Hello Halifax

It was another early start (5.00am) to get to Newark airport in time. After sending our bags off we had time for a little breakfast. Don had pancakes, bacon and syrup.

Don complained that the plane was very small. He could not stand up in it and there were two seats on one side and one seat on the other. The bus driver taking us into Halifax from the airport gave us a running commentary about Halifax and it’s surroundings. Our new home for a couple of days is very roomy compared to the one room in NY.

We went to get new chips for our phones and were there waiting for 2 hours. The computer system that handles the info was down so the network cannot find our phones. We will have to go again tomorrow to see if they can fix the problem.

Having wasted so much time we only had time for a small wander before it was dinner time.

We walked along part of the boardwalk towards Salty where we had dinner.

It was lots of lovely seafood and of course Don started with half a dozen oysters.

Last day in New York

Today we set off to walk the Highline, an old elevated rail line that use to service the businesses. Transporting freight from the port to the city businesses. It was decommissioned in the 1950’s and was going to be demolished in the1970’s when a group got together to save it and plant it out.

They have volunteers planting out many of the wild flowers that would have been on the land before white occupation.

We walked the whole distance and it was pretty busy.

Someone was peeking through the trees!

We headed for home but on the way bumped into a tall building. Don wanted to reinact Sleepless in Seattle and kept looking for the bear.

These workers were near the top. Not Don’s preferred job!

This was as close as we got to seeing the Statue of Liberty.




Just to prove we were there.






An interesting fact I learnt about New York. Each building has a water tower on top to give the water enough pressure but they are all made of wood to stop the water freezing in winter. You can see them below.

After we went home for a brief rest we visited the Tenement Museum. Very interesting but no pictures could be taken.

Finally we had a chinese meal before heading for home through the evening rain.

Back home Don read the New York Times.

Uptown Tour

Don has a cold causing him to sniff and cough a lot. Luckily last night Hamilton was loud and it was not too noticeable. Today his cough has freshened. We started the day with coffee as usual then moved onto the the second of the Greyline tours.

We looked at a range of old and new buildings in the city centre.

Christopher Columbus Statue at Columbus Circle.




We decided to visit The American Museum of Natural History which is opposite Central Park.

The museum has many dioramas which although were interesting seemed quite old fashioned.



It boasts the largest meteorite in the world. It is 34 tons of solid iron.

It also boasts of having a slice of the largest tree cut down in the Americas.

We returned to the tour which was very slow because of the traffic. We saw museums, mansions and tenements all from the top deck of the bus. This statue we were told was of St George killing the dragon.

We finally went home for a rest and then set off to see “Puffs”. The forecast was for rain and rain it did. We were prepared but still got wet. We ended up ducking into a place called Pret A Manger to hide from the rain and to get a meal. “Puffs” was lots of fun.

New place New York!

We started slowly needing to get coffee after our breakfast at the Bowery Best Western where we are staying. Luckily we are in the Little Italy part of New York so it was not a problem. It seemed like Brunetti’s.

After a bit of wandering around we found the Greyline bus tour that we had booked. As we set off towards the financial district it started to rain. We were sitting up top in the open so got quite wet. We got off at the World Trade Centre and walked around one of the memorial pools in the rain. It seemed quite fitting.

We rejoined the bus and next stopped off in Times Square for lunch.

We walked to Moma and looked through quite a few galleries. I took photos of some of my favourite pieces.

Klimt

An early Mondrian.

A later Mondrian.




Dali



Karloh

Monet

This lovely piece made of tiles was in the foyer.

We returned to Times Square and rejoined the bus for some more of the tour before heading quickly back to our hotel.



We caught a glimpse of the Empire State Building on our way back.




Having quickly organised ourselves we set off back to Times Square by subway to see “Hamilton” the musical. It was amazing and gave an interesting perspective of the beginnings of the nation America.

Farewell to Philadelpha

We all visited the coffee shop on the corner of Nick’s street and introduced the barista to baby chinos. Then we packed for the bus to New York.

Sadly we farewelled Bella and Nick and set off. When we arrived in New York we caught a taxi to the Bowery hotel and settled in. We walked up the street and found ourselves in Little Italy. 

We decided to have our dinner there.

Behind Don is some street art which looks like Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.