In New York - 5 May
I went to New York in 2007 for five days so I knew what I wanted to see a second time. I took the subway uptown to 79th Street and headed straight for the Museum of Natural History, the front entrance of which is on 81st Street on the western edge of Central Park. It would take pages to describe it but suffice it to say that it’s well worth a visit from many standpoints. At its entrance is the imposing statue of Theodore Roosevelt who contributed so much to the Museum.
Leaving there, on a beautiful early summer’s day with temperatures around 26 degrees, I decided to walk across the park to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art which is on the eastern edge of Central Park at 79th Street. The Park is probably about 3-4 kilometers across as the crow flies. It’s huge but here’s a photo I took that captures its essence.
Asking directions as I made my way across the Park (there are heaps of roads and pathways and they don’t run east/west but take lots of twists and turns) a kind New Yorker told me that the Met doesn’t open on a Monday so I headed down town instead (south!).
There’s so much to see in New York and it was good to get another look at the Rockefeller Center on 47-50th Streets where they have wonderful special events – like skating on Christmas Day under a massive Christmas tree.
I revisited the Chrysler Building – third tallest - on the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue – a classic example of Art Deco architecture and considered by many contemporary architects to be one of the finest buildings in New York City. There’s a great picture on the web – better than any I could take - that you can find on the link http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Chrysler_Building_by_David_Shankbone.jpg
I passed one of my favourite buildings, the tallest in Manhattan, the Empire State Building, situated between 33rd and 34th Streets.
Then I took another peek at Madison Square Gardens on 34th Street, best known perhaps as the home of the New York Knicks (Knickerbockers) of the NBA. The arena lends its name to the Madison Square Garden Network, a cable television network that broadcasts most sporting events held in the Garden, as well as the concerts and entertainment events that take place at the venue. The MSG has undergone several transformations and relocations over the years and at the beginning of April this year, the MSG executives announced plans to once again renovate and modernise the current Garden in time for the Knicks and Rangers 2011-12 season! There's a great picture on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Msg2005d.JPG
And of course I had to pop my head inside Macy’s, part of a chain of mid-range American departments stores headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, the New York branch of which has been billed as the ‘world’s largest store’ with its one million square feet of selling space since it completed the 7th Avenue addition in 1924. It takes up a whole block and ties with London’s more up market Harrods in terms of vastness of selling space! Inside, however, it wasn’t all that impressive.
And, of course, I took heaps more photos! And my legs were very, very tired from all that walking – it’s 100 metres between each of the streets that go east/west so that’ll give you some idea of how far I walked! Liz lives on West 4th Street and I'd walked back from 81st Street - 7,700 metres!