This first visit to New York hasn't exactly worked out as I hoped. For one thing, the weather has been foul: hot, sticky, cloudy, and apt to rain without warning at any moment -- and that's expected to continue for several more days here. But, well -- when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
Two nights ago, I happened to look out my 40th floor window one more time before hitting the hay, and saw this dramatic sight:
So cloudy weather does have its up side.
Yesterday morning, I was just finishing a lazy, late (for me) breakfast when I noticed that the watery sunshine was starting to appear outside. I downed my coffee, signed off on the bill, and headed out for a walk around the neighbourhood.
And I very quickly discovered that in the area around Times Square you don't actually SEE the sun on the ground except if you happen to be in the right spot at the right time of day. With all the tall buildings around, it's a kind of reverse sundial -- the clock time would be represented by where the light falls instead of the shadow!
From my hotel, it's literally just a minute's walk to the end of the block and turn the corner -- and you're on Times Square, the heart of the Broadway theatre district which spreads out for quite a distance in every direction from that point.
But if you're expecting to see an actual square, forget it. Times Square is the intersection where the diagonal of Broadway cuts across the grid of Eighth Avenue crossing 43rd, 44th, 45th, and 46th Streets. In a word, it's a canyon -- like every other street in this part of Manhattan, except wider because of the multiple intersecting roadways.
When you bring your eyes down to ground level, the whole area turns into a complete circus of a city neighbourhood. You see cartoon characters and superheros on the sidewalks, tour bus touts, and street vendor food carts. Every second person has their eyes cranked towards the sky, busily taking pictures. For once, I saw very few selfie sticks. They'd be useless here; you couldn't cram enough background into your pic to make it worthwhile!
The garish signs advertise theatres, of course, but also restaurants, hotels, amusement arcades, haunted houses, and more -- many of them in repurposed theatres. For anyone familiar with Niagara Falls, Ontario, just imagine Clifton Hill on flat ground but blown up to super-ultra-giant size.
By the way, these pictures were taken between 8:30 and 9:00 on a Sunday morning, and it was already a totally happening area. By 5:00 pm the sidewalks were so stiff with bodies that it took twice as long to walk any place in the area.
After an hour of that walk, I was bursting a sweat, so I got back into air-conditioned comfort and planned my next move. At 11:30 I took a taxi up to Lincoln Center, almost 20 blocks north. There, I grabbed a few quick pictures of New York's world-famous centre for the performing arts. On the right side of Lincoln Plaza is David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall), the home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the left side is the David Koch Theater, which houses the New York City Ballet.
And in the centre is the arcaded facade of the Metropolitan Opera House, which will assuredly be on my bucket list for a future longer stay in the city.
However, on this occasion it was the David Koch Theater which was my destination, and a glance at the National Ballet of Canada banners outside explained why.
I picked up my ticket from the box office, and then adjourned across the street in the rain to P. J. Clarke's, an expensive but old fashioned eatery which was packed to the gills by the time I finished eating. I then had only to kill time until the 2:00 curtain. I was amused to see that, although Lincoln Center sent out emails warning of large numbers of people needing to pick up "Will Call" tickets, there was still a huge lineup of 100 people or more at five minutes to go. Everyone expected someone else to be there early so they could cut it close.
I was also amused when I realized that I felt right at home in this theatre for a very simple reason. It was built within just a few years of the Sony Centre in Toronto, which used to be the National Ballet's home base, and the architecture was very similar: simple, monumental, acres of marble floors and walls, then thick plush carpets and red upholstery as the predominant interior colour.
The ballet performance was spectacular, of course, and my nephew Robert, who's a First Soloist with the company, danced splendidly and earned loud cheers at the curtain calls.
After the show, I went back to my hotel to change into something more casual and cooler, then walked four blocks to meet Robert and his husband Michael at a delightful Italian restaurant called simply Becco (on 46th Street west of 9th Avenue) -- and arrived late because walking up to speed in this part of town in the afternoon and evening "does not compute"!
As you could see in the pictures above, the area immediately adjacent to Times Square is stiff with brand name fast-food and chain restaurants, but you only need to walk about a block away to start finding more interesting choices. This place has a daily all-you-can-eat special of the chef's three pastas of the day, as well as a lengthy menu of other dishes -- and some surprisingly reasonable wine choices too. So we had an excellent dinner and a great visit.
