New York- 30th Jan till 13th Feb: Part 2

The Chrysler Building from the river - the story goes that Chrysler (the car company) built this to force GM (another car company) to build the Empire State building higher than they wanted to. It almost worked, the Empire State Building was finished just before the Stock Market Crash, and with only 12% occupancy it almost sunk GM. The only thing that kept the building solvent was the viewing gallery, which was added as an afterthought.

So to recap on Part 1- we came, we saw, we ate.  Here's some more of the same!

*Circle Line Tour- we did a great 3 hour boat tour which circumnavigated the island of Manhattan.  It was a beautiful freezing day and we got lovely views of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges and the classic view of the downtown New York skyline.  The ferry we were in was also one of the first vessels to come to the aid of that plane that landed on the Hudson River.
*Brooklyn- we spent a lovely day wandering around Brooklyn, through Park Slopes, Prospect Park, under and over the Brooklyn bridge.

*The World Trade Center Memorial - very touching, although laughing tourists make me angry, particularly when they are standing within 10m of a crying old lady.

*The Wintergarden and Wall Street

The arch outside Prospect Park in Brooklyn.  The park is bigger than Central Park and was considered by it's designers to be superior.

We saw a film being made in Brooklyn.  Very exciting-ish. Overall, a depressing lack of car chases and shoot outs.

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge- a little bit under renovation at the moment - the walkway is in the middle of the bridge and above the traffic, so the view is still pretty amazing. 

Mmmmm- bagels with cream cheese and lox from Ess-a-bagel.  The food was delicious and came with entertainment- listening to every second person walk in and ask "do you do sandwiches??"! This also illustrates that, while fantastic, the food can be expensive. This is a $30 or so breakfast.

View of western lower Manhattan from the Circle Line Ferry.

The building under construction in the middle is the new World Trade Center 1- when it's finished it will be one and a half times as tall as the Empire State Building.

Morgan and some  french chick. Note: jacket + hat + hood combo because of the cold.

Brooklyn Bridge from the water

The Empire State Building. Today it appears to be on a slight lean.

Harlem as the sun goes down.

Cuban!  That's a plate of delicious pulled beef in front of me, lime pork chops in front of Morg and fried plantains in the middle.

Pork chop happiness. Not sure where this T-shirt came from, but we think it is Pete's, and possibly previously Hilton's. 

The Wintergardens 

The Tara- the research vessel upon which Sir Peter Blake was murdered 

It was pretty cold but Morg came up with an ingenious method of keeping my nose warm!

*MoMA- the Museum of Modern Art is gorgeous and definitely worth a look.  We went on the free Friday afternoon which was madness!
*Fondue!!!!- we met up with the lovely and generous Kiri M (East coast Kiri) and Guy who took us out for fondue!  It was so lovely to see them and I've always wanted to try fondue.  There are no pictures because I was too busy eating!  I can't decide whether my favourite was the savoury dishes or the sweet fondue which had two different kinds of molten chocolate separated by a wall of cake!  OMG.
*Shopsins- this place, recommended by Kiri M, deserves a blog of it's own.  It's a tiny wee cafe in the corner of an indoor food market.  There are, apparently, over 400 items on their incredible menu, which includes such gems as Mac 'n Cheese stuffed pancakes!  I went for the somewhat more sedate ricotta, nutella and butterscotch stuffed french toast and Morgan had the cajun Blisters on my Sisters which was just all kinds of delicious on corn bread.  Nom nom and nom.

Shopsin's.  They also have a reputation for swearing like crazy and throwing out anyone they think is "stupid"!  We found the owner, who came out and chatted for about half an hour, to be quite personable!

The menu at Shopsins.  Google it and have a look.

The courtyard at MoMA

Is that Darth Vader?

Free lollies....

...and shoes!  Now that's my kind of modern art.

Sliders, which we discovered were burgers.  This not inconsequential amount of food was an appetiser, which we discovered was an entree.  As opposed to an entree, which is actually a main.  Get it?

We had a few good diner meals in New York, complete with the typical coffee refills.

Banana chocolate chip pancakes, oh yeah.

*The Natural History Museum- old bones, stuffed flying animals and shiny things- who could want more?
*The Intrepid- this decommissioned aircraft carrier now sits in one of the piers on the western side of Manhattan and houses a whole bunch of planes, a submarine and (way cooler) a Lego model of the whole thing!  Actually found out what "call the ball" means too!
*Tryon Park- a lovely wooded park at the Northern end of Manhattan.  It was given to the city by Rockefeller, that generous guy, and is the only remaining hill that wasn't flattened for development back in the day.  It contains the Cloisters, which houses a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Someone was a little bit excited and had to have a small sit down before he was allowed on the big boat.

An old nuclear missile carrying submarine. 

......with very limited room. Sod being on one of these for three months at a pop.

We did get some good ideas for the motor home - like these tables inlaid with game boards. And torpedo tubes.

Comfy.

Lego model!  

The 'meatball' - the series of lights that guide a plane onto the deck of the an aircraft carrier. The 'ball' is that orange light, and if you can see it, it means you are lined up. Which is 'calling the ball' as per Topgun.

We did a flight simulator.  Here we are before...

...during...

....and after!

Quite amazing to see this view with New York in the background.

That sign says 'Beware jet intakes and props' (propellers.) Quite. 

I spent the whole time humming the Topgun soundtrack.

Breakfast at Balthazar's.  A gorgeous old french style dining room and amazing service. Although being asked how your meal is going 5 times is a bit over the top.

At the Natural History Museum. That is  Willemite Meterorite, which is a massive iron lump.  Sacred to the local Native Americans, so of course some dudes pinched it and put it in a museum.

The moon- I thought it would be bigger. Nice hat though.

Minerally. They all look kind of fake.

It is amazing being able to see stuff like this. Here is 'Lucy', a 3 million year old hominid skeleton that was instrumental in informing where 'we' came from.

Tryon Park from the Hudson River

I don't think he is peeing on that tree....

The Cloisters - these are actually several different 15th century Italian cloisters that were bought and reassembled in to a sort of 'made up' renaissance building.

Morgan is looking so happy because this park is full of squirrels. They look a bit like his beard.

That's right, these guys.  Not shy.

And I'll finish with a few random bits:
*China Town- apparently China town has the largest concentration of Chinese people anywhere in the world outside of China.  It certainly was like walking into another country- as soon as you crossed the "boundary" into China town the language, people and shops completely changed.
*Little Italy - where, unfortunately, we had our one dud meal.  The tumbleweeds should have given us a clue.

Yay!

A beer and a shot- as inspired by "The Wire"

Vampires!!!!!!!!!!!

The waiters at Shanghai Joe's were so "efficient" they were trying to take the chopsticks out of my mouth as I was still eating.  I kid you not.

Ribs!!!! Note completely pointless sides. We gave the leftovers to a very pleased homeless guy.

Burgers from the Corner Bistro.  So good we went there three times! This is a classic example of a restaurant doing one thing really well. They only had 6 or 7 things on the menu.

So overall, New York did not disappoint (massive understatement!). This fortnight has been a real highlight of our year, and a complete contrast to motorhoming in Europe - which was just what we wanted.  Now it's off to the west coast and the promise of slightly warmer weather?  Stay tuned.