Friday, July 19, 2013 – New York City
Today we woke up and somehow, we ended up back in Charleston. It was 100 degrees and 65% humidity. Oh wait a minute, it just feels like we are in Charleston – we are actually in New York City. Today we took the PATH subway from New Jersey into Midtown NYC. We got out at 33rd street station and then took the subway up to Rockefeller Center. The objective was to go to the Top of the Rock – the observation deck on the 70th floor of the building. It is a bit nicer than the Empire State building because on the Rockefeller building your have a full 360 degree view.
We got there at around 10:00 and first we saw a nice three short films that discussed the history of the building of Rockefeller Center, which I discussed last night. Another film was about the history of NBC at Rockefeller Center and the last film was about the tradition of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Each was well done and very interesting.
After Top of the Rock, we strolled down 5th Avenue looking at the designer stores. We poked our heads into the Lego store and it was packed with raving kids who were oohing and aahing the different Lego giant displays and all the Lego toys. We also stepped into the American Girl store and saw hundreds of raving little girls all begging for yet another doll. I was glad that we made it out of there without making a purchase. We also poked our heads into F.A.O Schwarz. The poor doorman was dressed in the traditional English Beefeater uniform – in 100 degree weather. The poor guy was sweltering. We saw a 6 foot tall Stief Teddy Bear for only $4,999. Unfortunately they wouldn’t break my $10,000 bill so we left it behind. It was interesting and a lot of fun but packed. Once again we made it out of there without buying anything.
Along the way we stopped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral which is undergoing extensive renovations. It is still beautiful in side. We also stopped for lunch at Eamonn’s Bar and Grill. It was on 45th st between 5th Ave and Madison Ave. The food was fantastic. Elisa had the sautéed Cod with rice pilaf and vegetables and I had the Sheppard’s Pie. It was one of the better meals we’ve had on the trip and surprisingly reasonably priced for Mid-town Manhattan. Lunch with 2 beers ran us $49.
After some time at F.A.O Schwarz we took a walk through Central Park. It was very beautiful and peaceful there. The shade and the breeze blowing through the Park did little to cool us down in the oppressive heat. We needed to cross over to the West Side of the park and make our way from 59th up to 75th. What’s 16 blocks we thought. We did save a little walking by cutting diagonally through the park, but we came out at 65th and still had 10 blocks to go. The heat was horrible. Because of the heat it was impossible to hail a taxi – sort of like when it rains in the city.
We finally made it to see the New York Historical Society Museum. We wanted to learn more about the history of NY, but to our surprise there happened to be a special exhibit of antique tin wind up toys from the private Jerni collection (Jerry and Nina Greene). They have one of the largest and most valuable collection of German Tin toys from the 1800s. I was able to snap a few pictures before I was told that no photos were allowed. But through the magic of the internet you can see many more pictures on this link…
The museum had a very good 20 minute film that discussed key milestones in the history of New York. I found it interesting that it made no mention of the “purchase" of Manhattan from the indians by Peter Minuit for 60 dutch gilders worth of beads (approx $24). It seems the Indians disputed that it was for the sale of the island but the use of the island. It was still very interesting. After making out way up all 4 floors of the museum, we were exhausted. It was only when we were done that we stumbled upon the elevator, it sure would have been handy to have discovered that when we were on the first floor.
By now it was going on 5:00 pm and we were still drenched in sweat from our walk through Central Park to the Museum. We were planning on making our way to the Museum of the City of New York, but it was back on the East side of the park and way uptown on 106th st. We thought about hailing a cab as we sat on the steps of the New York Historical Society Museum, but we watched several people try in vain at this time of the day. So, since we were already tired we decided to make our way down to 72nd street and take the B train back to 34th st where we could connect with the NJ PATH train to take us back to our RV park. We were successful, but it was standing room only now that we were in the middle of rush hour. Also the AC on the PATH train was not at the full refrigeration strength of the NYC subway, so we were a little hot and sticky. We were glad to get back where both of us hit the showers to cool down.
Photo 1 – on our way walking to the PATH station we encountered a family of geese strolling across the street
Photo 2 – Top of the Rock
Photo 3 – The Lego store at Rockefeller Plaza
Photo 4 and 5 – we stop in at the Trump Tower to see id the Donald is in.
Photo 6 – Elisa checking out the Doorman at F.A.O Schwarz
Photo 7 – An actual tree hugger seen in Central Park
Photo 8 and 9 – New York Historical Society Museum
Photo 10 – making our way back to NJ on the PATH train
Click here to see more photos from our day.
Comments