A little bit of Mark Twain, Noisy New York and Chris!
Our next destination after leaving Albuquerque was Philadelphia. David was making a visit to Pennsylvania University. We had been here before and with only one full day, and no definite plan, I decided to walk into town.
It was an hour's walk, fortunately walking straight along one main road, so there was
little chance of getting lost. First stop was to buy an umbrella, which then proceeded to blow inside out on this cold, wet, blustery day. I eventually took refuge in Macy's department store where I happily roamed amongst the sale racks. The actual highlight of that shopping experience was listening to the daily organ performance in Macy's on the worlds largest fully functioning pipe organ. As people shopped, the sounds of " Jerusalem" rang out. It was beautiful although most shoppers seemed oblivious to the performance!
We left the next morning by train for New York where we were to pick up a rental car to drive to Storrs in Connecticut. After collecting the car and setting up the GPS, we were off into the New York City centre traffic. We were so thankful for the loan of the GPS as without it who knows how we would have got around! The road along the way looked more like an autumn scene with the trees just starting to get their spring leaves and trees with bright red foliage. We were driving on the Merritt Parkway that is famous for having 69 bridges, each representing a different 1930s architecture. A 2 and a 1/2 hour trip got us to Storrs which is a university town, home to the University of Connecticut and named after the 2 brothers who established the university. The centre of Storrs itself mainly consists of fast food outlets and restaurants and a few other shops catering to university students. The campus is beautiful and so clean and well maintained. The colourful spring flowers were just coming into bloom and David saw rabbits and squirrels as he walked across the campus.
With the afternoon to spare as David's work commitments were the following morning, we decided to visit the family home of Mark Twain. I had pictured it sitting amongst trees in a rural setting with a stream meandering at the bottom of the garden. It may have once but of course now is in the middle of the city of Hartford. Being late in the day we only had time to visit the museum. It was interesting to hear about how his life had gone through triumphs and tragedies and was a great little museum.
We were only having one night in Storrs so we could get to New York for a long weekend catch up with Chris. After a warning that it could take us hours to drive to New York we were happily surprised that the traffic was not too horrendous and made it in about 3 hours. We finally met up with Chris for the start of our New York weekend.
Chris had taken Friday off work so we were determined to make the most of the day. Our first job, however was to return the rental car, which meant another drive into the centre of the city. The GPS told us it was a 12 minute trip; 1 and a 1/4 hours later we returned the car and then found ourselves on foot and subway to explore the city. As we had previously visited New York we were looking for new sights to see. Our day saw us take in Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, the New York library, the Roosevelt Tramway, Roosevelt Island and Central Park with coffee and lunch squashed in between. The cherry blossoms on Roosevelt Island were beautiful and it was certainly a great spot to take in the water traffic along the Hudson River and the skyline of Manhattan. We had walked 12 km and caught numerous subways and on a warm 26°C day we returned that evening exhausted.
A good nights sleep recharged the batteries and on Sunday we were determined that we would not head off at such a hectic pace. More suitably dressed for the heat of 28°C, we caught the subway to Coney Island. As we walked towards the beach we were a little intrigued by all the "old folk" sitting outside high rise buildings or perched on their walking frames taking in the sun or "getting an airing" as Chris described it. We were definitely in the retiree area!
We found our way to the boardwalk and walked along between motorised skateboards, bikes, dogs and people of all nationalities, young and the ever present retirees. David dipped his toe in the freezing water of the Atlantic, we watched a scene being shot for some low budget feature film with nobody famous in it, evaded the crowds lined up for hot dogs and made our way back to the subway.
It was time for a drink! Chris decided on a roof top bar in Manhattan which was unfortunately so crowded that one could have died of thirst in the time it took Chris to battle the crowd at the bar. Too crowded for our liking and too long to wait for a second drink we headed towards Bedford, a trendy area of Brooklyn, to find something for dinner. Still in time for "happy hour" we enjoyed a cocktail before dinner and sitting and talking about nothing in particular! New York sure is exhausting!
We were leaving midday on Sunday so had enough time for Chris to join us for breakfast and then to head off to a local spot for coffee. It was so good to spend time with Chris and to see how he lives the life of a " New Yorker". New York is one noisy city! I hope Chris will be home soon to enjoy family catch ups and the more peaceful existence of Australia.
