sq for a pair of 2012 novelty glasses. We all headed out to JFK mid afternoon, to see Alli off, back to London.

We then did a walk around the major department stores to look at the Christmas windows, big walk from Bloomingdales on Lexington Ave & 59th St down 5th Ave past Barney's, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, Lord & Taylors to 34th st and Macy's.

Our last stop was Madison Sq Garden for our last ice hockey game between NY Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay won in a shoot out.

Terry had another big day on Friday. His itinerary was to walk around downtown Brooklyn and Astoria Park in Queens:
Headed to South Portland Ave with lovely brownstone terrace houses and stoops- looked like Sesame St
Walked through downtown Brooklyn

Past the De Kalb Market - stalls in shipping containers - interesting setup

Down to Brooklyn Bridge with views over the East river back to Manhattan

Walked through Cadman Plaza West and onto Sahadi's Middle Eastern Deli in Fort Greene. Huge deli with an amazing range of goods.
Train up to Astoria in Queens. The train travels above ground for the last 7 stations which gives a great view of Manhattan.
Visited Astoria Park which sits beneath Hell Gate Bridge (a railway bridge that connects Queens, Long Island, to mainland New York State over Randall's Island on the East River). Hell Gate Bridge looks a lot like the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Another bridge, Triborough Bridge, is close by and used by cars to connect Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx also through Randall's Island. Great views back to Manhattan.

Astoria Pool is art deco style, empty for winter. The fountains beside the pool were used as torches for Olympic trials in 1936 and 1964.
Terry went to Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall later that night.

Saturday morning Karen & Paul called in to say hello and check out some of the furniture in the apartment that they may be able to use when the lease expires. We then headed out to look at some big Christmas trees setup around Manhattan. First stop was the NY Stock Exchange. One of the biggest real trees we've seen is setup in Broad St just around the corner from Wall St. Must have been a huge logistical exercise to get it setup.

From there we walked over to the Seaport. There were thousands of people dressed up as Santa around the financial district. We found out that it's a "Santa Convention" basically a pub crawl, spread by the internet. It was started in 1994 in California and has spread to a few major cities in the US. At 1pm there were already quite a few drunken Santas about, but also a very strong police presence. We didn't hear any bad reports that night on the news so assume it was kept under control.

We took a water taxi to Red Hook in Brooklyn, where we walked around the area specifically looking for a place called "Steve's Key Lime Pies". This area is mainly industrial but right on the Hudson river, great view of that statue from Valentino Pier. The pie place was a little hole in the wall, not a cafe just sells tarts. Pam tried a small tart which was very sweet but pleasant, not sure why it rates a mention in the Lonely Planet!

We found a little cafe called Baked in Van Brunt St. probably the only one in the area given the amount of customers in there, and had a hot chocolate to warm up before catching a bus back to the train and then back to the apartment. Tried pizza for dinner from a hole in the wall place in 9th Ave just around the corner. We have walked past it hundreds of times on the way home from the subway to the apartment. They sell slices of pizza for 99c, are open 24 hours a day and are always busy. So we thought we would give it a try - pizzas were yummy and much better than we expected.

Off to the Blue Note ( a famous N.Y. jazz venue ) on Sunday for brunch and a jazz performance by the Juilliard School students. Played a range of Christmas songs in a jazz style -very good.

Caught a subway up to W86th to check out a Greek restaurant, then walked to 79th down Central park West to the American Natural History Museum - checked out a few exhibitions and an origami Christmas tree.

Pam was cold so decided to head back to the apartment.

Terry walked across Central Park via the Delacorte Theatre and turtle pond and past the Obelisk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Picked up some info. for a day visit sometime next week.

Walked south through Central Park past the Alice in Wonderland and Balto dog sculptures. Checked out Bethesda fountain again - so different when fountains are turned off.

Exited the park @the Delacorte Music Clock and Children's Zoo next to The Arsenal which was beautifully lit up. ( It was dark by now 4:30 ). Headed to Lexington Ave / 63rd St. Subway. Just missed a train, another arrived about 10 minutes later and proceeded to sit at the station because of a supposed signal fault. Waited on train for about 20 minutes before giving up and walking to another station. Happens everywhere I guess. Stayed in tonight to watch the N.Y. Giants play the Dallas Cowboys. Giants won in the last minute - exciting game. Starting to understand it a little better but still think it's a pretty basic game.

Monday and the ritual trek to St. Paul's Chapel. Today, because of the season they played and sang excerpts from Handel's Messiah. The music performances by this orchestra and choir is truly inspirational. These performances have been one of the true highlights of our trip. Will really miss it.

Pam took off to go shopping at Macy's and Terry headed back to Central Park. Wandered through some of his favourite places in the park. Checked out most of the beautiful sculptures in the southern part of the park and strolled around the eastern side past both the zoos, the Delacorte music clock and The Arsenal. Then headed across the park through the Literary Walk, past Bethesda Fountain and over to Strawberry Fields for possibly the last time this trip.