So cloudy weather does have its up side.
Yesterday morning, I was just finishing a lazy, late (for me) breakfast when I noticed that the watery sunshine was starting to appear outside. I downed my coffee, signed off on the bill, and headed out for a walk around the neighbourhood.
And I very quickly discovered that in the area around Times Square you don't actually SEE the sun on the ground except if you happen to be in the right spot at the right time of day. With all the tall buildings around, it's a kind of reverse sundial -- the clock time would be represented by where the light falls instead of the shadow!
From my hotel, it's literally just a minute's walk to the end of the block and turn the corner -- and you're on Times Square, the heart of the Broadway theatre district which spreads out for quite a distance in every direction from that point.
But if you're expecting to see an actual square, forget it. Times Square is the intersection where the diagonal of Broadway cuts across the grid of Eighth Avenue crossing 43rd, 44th, 45th, and 46th Streets. In a word, it's a canyon -- like every other street in this part of Manhattan, except wider because of the multiple intersecting roadways.
When you bring your eyes down to ground level, the whole area turns into a complete circus of a city neighbourhood. You see cartoon characters and superheros on the sidewalks, tour bus touts, and street vendor food carts. Every second person has their eyes cranked towards the sky, busily taking pictures. For once, I saw very few selfie sticks. They'd be useless here; you couldn't cram enough background into your pic to make it worthwhile!
The garish signs advertise theatres, of course, but also restaurants, hotels, amusement arcades, haunted houses, and more -- many of them in repurposed theatres. For anyone familiar with Niagara Falls, Ontario, just imagine Clifton Hill on flat ground but blown up to super-ultra-giant size.
By the way, these pictures were taken between 8:30 and 9:00 on a Sunday morning, and it was already a totally happening area. By 5:00 pm the sidewalks were so stiff with bodies that it took twice as long to walk any place in the area.
After an hour of that walk, I was bursting a sweat, so I got back into air-conditioned comfort and planned my next move. At 11:30 I took a taxi up to Lincoln Center, almost 20 blocks north. There, I grabbed a few quick pictures of New York's world-famous centre for the performing arts. On the right side of Lincoln Plaza is David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall), the home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the left side is the David Koch Theater, which houses the New York City Ballet.
And in the centre is the arcaded facade of the Metropolitan Opera House, which will assuredly be on my bucket list for a future longer stay in the city.
However, on this occasion it was the David Koch Theater which was my destination, and a glance at the National Ballet of Canada banners outside explained why.
I picked up my ticket from the box office, and then adjourned across the street in the rain to P. J. Clarke's, an expensive but old fashioned eatery which was packed to the gills by the time I finished eating. I then had only to kill time until the 2:00 curtain. I was amused to see that, although Lincoln Center sent out emails warning of large numbers of people needing to pick up "Will Call" tickets, there was still a huge lineup of 100 people or more at five minutes to go. Everyone expected someone else to be there early so they could cut it close.
I was also amused when I realized that I felt right at home in this theatre for a very simple reason. It was built within just a few years of the Sony Centre in Toronto, which used to be the National Ballet's home base, and the architecture was very similar: simple, monumental, acres of marble floors and walls, then thick plush carpets and red upholstery as the predominant interior colour.
The ballet performance was spectacular, of course, and my nephew Robert, who's a First Soloist with the company, danced splendidly and earned loud cheers at the curtain calls.
After the show, I went back to my hotel to change into something more casual and cooler, then walked four blocks to meet Robert and his husband Michael at a delightful Italian restaurant called simply Becco (on 46th Street west of 9th Avenue) -- and arrived late because walking up to speed in this part of town in the afternoon and evening "does not compute"!
As you could see in the pictures above, the area immediately adjacent to Times Square is stiff with brand name fast-food and chain restaurants, but you only need to walk about a block away to start finding more interesting choices. This place has a daily all-you-can-eat special of the chef's three pastas of the day, as well as a lengthy menu of other dishes -- and some surprisingly reasonable wine choices too. So we had an excellent dinner and a great visit.
A day's adventures in New York -- low key because of the super-humid, unstable weather, but still very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe this is your first visit!!!
ReplyDeleteI think I've surprised a lot of people with that bit of information!
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