Wine and cheese at the library hotel
Helen enjoying wine and cheese on the 2nd floor of the Library Hotel!
2013 – USA and Canada
Fashionista …
Kym on Madison Avenue modelling tan Bill Blass sports coat ($150) and Ben Sherman shirt ($40) from Century 21. Amazing chinos from Uniqlo ($40) – amazing because it is the first time anything from Uniqlo has fitted.
Kym on Madison
Perhaps I need some more training or photoshop.
P.s. Dinner was fantastic. It was NY history and geography lesson.
Coffee again…
With the rain comes a change in plan… we turned to shopping.
To wake up properly, we took ourselves to Stumptown, another recommended coffee establishment, which has their own blends and roasts. Yes, the coffee a great and certainly provided the kick we needed.
The second coffee place for the day was Blue Bottle coffee. We lined up with the office workers, ordered a cappuccino. Great tasting coffee…. Certainly enjoyed the flavour.
It is interesting, that all of the coffee places we have visited they only have stand-up bars, unless you like take-away. While we are trying to keep awake, standing up is a good thing, but it is a challenge when all you really feel like doing is collapsing into a seat, relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere. Here is where I miss home.
Stumptown
Blue Bottle Coffee
Morning reading
Morning reading: Importance of archivist’s, collections. Yes, even Librarians were mentioned. No escape from work!
A walk, a ferry, a wait, a pizza, a train.
A Walk
We needed our pizza fix. We were told that Paulie Gee’s could fix all of that. There was a problem, however, the East River stood between us and pizza.
I had utilised my trusty tablet to find out there was indeed a water crossing with a connecting mid-town bus. On closer inspection of the timetable, however, it only ran peak hours Monday-Friday. Quite alright if you are in Australia, but we’re not… It was Sunday. Quick examination of Google Maps (how could Apple even think of releasing a map without public transport) showed that it took 17 minutes to walk to the ferry terminal or 15 minutes by public transport. With 20 minutes to go we legged it.
With only a little jogging we made the ferry with 30 seconds to spare. $4 not too bad for a few stops on the Ferry.
A Ferry
The East River Ferry was quite effective. It had an outdoor deck on the second level, although no seats. The service was fast and efficient.
Ferry
Like the group of orthodox Jewish young men, we enjoyed taking photos from the deck.
The UN
Empire State amongst the skyline
It only took 10 minutes to cross the river to Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Greenpoint – amongst deserted warehouses.
A wait
While the street was quite, save for a wedding party taking photos in front of a graffitied warehouse door – we presume that they had taken over the local pub for their reception, Paulie Gee’s was busy. We approached reception and placed our name on the list and waited on the seats outside.
Helen waiting
A pizza
That’s not quite fair. It wasn’t just a pizza. It was a bloody good pizza – there were so many to choose from. They were mostly American inventions – good ones at that. We had a Delboy. A good base, but not good as some (wink), top quality toppings. Local ommegang witte beer was fantastic, but what is with the slice of orange attached to my glass?
Delboy
We surprised the waiter by only ordering one pizza and salad (our usual order). We were disappointed seeing how many people didn’t finish these great pizzas, or left their crust behind (my god). Others were so full that they couldn’t fit in dessert. Boy, are they silly. The deserts were fab. H ordered a chocolate orange pot and I order a sundae with Mike’s hot honey (bloody hell it was spicy) and candied walnuts.
Chocolate pot
We had a great time there. There was something strangely déjà vu.
Looks familiar
A train
Well not a train, but two. The G and then the 7 back to Grand Central.
7
.
Highline walk
Take one old disused and unloved elevated railway, and passionate community… and what do you end up with? A fabulous 1 mile city park. Given yesterday’s fabulous weather (clear sky and warm), we took advantage and visited. The transformation was fantastic. The Highline has great views, and plenty of seating along the way – and given the weather many were taking advantage and drinking in the sun.
We did take a stack of photos but here are a few of the best:
Flowers picked…. for Michael
Ready to take off
Railtrack
Coffee
Finding good coffee is important on holiday – especially in America.
When we were here last (2004), the coffee was mainly filtered, and rather unpleasant. However we are pleased to report after hunting, and recommendations from coffee experts we tracked down a couple yesterday.
On both occasions we ordered cappuccino’s, and they tasted remarkably like magic’s we have at one of our local haunts (thank-you Bar 9!). Which for the non-Adelaide coffee drinkers is two coffee shots and a small quantity of milk. We did enjoy both coffees…. and they certainly managed to keep us awake.
Joe’s coffee at Grand Central
Ninth Street Espresso @ Chelsea Market
Sunday Breakky view
Helen’s room with a view.
View from our hotel room. From the 10th floor.
Looking West
Looking East
Walk to Eataly
After more than 20 hours of flying in a big jet plane we finally made it to NYC.
After all that time you build up a big hunger, but have no real desire to sit down. The perfect solution is to walk to Eataly. It came with some very strong recommendations from people we trust. It certainly lived up to expectations. We ate mozzarella, crostini, and cured meats. It was delicious. I was so absorbed with the flavours, I have no photographs – you’ll have to look at H’s Flickr photo stream.
I did take some photos walking to Eataly.
We’re staying near the NY Public Library.
Walked down Fifth Avenue.
Ate some food.
Crossed Madison Square Park – will return on Friday for Eats Your Heart Out
Walked back down Madison Avenue – with evocative night time steam.
