So
finally to New York and our friend Kathleen's apartment in Chelsea.
As always we were able to spend a lot of time with her and she
treated it like a vacation in her own city.
We
walked the High Line down to the new Whitney, by Renzo Piano, on the
west side waterfront. The building interiors are excellent, and we
saw there an exhibition of work by Grant Wood, known for the painting
American Gothic (disturbing resemblance to radicals Bernie Sanders
and Cynthia Nixon?) but who produced deco and realist influenced
landscapes and figure studies that are beautiful but somehow
disturbing. We also saw the museum's impressive collection of
American art.
Later we walked right down the much extended Hudson
river walkway. The walkways (also on the east side) are giving the
city some much needed additional open space.
We
travelled farther afield on this trip than previously:- to St John's cathedral (magnificent interior and, strangely, peacocks in the grounds!) and down through the further reaches of Central Park;
- to the Brooklyn Museum (another good collection of mostly American art) and Prospect Park (rather sombre on a grey day);
- to Williamsburg (a nice trip on the new ferries), NY's new vibrant (=hipsters and graffiti) hub, where we found a nice pub for an afternoon drink;
- and to the Bowery for a tour of the fascinating Tenement Museum, where an excellent guide explained the history of this part of NY, with its history of welcoming and supporting waves of immigrants through the years.
We
also took a ride on the Hudson Railroad, which travels right up that
wide river, with sparkling views all the way, to Beacon, a very
picturesque old industrial town, its mills now converted to lofts for
prosperous commuters. There are also good walks along the river.
All things we would recommend to visitors.
New
York is changing, as it always has, with lots of new very tall, and
controversial, apartment buildings going up, and obviously a lot of
money about. Yet there is still a lot of grime, old fashioned and
abandoned buildings, and poverty, even in the better areas. Not to
mention a dysfunctional transport system and poor quality public
realm spaces. We have very mixed feelings about NY, but I am sure we
will be back to enjoy the good things, the culture and the constant
reinvention.
Andrew
and Angelo invited us and Kathleen over for an Italian dinner one
foggy evening in their 23rd
floor apartment. With the windows open (due to an overachieving
steam heating system), the sounds of sirens and car horns, and the
vague impression of 1920s apartment blocks with windows aglow in the
gloaming, it was a quintessential NY experience.
For
a finale we and Kathleen met up with dear old friends Joel and Paula
to see Macy's spring flower festival and to have lunch in the new
Italian restaurant on the top floor, light, spacious, quiet and good
food too, and of course good company as always.
We're lucky to have
so many good friends in the US and this trip was all the better and more memorable for them.
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