Day 3 - New York 2012
Oct. 24th, 2021 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanIn An Empire State...
Oct. 14 Sunday – New York to New Jersey & back to New York
Another late-ish start after 10am, but it was all go from there... We investigated the ‘Organic’ deli at the end of our block & bought breakfast rolls there, then walked up to Mac’s Landing for takeaway coffees, before once again catching the ‘C’ subway into Manhattan to start the day’s adventures. We were heading for Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the ‘North’ River (which is actually part of the Hudson), so had to change trains & lines for the journey across... & buy different tickets too. I must say that New Jersey’s trains are nicer than New York’s, but don’t tell the NY Met I said that... though we were both delighted & amused by some of the public artwork on NY's subway stations, particularly the Life Underground series at the 14th & 8th station... I think I like Tom Otterness' sense of humour & disdain for rampant Capitalism!!
Carlo’s Bakery was our ultimate destination, as seen on the TV show Cake Boss. From seeing the show, we were prepared for a line outside the shop & were pleasantly surprised to see how short it was. Then someone pointed out that this was just the front part of the line... the rest of it was across the street & down the block – estimated waiting time of about an hour, which was about as much time as we were prepared to spend for cakes & pastries. Every now & then, a Carlo’s employee would cross the street, move a section of the line closer to the shop & hand out tickets to newcomers at the back. In the time we waited, we were able to go to a drugstore for water, an ATM for cash, drink most of the water & both marvel & despair at the passing sights (fully made-up & bejewelled joggers in velour tracksuits!!??), before it was our turn to go through the doors & be assailed by sweet choices & merchandise. Nobody from the TV show was behind the counter... but it was Sunday & they’re an Italian famiglia, so that wasn’t unexpected. We ended up with two each of their cannoli (plain & chocolate), two mini éclairs, two red velvet cupcakes & a ‘lobster tail’, which looks like a croissant stuffed with custard cream
Sugar fix acquired, we headed ‘round the corner to a bar we’d spotted on the way, where, over a couple of drinks & much needed sit-downtime, the cannoli were eaten & critiqued. We decided we like the plain one, but the chocolate one was both too chocolatey & not chocolate-flavoured enough... if that’s possible & according to us, it is
Finishing our drinks, we headed back to Lackawanna terminal via the waterfront, with views across to Manhattan & the Empire State Building, which was our next destination. The plan was to go to both observation decks (on the 86th & 102nd floors) towards the end of the day so we could get day, sunset & night shots. We’d pre-booked tickets & had read the terms & conditions, so knew that you couldn’t bring a tripod for night shots, but the point’n’shoots would be okay for that, we figured. What we didn’t figure was how popular the place was. I mean, we knew it’s one of the premier attractions in the city, but surely the crowds would be smaller towards the end of the day, right? Wrong! Or maybe they are, in which case I shudder to think what the 86th floor deck was like at midday, because the crush of people & strollers (Why would you take a baby up there... except to throw it off??!!) was uncomfortable &, on occasion, intolerable. The views north & south were spectacular though, one must admit. East & west were pretty impressive too, but those aspects looked over mainly residential & industrial areas, so can’t compete with the Manhattan business & financial district, or Central Park & Times Square. Queuing & proceeding through the various checkpoints & velvet-roped walkways beforehand, we’d bought a ‘keepsake’ map of the view, but it was impossible to get it out & orientate ourselves in the crush of international sightseers. Plenty of Indians, Russians, Germans & French, but no other Australian accents were overheard. All to be expected though, this really is the world’s city... it may be in the United States, but that doesn’t stop people coming from thousands of miles away (like us), to see the good, the great, the poignant, the bad, the tacky & the occasionally ugly sites & sights
As a resident of Sydney, Australia... where have I seen this before?!?
Right to the top...
Coming along nicely - should look good when it's done!
Self portrait with wind & reflections...
Sunset over New Jersey...
The crowd on the 102nd floor was smaller, but that’s because the deck was too... & enclosed in glass, so photography was a bit difficult, especially westward where the sun was sinking lower & the glare was impeding the view, so we mostly just admired it... a lot. As the day faded into twilight with a nice red sunset, we returned to the 86th floor & spent about forty minutes barging through the crowd & being jostled, bumped & pushed while trying to take photos. Becoming separated from Julia at some point, I wandered the four sides, swapping lenses & cameras & trying to remain polite in the face of typical mob behaviour. Eventually though, I reached my patience threshold & headed inside to where the elevators were. I thought Julia would have run out of patience long before me, but couldn’t find her in there, so spent about twenty minutes doing laps before a tug on my coat sleeve turned out to be her & not another tourist wanting me to take their picture with their i-Phone, or their camera with the flash on... in front of glass windows. We were both pleased with our photos though & there was no denying that this was still a highlight of the trip. Not as high as the Skywalk above the Grand Canyon, but the light was brighter...
We agreed that we were finished, so made our gradual way back down via two elevators, more velvet-roped walkways & the inevitable giftshop, where we found a souvenir magnet of King Kong that took our fancy. Re-emerging on 5th Ave, dinner was declared a priority & Korea Way was just around the corner, give or take a block or two. There, we found a Vietnamese Pho Restaurant & were more than happy to sit & enjoy good food & just the act of sitting down for a while, before heading back to the ‘C’ subway & home, both footsore & weary & wondering when we’ll have a relaxing day on this ‘holiday’ of ours...
