NEW YORK CITY DAY THREE: Rockefeller Center, Museum of Modern Art And Others

This would be a day of both plans and spontaneity coming together. We set off from our hotel to check off some mid town landmarks like Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Center and try to get to Little Italy and Chinatown. With its grid system of numbered avenues and streets New  York is pretty easy get around and Collette became quite adept at it. One of the things we enjoyed about walking from destination to destination was all the little surprises we found along the way, like this sign-slash-sculpture outside an office building that I have seen in TV commercials and movies

You could say that this picture sums up how I feel about Collette. Yes, you may "Ahhhh" now

Radio City Music Hall, home of the "famous" Rockettes was a landmark we wanted to see. You can take a tour but as we approached the building, there was a long line up waiting to go in; it was a large group of young people waiting to go on the tour. And since one of us spends her entire day dealing with young people, we were happy to just take some images and check Radio City Music Hall off the list

The Hall is actually considered to part of the Rockefeller Center which is comprised of about 19 buildings in midtown Manhattan. Now considered a national monument construction on the complex began in the 30's and there are still many art deco flourishes

The Center is home to the NBC studios and the skating rink and the famous tree though that had already been removed; apparently Rockefeller was not a redneck .. you know, keeping the tree till Easter and the christmas lights on the roof all year long. The skating rink is home to some public art, the world's slowest Zamboni and the day that were there, an Asian angel complete with red fans

Rockefeller Center was a planned stop on our trip but the next site was not; across the street was St. Patrick's Cathedral, a beautiful church built in the mid 1800's

We just had intentions of snapping a few pics of the exterior of the church but as we stood there on the sidewalk they opened the doors to the public so we couldn't resist the opportunity to go inside. It is indeed a beautiful structure, huge and imposing in that Gothic style

This day was Thursday and another nice day weather wise. We knew that tomorrow, Friday, was supposed to be cool and rainy so we had planned to make that a day we would visit some of NYC's famous museums. A couple of them were north of where we were, on either side of Central Park but we were a couple of blocks away from the Museum of Modern Art, or MOMA, so we decided to do that check mark today.

Collete and I are both fans of Expressionism and MOMA has some truly fine examples of that painting style from Matisse, to Serault to Gaugin, Picasso and our favorite, Van Gogh. To stand in front of Starry Night, the actual canvas created by the artist is a very special experience and takes the work from an intellectual enjoyment to an emotional reaction

In addition to all the beautiful artwork inside the building, MOMA also features an outdoor courtyard where is collected many pieces of sculpture from equally famous artists such Picasso and Rodin and Max Ernst. 

After a couple hours getting our culture on at the MOMA, we set off in a southernly direction, ultimately heading for Canal Street which separates Little Italy from Chinatown. Of course, there was much to discover along the way. One of them was the Algonguin Hotel. Opened it 1902 it has been designated as  New York Historical landmark. It is famous as the location of the Algonguin Round Table where, in the 20's, drunks and writers of the day, sort of pre Bohemians, meant to rag on one another

New York is a city of neighbourhoods and it seems that every neighbourhood has its square. Each is a little different but they all gave you a sense of a meeting place, a communal space where locals came to meet, unwind and breathe in some moments of almost-quiet in the big city. 

Bryant Park hosts the main building of the New York City Public Library but we enjoyed it as a quiet sunny spot on this perfect March day. It's ornate Victorian fountain was operational, rare this early in the year

Collette and I are both fans of architecture, both Gothic and Victorian and Manhattan is filled with all of that. One of the building we wanted to see was the Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building. Completed in 1902, it sits on a triangle of land flanked by 5th Avenue, East 22nd St and 23rd Street. It was, for a time, the tallest building in New York City. Toronto has its own Flatiron building and it's lovely but this one was worth of its reputation

The Flatiron is part of Madison Square and this became one of my favorite park/squares in New York City. Established in 1847, it became a shopping/residential area in the 1900's and attracted the construction of many beautiful Victorian buildings

I loved the feel of this park, it was small but filled with trees and open paved spaces, fountains and monuments and most importantly: Filled with New Yorkers. Strolling, reading, kids playing, hustling, making music, performing tai chi ... A space made alive by those who use it

And yes, that last statue is indeed Andy Warhol.

From Madison Square we walked over to Little Italy. Still a bit early in the year for the area to be really humming and a bit early in the day as well. Too early for dinner but we stopped by this very atmospheric  authentic place to have coffee and cannoli. We were informed by a customer that this cafe was rather renown for its cannoli and we found it quite by accident; the renown is not misplaced.

Canal Street separates Little Italy from Chinatown and although our feet were beginning to fade on us, we decided to take a quick stroll there. Collette bought herself a purse, not a knock off but a bit of Hong Kong leather work.  Everywhere we turned there were little curbside stalls selling bags, umbrellas, fans and scarves

We found what I thought was a perfect example of NYC Chinatown street vending; they say every food is better served on a stick; how about octopus on a stick? Or chicken gizzards on a stick? Thank god that cannoli was so filling

It had been a long day and our dogs were protesting, as they say, so we took our first NYC subway trip home.

