NYC Wanderings

We've continued to tour different neighbourhoods and occasionally visit a gallery or museum. Marian and I aren't too ambitious and have a reasonable amount of down time, waking up way too late most days! We've got admin on various things and I had a bug for a day or two which took me out of action. We can't keep up with John, who is out the door before us every morning! Here are some pics.....

We toured Tribeca, which is famous for association with the film industry and Robert de Niro, Beyonce and JZ et al. Many famous people choose to live here in $30m apartments, but it's a bit odd. Compared to the rest of NYC it's very quiet with little street activation (which is why the celebs like it I suppose - there were lots of very dark chauffeured vehicles around). But its a bit boring and out of the way. Very nice buildings though and near the river.....

Alley in Tribeca....

We see this all over NYC (but usually only one caboose at a time!). Child Care kids getting taken to the park. At least it's safe! Very small kids, very cute....

The 9/11 museum below the memorial pools exceeded expectations. It has a great deal of detailed information at the end,  so we didn't get time to finish. The concrete box is one of the reflection pools above, and replicates the original Twin Towers north building. The steel footings of the tower still are there around the box (zoom in). The blue wall is an art piece where people who were there were asked to paint the colour of the sky on the day as they remembered it. There were lots of artefacts, broken fire engines etc. It was impressive....

In 44th Street near 5th Avenue there are many private clubs - lots of money to spend on things like fire escapes.....

This is the New York Yacht Club - do the window sills remind you of anything?.....

On Broadway is the Brill Building, which is the home of much popular music - the 'factory' where many famous 60's musicians used to work in offices and produce hits for others - until they all decided to do it for themselves....

Marian got us a pass to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the 'Met') and we've been several times now (short drop ins). It's close to us across the park and is incredible - huge. It's unique in that it has serious art as well as museum items. They had a Van Gogh exhibition focussed on his Cypresses. It chronologically followed his arrival in Arles to St Remy, including letters to Theo with sketches etc. I thought this one very interesting - it was a very early sketch arriving at St Remy when he wasn't allowed out - done with mixed materials obviously very quickly. They had Starry Night as well as several pretty dodgy ones - I really enjoyed it .....

A Met hallway - there are lots of huge spaces and galleries....

Nice mural - even the fire escape is painted....

Soho - where cast iron was used in construction for industrial buildings the first time - often replicating masonry or timber.....

Soho....note cobbled street....

The bike scheme is very popular throughout NYC, but apparently not in Soho! All the columns are cast iron - you could see rust on some of them....

Most cast iron industrial buildings (which are now either office or residential) are 1850 - 1890 vintage. They were built on a village of townhouses from 1800-1820, of which several remain. This is one....

Speccy....

The same 'jenga' building is visible from Tribeca from the opposite direction - you can walk between these different areas but it's a bit of a hike....

Little Italy (near Soho). John wanted to buy a little cheese at this deli and ended up with a LOT of mozzarella!....

Rockefeller Centre on 5th Avenue - the artwork around the building is fabulous (1932 vintage)....

St Patricks Cathedral on 5th Avenue, opposite Rockefeller Centre. Built from mid 1850's for all the Irish Catholics streaming into NYC from the potato famine (the landed gentry in Ireland facilitated their passage to remove the problem). It was finished around 1890. Perfectly maintained and richly detailed - ironically I thought it was beautiful but lacked soul......