It was an hour's walk, fortunately walking straight along one main road, so there was
little chance of getting lost. First stop was to buy an umbrella, which then proceeded to blow inside out on this cold, wet, blustery day. I eventually took refuge in Macy's department store where I happily roamed amongst the sale racks. The actual highlight of that shopping experience was listening to the daily organ performance in Macy's on the worlds largest fully functioning pipe organ. As people shopped, the sounds of " Jerusalem" rang out. It was beautiful although most shoppers seemed oblivious to the performance!We left the next morning by train for New York where we were to pick up a rental car to drive to Storrs in Connecticut. After collecting the car and setting up the GPS, we were off into the New York City centre traffic. We were so thankful for the loan of the GPS as without it who knows how we would have got around! The road along the way looked more like an autumn scene with the trees just starting to get their spring leaves and trees with bright red foliage. We were driving on the Merritt Parkway that is famous for having 69 bridges, each representing a different 1930s architecture. A 2 and a 1/2 hour trip got us to Storrs which is a university town, home to the University of Connecticut and named after the 2 brothers who established the university. The centre of Storrs itself mainly consists of fast food outlets and restaurants and a few other shops catering to university students. The campus is beautiful and so clean and well maintained. The colourful spring flowers were just coming into bloom and David saw rabbits and squirrels as he walked across the campus.
With the afternoon to spare as David's work commitments were the following morning, we decided to visit the family home of Mark Twain. I had pictured it sitting amongst trees in a rural setting with a stream meandering at the bottom of the garden. It may have once but of course now is in the middle of the city of Hartford. Being late in the day we only had time to visit the museum. It was interesting to hear about how his life had gone through triumphs and tragedies and was a great little museum.
We were only having one night in Storrs so we could get to New York for a long weekend catch up with Chris. After a warning that it could take us hours to drive to New York we were happily surprised that the traffic was not too horrendous and made it in about 3 hours. We finally met up with Chris for the start of our New York weekend.
Chris had taken Friday off work so we were determined to make the most of the day. Our first job, however was to return the rental car, which meant another drive into the centre of the city. The GPS told us it was a 12 minute trip; 1 and a 1/4 hours later we returned the car and then found ourselves on foot and subway to explore the city. As we had previously visited New York we were looking for new sights to see. Our day saw us take in Grand Central Station, Bryant Park, the New York library, the Roosevelt Tramway, Roosevelt Island and Central Park with coffee and lunch squashed in between. The cherry blossoms on Roosevelt Island were beautiful and it was certainly a great spot to take in the water traffic along the Hudson River and the skyline of Manhattan. We had walked 12 km and caught numerous subways and on a warm 26°C day we returned that evening exhausted.
A good nights sleep recharged the batteries and on Sunday we were determined that we would not head off at such a hectic pace. More suitably dressed for the heat of 28°C, we caught the subway to Coney Island. As we walked towards the beach we were a little intrigued by all the "old folk" sitting outside high rise buildings or perched on their walking frames taking in the sun or "getting an airing" as Chris described it. We were definitely in the retiree area!We found our way to the boardwalk and walked along between motorised skateboards, bikes, dogs and people of all nationalities, young and the ever present retirees. David dipped his toe in the freezing water of the Atlantic, we watched a scene being shot for some low budget feature film with nobody famous in it, evaded the crowds lined up for hot dogs and made our way back to the subway.
It was time for a drink! Chris decided on a roof top bar in Manhattan which was unfortunately so crowded that one could have died of thirst in the time it took Chris to battle the crowd at the bar. Too crowded for our liking and too long to wait for a second drink we headed towards Bedford, a trendy area of Brooklyn, to find something for dinner. Still in time for "happy hour" we enjoyed a cocktail before dinner and sitting and talking about nothing in particular! New York sure is exhausting!
We were leaving midday on Sunday so had enough time for Chris to join us for breakfast and then to head off to a local spot for coffee. It was so good to spend time with Chris and to see how he lives the life of a " New Yorker". New York is one noisy city! I hope Chris will be home soon to enjoy family catch ups and the more peaceful existence of Australia.
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