Saturday, June 28, 2025

New York City Pt 2

Our travelling companions for most of the past 6 weeks have now left for home (bon voyage Jenny and Gillian) and we're now mooching around NYC with our next visitors David and Catherine. The weather has been unbelievably hot over the past few days (up to 38C) but recently, thankfully, it has been more normal! Here are some pics....

Times Square wasn't quite as awful as it usually is, because there were fewer people in the extreme heat! But it didn't stop the guy in the full King Kong suit...

This is a photo from a book I have that illustrates how the streets of the Upper West Side (like ours), Upper East Side and Harlem were all developed in one step from farmland in the late 1800's...

On the hottest day we spent time in museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is enormous and can easily absorb time! I really enjoyed a big special exhibition on John Singer Sergeant in Paris. I also saw an exhibition on 'Dandyism' - the sharp dressing of African Americans in history. This large white on white painting was a tour de force...

Similarly, this red on red of a prominent Paris surgeon was striking...

1940's jive talk dictionary...

I loved this seal skin top hat from the early 1800's....

This is a row of houses in our street in the morning sun. One was built at the end of the 1800's by Henry Goldman, who subsequently took over the banking firm his father established and ran it with his brother-in-law, Samuel Sachs. His house was converted to apartments in 1958, then re-converted back into a house and sold in 2009, for $19.5m...

Central Park view - there's no people picnicking or sunbathing, because the lawn wasn't open yet...

We did a great walking tour of the Upper East Side from a couple of my guidebooks. There are churches across the city. The walking tour suggested we go into this one...

This is a side street on the Upper East Side - the copper window bays are fantastic. The shop below had all manner of outrageously expensive and odd objets d'art for the elite clientele of the area....

There remain some old carriage houses on the Upper East Side. They are now homes. Unlike London, they aren't behind the main building - but nearby on a side street. Some are quite elaborate. They transitioned to holding the 'big house' cars, but ultimately were too much of an extravagance, particularly as the elite moved to apartment living rather than maintaining mansions with staff. These days, there are countless large black 'Suburbans' (big SUVs) with drivers parked on the streets waiting for their employers to shop/eat etc - so maybe things haven't changed that much!...

Next to this carriage house are some remnants of very old early 1800's housing in what was Yorkville - further up the now Upper East Side (then a separate town)....

This is an art dealer's gallery 'Gorgosian' that is so posh and huge, it can mount its own free exhibitions. This was a very large and impressive Picasso exhibition we really enjoyed...

Amazingly, the four large clumps of stone on the front facade of the Met are leftover, unfinished sculptures. When the 'new' facade was built in the mid-late 1800's, they were meant to be carved to represent different types of art, but budgetary constraints and arguments about what was 'modern' art prevented implementation. Apparently, there are no current plans to complete them...

We took a cruise on the East River and Hudson Rivers. It was meant to be an 'around' Manhattan trip, but a swing bridge was closed by the rail authority due to the heat. So we went about 3/4 of the way before backtracking. It was part of the Open House New York scheme (which is held in October), so the narration focussed on how the city functions and was very interesting. This is a view from the Hudson River back toward Midtown...

View from Hudson River straight onto Downtown...

Northern view of Downtown - almost at the lowest end of Manhattan. They are building sea walls to prevent damage from storm events (such as was caused by Hurricane Sandy)...

View south to Manhattan down the East River (adjacent to the Bronx). Note the rail bridge that influenced the design of the Sydney Harbour Bridge...

Industrial archeology on one of the many islands further up the East River...

View from the East River of Downtown...

View from the Hudson River toward Hudson Yards and Chelsea...

We also did a different walk around Brooklyn Heights - such an interesting area. This is the Brooklyn Historical Society - a fabulous terracotta building from 1881...


A mansion in Brooklyn from 1888, subsequently used as a hotel, brothel, Franciscan Monk residence hall and now apartments...

This is all one mansion house - the original gas lamps burn all day...

David (sitting) perusing Downtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade....

Shingles on the facade of a Federal Style house dating from 1830 - I think the owner's driver might have been waiting out the front...

