October 18, 2023
I arrived a little late for my free breakfast and found the room quite busy. It was apparent that people had to share the tables. I found an empty seat next to a family. They were finishing and soon left. I saw an Asian man, his wife, and an older woman (a mother?), looking for a place. I waved to them to show that there was now room at my table. They sat down for a couple of minutes, and the man used Google translate to tell me that New York is more crowded than where he was from. From the translate I assumed that the “from” was China. But I asked to confirm. “California”, he answered. That was certainly not the reply that I expected and suspected that there was a place before that. They saw a table open up and left. I guess they did not want to share with me. It was too crowded.
I was joined by a German man who was in New York on a business trip from his current home in Washington, D.C. He seemed to be in the minority as most people looked like tourists. He gave me a couple of ideas for future trips. One was taking a train from Helsinki to the Artic Circle. We also talked about bike touring, and he told me to do a tour from Pittsburgh on an old railway route. I take this kind of advice quite seriously. My trip to Central Asia came from advice I was given in Windhoek when I shared a table at Joe’s Beer Garden and was told that my next trip should be to Uzbekistan. I was there one year later.
There was lots of food, including a waffle maker. I would discover in later days that all American hotels feature a waffle maker. There was a long line of folks waiting for their turns, so I skipped my waffles this time.
I had been a bit shocked by the New York City hotel prices. My train was arriving late, so if I was going to see anything, I would need to spend two nights in the city. I looked for less expensive options than Manhattan hotels, such as staying in one of the other boroughs, across in New Jersey, or even an Airbnb. The latter was not cheap, and some looked rather sketchy. I finally just accepted that it would be an expensive stay and booked a La Quinta by Wyndham that was just west of Central Park.
I was happy that I had. It had been a short subway ride from the station after my late arrival, and now I could walk out the door and be in Manhattan.
I left the hotel a bit after noon and headed east towards Central Park. I saw people posing in front of building. My Google Maps identified it as the Dakota, former home of John Lennon and location of his murder. It was not high on my list for attractions but took a couple photos.
This was my fourth trip to New York City. My first trip was back in 1975, one of my first ever forays away from home. It was also the time that I took my first train ride, an overnight coach ride from Erie, Pennsylvania to New York. Po and I stayed for a few days in 1997 on my work trip, but I did not have a lot of time for sightseeing.
Our more recent trip was in September 2015 when we came for a wedding. We stayed in lower Manhattan and did lots of exploring, visiting the World Trade Center Memorial, Wall Street, and walked along The Battery and the Hudson River.
The trip predated my travel blogs, so I am going to cheat here, or maybe, since this is my blog, I can just make a rule that it is okay to insert photographs from a different trip than the one that I am on.
We took the ferry to Staten Island for the wedding.
Back to this trip, I crossed the street to Central Park and soon arrived at Strawberry Fields, a memorial that was built to honor John and includes the Imagine mosaic.
I walked in the park for about two hours, first winding my way across and up to the Ramble and around the Lake.
I stopped at the bridge and bought a fruit cup.
I came upon a large group of tourists. There were two muscular guys entertaining them with a promise to jump over a line of men and a little boy at the front. I watched for a few minutes, but they soon began fund raising, asking everyone to pay for their show. And they made it clear that they wanted more than token contributions. I have later learned that they do not jump over the entire line, although they do extort money from their volunteers who are asked for payment to participate. Their request for payment goes on for several minutes. I took a couple of quick videos and photographs and kept on walking.
I walked down 5th Avenue and stopped at a sculpture, the Parabolic Light by Fred Eversley. It was a temporary sculpture, had only been installed the month before, and would be gone in less than a year. I spent a few minutes trying to take decent photographs. I was intrigued by the tall skyscraper in the background of this photo and later identified it as 111 West 57th Street, also known as the Steinway Tower, since it incorporates the original Steinway Building at its base.
I had to pay my “respects” to Trump Tower. I did not bother to cross the road. I assumed I could not just walk inside and Donald had not invited me for a visit.
I took a few photographs as I worked my way down to my first destination, Grand Central Station. It is not easy to take photographs in the hustle of New York City, straining to gaze up at the tall buildings.
Of course, I had to have a latte and found it at a busy coffee shop.
My trains were going in and out of Penn Station. But the more beautiful and iconic station in New York is Grand Central Station, so it had seemed to be an appropriate destination on my one-day tour. Officially the Grand Central Terminal, the station now serves as a commuter rail station, although after its completion in 1913, it served its namesake, the New York Central Railroad. Grand Central Station continued to serve intercity trains until 1991. It is a busy place, both for its millions of annual passengers and status of one of the world's great tourist attractions.
I had a fellow tourist take my photo.
I took a few photos outside the station, including a couple of the Empire State Building, the world's tallest building for its first forty years. I took the elevator to the top on my first visit to New York in 1975.
My last stop was Times Square. I would not be attending a play this night.
After five hours of walking and covering over 10 km, I was ready to find the Georgian Restaurant I had identified for my supper.
I was excited to be having a Georgian meal and happy that the waiter was Georgian, from my first stop on my Georgian tour, Batumi. I ordered a Khachapuri and a chicken dish, along with a glass of wine. My first impression was good as I bit into the Khachapuri. Would this get an “oh my god this is good’ rating that I had developed in Georgia? Unfortunately, no. It was a disappointment. The Khachapuri was stuffed with a salami and was really salty, so it became less inviting with each bite. My chicken dish was good but not amazing. A consolation was that my Georgian wine was very good.
It was such a beautiful evening that I decided to walk back to my hotel rather than use the subway. The streets were busy, especially around Rockefeller Center.
I made a short video of my day in New York City.
I walked along the west side of Central Park to my hotel. It was now dark, but there were still many people walking and jogging.
Back in my room I used the fan from the air conditioner to finish the drying of my laundry and had a quick talk with Po. I went to bed, feeling a bit of the 21,000 steps I had done, more than 15 km.
I would be back on the train the following morning, on my way to Pittsburgh.
This featured blog entry was written by Bob Brink from the blog Searching for Magical Moments.
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