West 34th Street.

West 34th Street is well known for a movie and a building. The movie is "Miracle on 34th Street" which featured The Santa from Macy's on  W34th St. and the building is the Empire State Building. 

Those were today's destinations. 

Some of the windows at Macy's... 

The Empire State Building became the tallest building in New York again, after 9/11.

But that distinction will be eclipsed again when the new World Trade Centre tower is completed. 

The following pics were taken from the 86th floor of the Empire State.

The tallest structure in the shot is the new World Trade Tower.

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the distance.

The Chrysler building in the centre of the shot.

Yet another outdoor skating rink in the middle of this photo. This would be the fourth we've come across while wandering the city.

This will be the last entry in the New York blog as we look forward to getting home tomorrow. 

Oh, one last thing. While enjoying a glass of wine in the hotel lobby this evening, we struck up a conversation with another couple. They were locals, at least relatively speaking. They asked how we liked the city and what we'd done and seen. When I spoke of the Ground Zero Memorial, the woman began to tear up as she told me her husband sitting beside her, was one of the lucky ones, a 9/11 survivor.  

They were off to see Pink in concert and despite their (more accurately her), taste in music, it was great they were able to do it. Together. 

Strawberry Fields, Silica Tiles and Flight Decks

 Started today with a walk to and through Central Park. An oasis in a concrete desert.

A tribute to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields. 

The view from Strawberry Fields to the Dakota, where John and Yoko lived. 

The park is well used and a dichotomy to it's surroundings.

A perfect day for skating in the park.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Walked back to our hotel neighbourhood to take in the Intrepid Museum. It's a WWII vintage aircraft carrier that also saw action during the Korean and Cold War eras. It was also part of the space program during the 60's having been used for the retrieval of space capsules after splash down at sea. Hence it represents air, sea and space technologies and houses the space shuttle Enterprise as part of it's display. 

The shots below are of a Soyuz capsule. It's effectively the same as what is still in use today.  This one carried the first "space tourist".

 

Three people cram into this thing which is no bigger than the front seats of a small sedan.

The Carrier. 

Unfortunately, we only had a couple of hours before the museum closed. It was fascinating and we could easily have spent another hour or two exploring. It's small by today's standards but still huge, having housed some 3000 sailors while at sea. 

And finally, we wrap up the day in midtown Manhattan to enjoy a relaxing dinner and a stroll to take in more of the light show this city offers. 

The MetLife building...

Top of the Empire State Building...

Oh, ya...  Did anyone get the reference to silica tiles in the title of this post?

Grand Central, 9/11 and Benjamin's

N

Another leisurely breakfast this morning, followed by a long walk to Grand Central Station.

The focus today though, was September 11, 2001. A stop at the "Ground Zero Museum Workshop", proved to be a moving experience, although the museum and it's founder are not without controversy. Gary Suson is a photographer that had near exclusive access to ground zero during the months of digging and recovery. The controversy surrounds his charitable claims and how he gained access to some of the artifacts on display. That said though, the stories and images are pretty powerful.

Some of the remnants from ground zero are seen in this photo along with samples of the crosses and Star of David the iron workers began cutting from the steel beams, before they were shipped off to scrap dealers. The crosses and stars were given to the families of those who perished here. 

Photo of a Bible found open to this page during the recovery effort. Note the chapter and passage title. 

From here we moved on to Ground Zero memorial itself and the reflecting pools. Another powerful image. 

This photo shows one of the thousands of names memorialized at the site. To most, just an unknown name in a sad, sad slice of human history. To someone though, it is more than one name among thousands. To someone, it's a person of particular importance. Note the white rose. It's fresh. Very fresh. Quite possibly as fresh as a few hours prior to my taking this photo. 

The new tower nearing completion.

Around the cornert from the memorial, we stumbled upon this. 

Firehouse 10, which is literally across the street from the World Trade Center.

They were the first to respond. The two companies lost five men that morning. When they found the burnt wreckage of Ladder 10, weeks later, it was buried under 40 feet of rubble. 

On to happier things though. Tonight, the dinner recommendation came from Mike and Becky. Benjamin's Steak House. And another fine recommendation it was. Lil and I had one of these (it's for two... shared). Delicious. Got back to our hotel in a "meat coma" though. Well the coma might also have had something to do with the wine...  large glasses of wine...  and the dessert. 

