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Archive for the ‘New York 2016’ Category

HighLine-2942

I met the gentleman alongside on the Highline. First he gave me a beautiful small card that read “Work smoothly Lifetime Peace” on one side and had an image of a Buddha on the other side; then he asked me to fill in a line in his little notebook with my name and the word “Peace”; and then he asked me for a $20 donation.

Moral: while he may have been a Buddhist monk dedicated to World Peace, he was also definitely a New Yorker.

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HighLine-2994

Along the Highline. It goes through the building ahead.

This morning I walked along the Highline. This is an old railway line, running at roof-level down the west side of Manhattan from 34th St to 14th St. It was built in the 1920s to replace a previous set of street-level lines which had become so dangerous that the line had become known as the “Widows Line”. The line itself was a freight-only line – goods inwards to southern Manhattan, including raw materials and supplies for the various manufacturing industries along that side of Manhattan, and of course the manufactured products were brought out on the line. (more…)

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I decided to eat Italian last night. Ninth Avenue, just a few blocks away from where I’m staying, has many restaurants and pubs and I picked a restaurant called “44 SW Ristorante”. This was a real, full-service restaurant, not a fast-food joint or a diner. I walked in at exactly 8 o’clock and by 8:25 I had finished my main course. I’d also had a pre-starter (a couple of slices of bread) and an actual starter, and still had a glass of wine to finish. To say I felt rushed would be an understatement. In fact, I think the waiter who cleared away my starter delivered my main course at the same time.

The food itself was generally good – I had a Caesar Salad as a starter, and a chicken main dish with mushrooms, a cream sauce, roast veggies and mash. All of the above was good apart from the mash which was rather soggy, so I left it. One of the waitresses noticed this and asked me if I’d left it because I was full. I told her the real reason, and she said “Yes, I saw that, and I asked the chef ‘what’s wrong with the mash?’ “…. and then she just shrugged her shoulders and wandered away.

I didn’t leave a tip.

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New York City!

Times Square

Times Square

So I’ve reached the Big Apple at last. I dropped the hire car off at Newark Airport just before noon yesterday (Monday), bought a return ticket for the Newark Express bus into Manhattan ($31), had a bit of lunch first, and went out to the bus stop just before 12:30. Then followed something a bit frustrating. Those buses are supposed to run every 15 minutes, but in the event we waited for 40 minutes before one appeared, and then it needed to pick up more passengers from other terminals so it was about 1:15 before we really got going. But never mind! – I got off the bus outside the New York Port Authority building on W42nd St at just about 2 o’clock.

I’m staying at an Airbnb location which I’ll describe in another post. It’s brilliantly located – on W42nd Street, in fact, just a few blocks from Times Square. Now I’m going to enjoy my stay here.

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I had a hire car for the for the first stage of my holiday and which I handed back intact – not a scratch. Phew. But I thought that readers might be interested in how I found the driving experience in the US.

First, there’s the whole “driving on the wrong side of the road” thing. This is actually not a problem – it’s such a glaring fact when you’re driving that I’ve never strayed onto the wrong (left) side of the road. That said, it’s much, much easier if you have an automatic – I really wouldn’t want to be driving a manual car in which the gear lever was on the wrong side. Of course, it helps that almost all cars in the US are automatics, or at least almost all hire (“rental”) cars. There was one situation in which being on the wrong side of the car become a real problem, and that was trying to do reverse (“parallel”) parking. I just couldn’t manage it at all. There was this small town in upstate New York where I had three goes at it, and failed miserably each time. It was something to do with the fact that I was on the wrong side of the car, and looking over the wrong shoulder – I just couldn’t manage it at all.

In terms of general driving, I’ve found US drivers to be more considerate than their UK counterparts. (more…)

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Keuka Lake from Hammondsport

Keuka Lake from Hammondsport

Today I drove over to Keuka Lake, another of the Finger Lakes. On the way I also met with Michael Johnson, the writer and publisher of a leading photography blog, The Online Photographer.

Keuka-2906

Mike at TOP World HQ

I spent a couple of hours with Mike and his dogs. We talked about a whole range of subjects, including photography, politics, blogging, house prices, F1 and Indy-car racing, and a whole load of other things. I gave Mike a copy of a photo book I’d bought – “On Home Ground”, the collection of Denis Thorpe’s pictures published some years ago the Lowry Gallery. (They still have some copies, btw, and at a reduced price.) Mike said that he had in fact heard of Denis Thorpe but then remembered that it was mainly thanks to British readers of TOP. I very much enjoyed meeting him and I hope he enjoys the book. He certainly lives in a stunning place – at least in summer. He did say that it was very lonely in winter.

Then I drove on to Hammondsport, at the foot of Keuka Lake. (more…)

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Miller_Inn-2893

This is where I stayed for a couple of nights on this trip, and it was delightful. It’s an old building (19th century) very close to the centre of Ithaca (just a block or so, in fact). By the late 90s it had become very run-down but was rescued by the present inn-keeper, Lynnette Schofield, and her then husband. Presently Lynnette is the sole inn keeper, with the support of her staff. (more…)

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A day in Ithaca

Ithaca-2849

I spent yesterday walking around Ithaca, NY. It’s a college town – Cornell University is located here – so it has a downtown area (“Ithaca Commons”) which is dedicated to bars and restaurants. But it’s also scenically situated; a lake to one side and raised ground on the other side (the site of Cornell). One result of this is waterfalls, where streams flow from the high ground towards the lake.

I spent the morning exploring the landward side of town, and visited a waterfall (actually, a whole stream’s-worth of them, there was a trail), the Cornell campus, and then drifted back into town – via the town cemetery…. (more…)

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The River Hudson, looking north from the Walkway

The River Hudson, looking north from the Walkway

After last night’s stay in Poughkeepsie I wanted to do something in the town before leaving to get to Ithaca. Fortunately there’s a big local attraction – the Walkway across the Hudson.

This is a former railroad bridge that crosses the river Hudson at a very considerable height above the river. By the late 70s or early 80s it had been abandoned by the railroad and was largely derelict. There were some calls for the bridge to be demolished, but a better idea was proposed – make it a public park, free for people to walk on – and that’s what was done.

The total distance is 1 and a third miles, between two informations points on either side of the river. Of that, almost all is elevated, and I reckon the distance over the actual river must be around three-quarters of a mile. (more…)

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BearMountain-2794

Hessian Lake at Bear Mountain State Park

So this morning I climbed a mountain…. I thought I’d throw that in right at the outset.

I left the Middletown Holiday Inn at about 9:15 this morning. I was due at the next Holiday Inn (actually a Holiday Inn Express) at Poughkeepsie anytime after 2pm, so I had quite a few hours to kill. My main intention in having the night in Poughkeepsie was to explore the Hudson Valley a bit and one plan was to drive around and explore. Then I saw Bear Mountain State Park, right on the western bank of the Hudson, and not too far from either Middlewood or Poughkeepsie, and it was an easy choice to make that my destination for the day – or at least the morning.

I got to the State Park shortly after 10 o’clock. There’s a big(ish) lake there, on a small plateau above the river; you can walk down to the river; and behind the lake, to the west of the river, is the mountain itself – Bear Mountain. (more…)

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