New York in the Rain

On Friday, we slept late, then had a late breakfast at Au Bon Pain at the bus terminal before Ubering to the Neue Galerie.  It didn't open until 11:00, so there was no hurry.  It was also raining, but fortunately, we both had umbrellas.  If we hadn't, we could have picked one up on any corner in the Times Square area. :) They only let a few people in at a time, so we ended up waiting in line for just about an hour.  We had a couple of entertaining gay guys in front of us, though, so the eavesdropping was good.  The Neue Galerie was incredible!  It is a former mansion, and even without the art, the rooms were beautiful, with dark wood and lots of marble.  The special exhibit, Klimt and the Golden Age of Vienna, was stunning.  Both of the Adele Bloch-Bauer portraits, the famous Woman in Gold, and another in red, and several other full length Klimt paintings, furniture and jewelry from the 1920's - it was so great.  And because they didn't let a ton of people in at once, it was not crowded so you could sit and contemplate and study as long as you wanted.

We had lunch at the Viennese cafe in the basement of the mansion, which was pricey but fun.  Then we got an Uber back to the hotel to get ready for our separate evening activities - Cathy was going to a supper club with Megan for a concert, and I was going to the Metropolitan Opera.  The Uber ride, though, took over an HOUR to get back to the hotel.  Traffic was just insane - it was Friday afternoon, and we just inched along.  The driver was nice, though, and it wasn't unpleasant, just frustratingly slow.  In spite of the traffic problem, Cathy took an Uber to her supper club, but I opted for the subway to Lincoln Center.

The subway stop at Lincoln Center was only four stops away from the hotel, I think, and it was directly under Lincoln Center.  I didn't know if it would be a block away or what, but I didn't have to go outside.  I followed a bunch of other people heading in the direction of the opera house, and eventually found myself in the lobby, staring up at the gorgeous crystal chandeliers.  A friendly usher told me which level to go to to get a good picture of the lobby.  My seat was in a side box in the balcony, but it was not the uppermost level (which I would have expected for $35).  I could not see the far right side of the stage, but I didn't miss much.  My seat had a small box that sat at waist level which gave me English translations of the French libretto.  The show itself, Guillaume Tell, was interesting but odd.  The music was good, but the staging was sort of modern, I guess.  One group of people wore offwhite, the other wore grey, There were a few other people in black, and one woman in a red hat, but the costumes were sort of drapey, robe affairs, not period costume like I expected.  And it was five hours long.  Five. hours.  It started at 6:30 and got out just before 11:30, with a 30 minute intermission.  By the end, I was tired of sitting, and tired of listening.  Afterward, I took the elevator back down to the concourse level, and asked a couple who seemed to know where they were going if I could walk with them back to the subway.  There were so many turns on the way in that I wasn't sure how to get back there.  They turned out to be from Brooklyn, but, as the wife told me, her husband was raised in the city and knows everything.  In fact, he told me that if I got on the first two cars, when we got to the 42nd St stop, those cars would actually be under 40th St, where I was going - and he was right.

As I emerged from the subway, it started to rain again, but I didn't have my umbrella.  I just chugged along in the drizzle, What else could I do?  Fortunately, most of the block before the hotel was under cover, since there was construction going on above, but I probably looked like a drowned rat when I slopped into the hotel lobby.

New Trip to New York

The world has changed since I last blogged here.  The unimaginable has happened, and DJT has been elected president.  Heartbreaking and terrifying, it gets worse every day.  But before that happened, I went back to NYC with Cathy.

I flew through Chicago this time, instead of Atlanta, so I had a chance to grab some caramel corn and Chicago Mix from Garrett's as a surprise for Cathy in between flights.  I took a cab from La Guardia, but due to mid-afternoon traffic, it took nearly an hour to get to the hotel, which turned out to be right across the street from the Port Authority bus terminal (which is right across the cross street from the New York Times).  The Empire State Building was visible from our window (ok, so you had to get close to the window and look sharp left to see it, but still...).  I went out to explore, walked through Times Square, and ended up at Bryant Park, home of NY Fashion Week, where they were setting up a Christmas Village and ice skating rink.  I know I didn't see it at its best, due to the construction zone atmosphere, but Bryant Park is really cute.  I got a great picture of the Chrysler Building from there, too.  When I got back to the hotel, I happened on a free "happy hour" buffet with several yummy. hot snacky things - little cheeseburger sliders, fried green beans with chipotle dip, etc. (When I tried to take Cathy the next night, though, it turned out that it was only on Wednesdays. Bummer.)

The next morning, we had breakfast at Carlo's Bakery, home of the Cake Boss from TLC.  It isn't the home bakery, of course, which is in NJ, but it was still fun to have one of their famous "lobster tail" pastries.  We then headed for the World Trade Center area to see the Oculus (our "big white thing" from the Feb trip, which wasn't yet open then). The Oculus is a Calatrava-designed building next to Ground Zero which is both a subway hub (still being developed) and a high-end shopping mall.  It is absolutely stunning, but we didn't spend any time going into stores - we weren't dressed well enough.  :)

From there, we walked to St Paul's Chapel, the home church of George Washington.  Though it is only a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, it sustained no damage at all during 9/11, and was used as a rest station for rescue workers during that time.  They were supposed to have a small 9/11 museum, but it apparently has been moved to a location across the street.  The chapel is undergoing some restoration, and the Washington pew had been removed, but there were still interesting things to see there.  St Paul's Chapel was built as a satellite church of Trinity Church, to serve the outlying "country" people.  The funny thing is that Trinity Church is only a few blocks away.  I can't imagine how the chapel could be in the country and Trinity in the city.  You can practically see one from the other, they are so close together.

We then walked down to Trinity Church to see Alexander Hamilton's grave and attend a free concert in the church.  The concert was somewhat disappointing.  The schedule said it was supposed to be Irish fiddle music, but it was something involving subway and city sounds (which we had been hearing all day on the street).  Still, it was nice to see the church.  There was a geocache in the churchyard, but grabbing it would have involved climbing up onto a big statue/fountain thing (and probably needing a boost to get up onto the first level).  Yeah....no.

In the evening, we met up with Megan to have dinner at Carnegie Deli, which was scheduled to close forever at the end of the year.  This time we only waited in line for maybe 45 minutes.  Megan and Cathy split one of their signature ENORMOUS pastrami sandwiches, and I had the absolute best grilled cheese on marble rye with tomatoes and bacon.  When Cathy told Megan about the Garrett's popcorn, Megan said, "That's the advantage of arriving in Penn Station".  Turns out that Penn Station, where Cathy's train arrived, has a Garrett's!  Still, mine came from the Chicago motherland, so it's still better. :P