Oct. 14 Sunday – New York to New Jersey & back to New York
Another late-ish start after 10am, but it was all go from there... We investigated the ‘Organic’ deli at the end of our block & bought breakfast rolls there, then walked up to Mac’s Landing for takeaway coffees, before once again catching the ‘C’ subway into Manhattan to start the day’s adventures. We were heading for Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the ‘North’ River (which is actually part of the Hudson), so had to change trains & lines for the journey across... & buy different tickets too. I must say that New Jersey’s trains are nicer than New York’s, but don’t tell the NY Met I said that... though we were both delighted & amused by some of the public artwork on NY's subway stations, particularly the Life Underground series at the 14th & 8th station... I think I like Tom Otterness' sense of humour & disdain for rampant Capitalism!!
Carlo’s Bakery was our ultimate destination, as seen on the TV show Cake Boss. From seeing the show, we were prepared for a line outside the shop & were pleasantly surprised to see how short it was. Then someone pointed out that this was just the front part of the line... the rest of it was across the street & down the block – estimated waiting time of about an hour, which was about as much time as we were prepared to spend for cakes & pastries. Every now & then, a Carlo’s employee would cross the street, move a section of the line closer to the shop & hand out tickets to newcomers at the back. In the time we waited, we were able to go to a drugstore for water, an ATM for cash, drink most of the water & both marvel & despair at the passing sights (fully made-up & bejewelled joggers in velour tracksuits!!??), before it was our turn to go through the doors & be assailed by sweet choices & merchandise. Nobody from the TV show was behind the counter... but it was Sunday & they’re an Italian famiglia, so that wasn’t unexpected. We ended up with two each of their cannoli (plain & chocolate), two mini éclairs, two red velvet cupcakes & a ‘lobster tail’, which looks like a croissant stuffed with custard cream
Sugar fix acquired, we headed ‘round the corner to a bar we’d spotted on the way, where, over a couple of drinks & much needed sit-downtime, the cannoli were eaten & critiqued. We decided we like the plain one, but the chocolate one was both too chocolatey & not chocolate-flavoured enough... if that’s possible & according to us, it is
Finishing our drinks, we headed back to Lackawanna terminal via the waterfront, with views across to Manhattan & the Empire State Building, which was our next destination. The plan was to go to both observation decks (on the 86th & 102nd floors) towards the end of the day so we could get day, sunset & night shots. We’d pre-booked tickets & had read the terms & conditions, so knew that you couldn’t bring a tripod for night shots, but the point’n’shoots would be okay for that, we figured. What we didn’t figure was how popular the place was. I mean, we knew it’s one of the premier attractions in the city, but surely the crowds would be smaller towards the end of the day, right? Wrong! Or maybe they are, in which case I shudder to think what the 86th floor deck was like at midday, because the crush of people & strollers (Why would you take a baby up there... except to throw it off??!!) was uncomfortable &, on occasion, intolerable. The views north & south were spectacular though, one must admit. East & west were pretty impressive too, but those aspects looked over mainly residential & industrial areas, so can’t compete with the Manhattan business & financial district, or Central Park & Times Square. Queuing & proceeding through the various checkpoints & velvet-roped walkways beforehand, we’d bought a ‘keepsake’ map of the view, but it was impossible to get it out & orientate ourselves in the crush of international sightseers. Plenty of Indians, Russians, Germans & French, but no other Australian accents were overheard. All to be expected though, this really is the world’s city... it may be in the United States, but that doesn’t stop people coming from thousands of miles away (like us), to see the good, the great, the poignant, the bad, the tacky & the occasionally ugly sites & sights
As a resident of Sydney, Australia... where have I seen this before?!?
Right to the top...
Coming along nicely - should look good when it's done!
Self portrait with wind & reflections...
Sunset over New Jersey...
The crowd on the 102nd floor was smaller, but that’s because the deck was too... & enclosed in glass, so photography was a bit difficult, especially westward where the sun was sinking lower & the glare was impeding the view, so we mostly just admired it... a lot. As the day faded into twilight with a nice red sunset, we returned to the 86th floor & spent about forty minutes barging through the crowd & being jostled, bumped & pushed while trying to take photos. Becoming separated from Julia at some point, I wandered the four sides, swapping lenses & cameras & trying to remain polite in the face of typical mob behaviour. Eventually though, I reached my patience threshold & headed inside to where the elevators were. I thought Julia would have run out of patience long before me, but couldn’t find her in there, so spent about twenty minutes doing laps before a tug on my coat sleeve turned out to be her & not another tourist wanting me to take their picture with their i-Phone, or their camera with the flash on... in front of glass windows. We were both pleased with our photos though & there was no denying that this was still a highlight of the trip. Not as high as the Skywalk above the Grand Canyon, but the light was brighter...
We agreed that we were finished, so made our gradual way back down via two elevators, more velvet-roped walkways & the inevitable giftshop, where we found a souvenir magnet of King Kong that took our fancy. Re-emerging on 5th Ave, dinner was declared a priority & Korea Way was just around the corner, give or take a block or two. There, we found a Vietnamese Pho Restaurant & were more than happy to sit & enjoy good food & just the act of sitting down for a while, before heading back to the ‘C’ subway & home, both footsore & weary & wondering when we’ll have a relaxing day on this ‘holiday’ of ours...