New York, The Universe and Radio City

Started today with a leisurely breakfast at the hotel followed by a 35 block walk to the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium to see "Dark Universe" and tour the museum. 

The walk took us about 40 minutes and the museum didn't disappoint. The Penguins IMAX film was great as was the Dark Universe and the whale exhibit. 

Decided to take a cab back to Radio City to get our tickets to the Christmas Spectacular. That wasn't as far as our walk this morning, but the cab ride took just as long. Lil and I are convinced you can't get a drivers license in New York unless you can demonstrate you know where the horn is and know how to use it... repeatedly. 

 

Spent more time wandering mid-town, window shopping and checking out FAO Schwarz, before having a quick dinner and heading back to Radio City. 

The Ice Rink at the Rockefeller Center. 

Apparently this is a Christmas gift suggestion. Right. 

The famous floor piano at Schwarz.

The Christmas Spectacular at Radio City really was spectacular. Even combined some 3D film with live dancing. But after all these years, it's still that high leg kick thing that remains the trademark of the show. 

A very colourful (oh, I'm in the US), colorful performance.

And they were even able to work the original Christmas into the show.

New York City in December

Well, Lil has been wanting to see New York City decked out for Christmas, so here we are. Staying at the Ink48 hotel on 11th Ave. at 48th. I can see the Intrepid aircraft carrier/museum from our room's window. After check in, we set out on a walking trek to explore the city and find a vantage point to see the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller centre.  

Several blocks later we stumble upon this...  

   

Several blocks further and we find the spot, the Rockefeller centre and a pretty good vantage point to watch the show.  

The only problem is it's only 4:30 and the crowds are getting thicker. Can we stick it out to the 7 o'clock flip of the switch? Oops... then we find out the show just gets started at 7 and the lights don't come on until 9. And, we're told that if we leave there is not much hope of getting anywhere near the place later in the evening. Estimates are for 500,000 people gathering to watch. Nope, we're outta here to find a comfy seat, some nectar of the grape and maybe a little food too. 

Le Bateau Ivre fits the bill, with great wines and great food. This is Matthew's recommendation and he hasn't steered us wrong. Thanks Matt. 

 

By 8 o'clock we are well fed and watered. What are the chances we can still find a place to see the tree that when illuminated, probably draws enough power to run the whole town of Elora. 

Once again we zig zag our way through the city and a maze of barricades and hundreds of police, most of whom are telling us to turn back, can't go there, this road is closed, you can't get there from here, "fugget about it". We finally chat with one young officer who quietly says, if you walk another two blocks south and wait in line for 20 minutes to cross the street to get to the next block, you might just catch a glimpse. 

And....  Voila.... We made it...  With about ten minutes to spare... 

But, getting there was nothing compared to getting out of the area along with half a million other people. No pics though. The sea of humanity was so thick I couldn't get the camera out of my pocket without fear of goosing the person in front of me.

Madrid... Well Maybe

So yesterday's post suggested we weren't enjoying Madrid so much. We'll it's amazing what a good night's sleep, a relaxed breakfast and a leisurely stroll can do for you.

We decided to head out on our own and follow a walking tour Steve and Mary had found. What a great day. Probably changed our minds about Madrid. At one point we had stopped for a coffee at a shop across from the Royal Palace. When we left to stroll the palace gardens we were just in time to see a Royal Parade. Still not sure what it was for, but it sure was nice.

More walking followed the parade and soon we had worked up an appetite. Found a little hole in the wall tapas joint in old Madrid and decided to give it a try. Our first reaction was "maybe we should find somewhere else". We sat in a small room with four kiddy size tabes and sat on what were effectively, small camp stools. I had the luxury of a back rest in my spot as did the person sitting directly behind me. We were so close our backs provided support for each other.

But, we stuck it out and enjoyed some excellent tapas "toasts" and the inevitable Spanish wine.
Our waitress was a lot of fun and her smile grew wide when she heard we had a single son at home in Canada.

Today's finale (and the trip finale for that matter), was a delicious dinner at the Opera House restaurant, complete with occasional song from two incredibly talented young opera singers. Wow, what a night.

Arriving back at the hotel, it was time to say goodbye to our fellow travellers. What a great bunch of people from around the world.

The trip has been wonderful, but it will be nice to get back home tomorrow.