New York City Pt 4

I've been laying low for about a week with a heavy chest cold - which I'm happy to say seems to be almost over. Since the last post, David and Catherine have left and Kathy has arrived. Here's some pics of what we've been up to, when we've gone out....

David and Catherine off to Iceland - it's a bit colder there than here!...

A Cardinal in Central Park. The park never fails to impress. It's so big you can ramble in the Ramble for ages and feel as if you're in a distant forest. Other parts of the park are massive and very different as well....

This is the building directly across the street from us....

Our street from the bottom of the stoop, looking toward Central Park...

Looking north to Riverside Drive (set behind Riverside Park), on the Hudson River, the western extent of the Upper West Side. The photo is from a now pedestrian pier...

Looking south from the same position, toward Midtown...

Under the freeway along the Hudson River - there are impressive open spaces all along the river with many people using them...

The original 1904 power station for the first subway in New York City - surrounded by modern high-rises....

Central Park view. People enjoying the sunshine - even though it's crazy hot!...

Seaplanes use the East River regularly with a seaplane port at about 34th Street...

One World Trade Centre in the centre with the Oculus on the left (a major transport hub holding a Westfield Shopping Centre). This is adjacent to the 9/11 site and memorial...

St Paul's Chapel spire near the 9/11 site - George Washington visited regularly...

1936 Murals in the foyer of the Rockefeller Centre...

Large Art Deco frieze at the plaza entry to the Rockefeller Centre....

Christopher Robin Milne's toys in the New York public library - he lost Roo in an orchard when he was little....

People walking behind massive windows in Grand Central Station...

Grand Central Station main concourse. The windows are in the background. The clock above the ticket office lower right is apparently worth over $20m as it uses opal glass and is historic. The ceiling has star constellations and was until 1998, mostly black from soot etc. There is one tile left uncleaned (black fleck on right of big arch in distance)...

9/11 Memorial. There are 2 pools, each on the building footprints of the original towers. The water cascades into the central hole and you can't see the bottom. It is very impressive. The second pool is empty and being cleaned - the difference without the water is striking...

The memorial below is very detailed and well done. This shows a twisted iron girder against the basement wall holding back the Hudson River (at the time) - the fill from the construction was used to reclaim the river edge adjacent. During the clean-up there was concern it might fail...

Since we were here last time a new wing has opened at the Natural History Museum - a very funky piece of organic architecture. We really enjoyed the museum - but it is huge so we ran out of time....

The dioramas are famous for good reason. They are now very historic - the first from 1909 and most from the 1930's....

North-western hall (NW Canada)...

A small part of the African Hall...

A new entrance to Columbus Avenue through the new wing...

More Racoons...

Marian and Kathy on our stoop - our apartment is the first floor (above the door)...

Natural History Museum from Columbus Avenue, strikingly different to the formal more classical entry on Central Park West...

Historic bridge in Central Park (1859)...

Western view across the Eleanor Roosevelt Reservoir to Central Park West. When it was built in 1866 it was the largest man-made water body in the world. This was the second drinking water reservoir for NYC and was decommissioned in 1993. The first was a more formal square reservoir opened in 1842, filled in the 1930's to become the Great Lawn immediately south. Until that older reservoir started taking water from the Catskill Mountains, NYC was a bit of a cess-pit of cholera and yellow fever. It was one of the reasons the elite were always moving northward to the 'country' (ie. further up the grid)...

Wider view across the reservoir toward the south - to the right is the Upper West Side, to the left is the Upper East Side, in the middle is Midtown...

A chipmunk (poor quality image - it was dark) in the northern part of Central Park - curiously there are plenty in the northern part of the park but none we've seen further south. They're quite little..

A new public swimming pool opened in the northern part of Central Park. This one will become an ice skating rink in winter and a grassy field in spring/autumn. The city has 50 swimming pools - all free!...

The Obelisk from 1500BC but erected in Central Park in 1881...

Marian and Kathy at Bethesda Fountain in the middle of Central Park...

Fabulous tiles made in England on the ceiling of the underpass below Bethesda Terrace. The artist who sculpted the entire terrace designed the tiles (all original to Central Park 1859)....

Bow Bridge near Bethesda Terrace - it has been the site of many movies and TV shows...