Up early
again, but a reasonably good night's sleep - mattresses very comfortable.
Walked down to Times Square to catch the by now ubiquitous hop-on, hop-off bus.
Again, as in Paris and (to a degree) Dublin, the recorded commentary was a bit
liberal with the musical interludes. Nevertheless a fairly good introduction to
the history of the downtown area of Manhattan, especially its more recent pop
culture-type history (such as Greenwich village and the counter-culture of beat
poets and the like, speak-easys, the growth of the design (think just about all
the major names in the fashion industry who have plied their trade here) and
retail (think Macy's and......well, Macy's) trades, acting schools (including
such greats as Martin Scorcese, Robert de Niro, Woody Allen Neil Simon and Bridget
Fonda......and also Adam Sandler and the Olsen twins), arts schools, music recording
artists, and homes to the rich and famous). Incidentally, also discovered as we
were walking from our hotel that we are diagonally opposite Carnegie Hall. It
seems that one is not very far from some well known landmark or iconic feature,
even if one does not immediately recognise it.
Eventually
found an ATM which would allow me to extract money - not sure now why it wasn't
working yesterday. Mind you, the charge of $1 for every $100 withdrawn sounded
a bit step to me, but I suspect that most (if not all) are the same - we shall
see tomorrow, as our thirst for liquid cash seems almost unquenchable - ah, the
visual imagery is nauseatingly awful, isn't it just.
Got off about
half way around as the weather was getting a little cooler and threatening to
rain, and Isabel had decided to wear shorts this morning - a cunning plan designed
to get us to buy her some leggings - and it worked. The next bus was
considerably better as it had live commentary - not that the commentary was
significantly better, but the young gentleman had the misfortune to sound
almost exactly like Borat, and I am fairly sure that it was not Sacha Baron
Cohen himself whose presence we had the pleasure of. It certainly made the
journey far more entertaining after that point. Unfortunately the weather put a
bit of a dampener on proceedings, literally and figuratively - about half way
through the last half of the tour the drizzle became a bit heavier and (whether
or not it was a coincidence I will never know) everyone on the bus but us got
off, at which point Borat just gave up on giving any more commentary. I was
rather looking forward to his continuing, both for information value and comedy
value - a sort of two for the price of one deal.
Weather
remained fairly miserable then for most of the afternoon, so like any good
tourist we went shopping - basketball shoes and then Macy's. Macy's was wonderful, not because of the astonishingly wide range of merchandise on offer
(which there was), but rather because of its almost other-worldly charm and the
art deco atmosphere it has successfully managed to retain - especially little
things, like the escalators with the lovely thick, plain wooden panelling, and
even their positioning in the centre of the store with the up escalators
mirroring the down escalators - reminded me very much of the old John Martins
department store in Adelaide - a lovely nod to yesteryear, but also something
of a sad reminder that in some quarters, such an attitude is considered
old-fashioned and maybe even unnecessarily sentimental, like the old John
Martins department store in Adelaide - ah, the heady and intoxicating effect of
nostalgia - as they say, nostalgia is not what it used to be.
Have also
noticed another New York cliche - the fire-escapes on the side (and in some
cases the front) of many of the low-rise buildings is just about everywhere.
Patrick keen
to dine at Michael Jordan's steak house, and, as the Lion King was a full house
by the time we went to try and buy tickets, we decided to give it a try -
again, a stroke of luck, as it is literally in Grand Central Station (think any
number of films which have used its central ticket office as a setting - mainly
because I can't think of any right this moment, but I am sure that some
clever-clogs will let me know)), overlooking the sweeping concourse below a
soaring roof of the night sky, complete with zodiac signs - a magnificent
setting for a meal, and a lovely meal it was too - steak was just about
perfect.
Thirty minute
walk back to the hotel through the slightly more persistent rain, and hoping
that tomorrow is a bit kinder to us in the weather department.
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