Along Middagh Street are several very early houses - the one on the right being the oldest house in Brooklyn Heights from 1824. After the 'Great Fire' of New York in 1835 there were laws prohibiting wooden construction - so there aren't many. This street is elevated but close to the harbour, where the ferry from Manhattan docked (before bridges)...


Sunday, June 22, 2025

New York City Pt 1

We have now been ensconced in NYC for a few (hot!) days and having a hoot of a time. The apartment is all set up and going well. So far we've been down to midtown to visit the High Line and bits of Chelsea, as well as over the East River to Brooklyn Heights. Public transport is easy to use and we've been on subways, buses and ferry's - all of which are efficient. As before, it is amazing how many people there are in the city - any street or park has lots of people, which rather than being oppressive is vibrant and exciting: because its not overcrowded at any particular place, just busy everywhere. This makes it seem comfortable pretty much anywhere you go (at least in Manhattan where we are focussed). The city authorities have made many improvements over the years and the environment is generally well managed and looking good (a bit like London in that respect). But the key take-away is still the extent of 'humanity' on the island of Manhattan (let alone the other 4 boroughs of New York City which tourists hardly visit). It is a world-wonder how many buildings, people and activity occur here - and how it has evolved over time to become what it is. Here are some pics...

This first image is a comparison I've conjured of Manhattan and the Brisbane CBD (at the same scale). The blue line shows the distance from the Riverside Expressway to Teneriffe, being about the same as from the High Line (midpoint) to the bottom of Central Park. Manhattan (as shown here) is over 12km long - the same distance from the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens to the Aspley Hypermarket. Manhattan and NYC are huge....

Central Park, with the more recent slender ('pencil') residential towers reflected. Those typically have one apartment  per floor - going for $10m to $90m....



Random sign from bus down 11th Avenue....

The Vessel in Hudson Yards, a development at the northern end of the High Line. The High Line is a fantastic walk any time. This year we noticed more public art...









After lunch at Chelsea Market (had a fantastic hot asian dish) we went over to Little Island near Pier 57 - this is the view south (highest building is One World Trade Centre)...

Today we headed back across Central Park to the Upper East Side where we caught the Roosevelt Island Tramway, then a ferry to Brooklyn. This is a mansion built for a Vanderbilt back in the day - a fabulous Beaux Arts extravaganza - inside must be amazing. The interesting 'porthole' building to the left (through the trees) is a Synagogue built in 1958 - quite a progressive bit of design...

The short building is The Links Golf Club, one of the most exclusive clubs in NYC. You need 5 member recommendations to get in - plus the ability to pay the fees. Obviously there is no golf course! Established in 1927...

The ferry down the East River is fantastic and we had a great morning for it - although hot. This is the Queensboro Bridge from Roosevelt Island, looking west back to the Upper East Side. The tramway is in the picture top right...

View south-west from the ferry to One World Trade Centre, showing characteristic New York water towers....

Looking north-west toward midtown under the Williamsburg Bridge...

View downtown looking south-west across the Manhattan Bridge....

Downtown across the Brooklyn Bridge...


Brooklyn with the Manhattan Bridge in the background - this area is called Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). We visited a busy flea market here...

Nice shadows around the corner...

Manhattan Bridge...

Walking around Brooklyn Heights is always a treat. It's a large and hugely historic area - surprisingly quiet even on the weekend - but only one stop to Wall Street on the subway. It still has something like 600 pre-civil war (1860's) townhouses, mostly renovated and worth a fortune. This looks like a typical townhouse row but it isn't - the one in the middle is a ventilator shaft for the subway 8 levels below!...

These look like Gone with the Wind, but they are historic townhouses, with ostentatious wooden pillars in front of the facades (set back just behind)...

The tour group on the Brooklyn Promenade looking west toward Downtown across the East River...

There is a variety of building styles - mostly brick but some weatherboard (eg. the grey one)...

Walking west on the Brooklyn Bridge, back toward Manhattan...

We went to a great comedy show tonight in Greenwich Village. On the way we passed this game on a community court in a prime location - lots of spectators and passers-by, and some great play too...


San Francisco

What fun! We had a great week in San Francisco staying first with our friends Chris and El, then with Marian's cousin Jonathan and his w...