NEW YORK CITY DAY TWO PART TWO: Circle tour and Statue of Liberty

After visiting the Sea and Air Museum aboard the USS Intrepid, Collette and I walked next door to the dock that housed the Circle Tour company. When planning this trip to New York, we created a list of things that we wanted to do; we knew that we would not be able to do them all in 4 days but the goal was to "check off" as many as we could; we already had crossed Central Park and Times Square off the list.

The Circle Tour, a boat cruise around the island of Manhattan was something that I've always wanted to do. I thought that it would be the best way to really appreciate the scope of the city and to easily view some of the landmarks that had made our list.

The boat left from mid town, on the Hudson River, then sail down into New York Bay to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, up the East River, across the Harlem River and back down the Hudson, passing under 27 bridges. Along the way we'd see many of the famous NYC landmarks, including the Empire State Building, which we planned to visit later in the day

It was a beautiful day for any time of the year, let alone March. We floated down the Hudson with Manhattan on one side and Jersey on the other. No, we did not see James Gandolfini in Jersey searching for his career but on the New York side we passed the Chelsea piers, a multi million dollar recreational complex which included a multi story golf driving range surrounded by a massive fence to catch the balls; they didn't want then to sail into the river and be mutate into off Broadway bit players

On the Manhattan side they had golfing, on the Jersey side they had a giant clock or as it turns out, giant product placement

As we moved down the Hudson into the bay we passed Ellis Island where millions of people immigrated into the United States. The whole island is now a museum but we were content to watch the beautiful Gothic architecture glide by

Just south of Ellis Island we found some Jersey Shore girl, fresh from a toga party, holding up a can of Bud Light and wearing a tiara .. .no wait, let me clean Collette's lens. Oh ... it's the Statue of Liberty

After the lady, the boat turned as it began to make its way into the East River and were able to see the very tip of the island of Manhattan with all its skyscrapers including the Freedom Tower, still under construction

The East River is much more narrow than the Hudson. There were sections where it seemed you could swim from Manhattan over to Brooklyn ... of course you'd have grown a third eye by the time you got to the other side and how would you explain that to the goombah's. Better to drive across or even walk across, on one of the many bridges. First one we passed under was the Brooklyn Bridge. I understand it's for sale.

The next bridge, as we went up the East River, is the Manhattan Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Manhattan ... those old New Yorkers, they made beautiful bridges but they were not so imaginative with the naming. Probably a good thing, makes it easier to find your way home when you're drunk

On our way to the 59th Street Bridge, on the Brooklyn side, we passed this beautiful Victorian building now abandoned that once upon a time had been some kind of insane asylum

The 59th Street Bridge is a beautiful steel frame bride with Roosevelt Island sprawling beneath it. You can take a tram, suspended under the bridge by a cable, over to this island. This tram was featured in the 1981 Sylvester Stallone movie Night Hawks; but it first appeared in an old Spiderman comic. So there

A lot more bridges as we passed by Harlem, some of them incredibly low as you'll see in the video. We moved into the Harlem River, with The Bronx on the other side. This river seems quite narrow compared to the other two, which brought us Blue Jays fans far too close to the citadel of the enemy ...

As we turned back to join the Hudson River once more, the unusually clear March day allowed us to look far down the river, away from the city, into the Hudson River valley. With the high wooded palisides on the Manhattan side it was easy to think you were in the middle of nowhere ...

... until you turned around

We returned to the pier at 42nd Street but our day was not over. We had another checkmark to make on our list: The Empire State Building. This is something we both wanted to see, we felt that you can't visit NYC without going up to the observation deck on the Empire. For Collette this would be a challenge. Most people are, to some degree, afraid of heights, this is called common sense. Collette has a true fear of heights, that manifests itself in physical responses. But with the possibility of great shots looming, she was able to conquer that fear. Inside the lobby we were presented with some gorgeous art deco examples of the building's history

One of the interesting things about the tower is that once you go up to the observation level on the 86th floor there is no time limit for how long you can stay. The deck is open until around one am. We had no intention of staying that light but we went up just before sunset with the intent of getting some shots in the daylight, then later as the sun went down.

I had had an impression from movies that the observation deck was very broad and deep and in one movie I seem to recall the characters sitting at a table .. don't believe what you see in movies. The deck, which goes all the way around the tower, is fairly shallow and it was pretty crowded while we there. It's cold too, even though the day was warm. The wind was definitely ruffling Kong's fur

To say the view is spectacular is an understatement. It was interesting to have a different viewpoint of some of the same landmarks we had just seen on our river tour. You could see the island narrowing down to a point, a river on each side

As the sun went down the view became even more spectacular ...

... and as we all know, night time in New York City is bound to bring out some strange characters ...

Here's the video. A small note about the music: I couldn't do videos about New York City without including some George Gershwin