New York City Pt 6

We've seen some great stuff since the last post, which wasn't too long ago. It's just Marian and I now. We're really enjoying 'living' in NYC, even though we leave next week! The apartment is awesome and the location is great. Unfortunately, the hot weather has returned the past few days - with 36C and very humid! We went to the local comedy club tonight which was a hoot - we've been there a few times as it's so easy to get to (a few streets away). Here's some pics...

We took the local ferry over to Governor Island, which is just off the bottom of Manhattan. It is where the Dutch originally landed to establish a settlement in 1624 - until they moved over to Manhattan island in 1625 - a bit like the first settlement at Redcliffe in 1824 prior to moving to Brisbane in 1825! This is looking back to the terminal on the left (fabulous Beaux Arts building from 1909) against downtown buildings...

The ferry trip is only 10 minutes. It was very interesting visiting the island - very busy with people using it  as a park. There are many historic military buildings that are now used by community and artist groups. There was a jazz festival on the day we visited. We went on a group bird walk there as well...

We finally made it up to The Cloisters, to see the medieval collection of The Met. Wow. It most certainly 'exceeded expectations'. It was purpose built in the 1930's with money from the Rockefeller's, to initially house a collection The Met purchased from an artist in New York. They've subsequently expanded it significantly. It has cloisters, frescos, statues, chapels and artworks all over the place...

We returned and visited the former Eldridge Street Synagogue (it was closed when we visited with Kathy). It was fantastic, as it included a great tour with a very knowledgeable and interesting lady. It operates as a museum now and has been completely restored from the 1880's...

One evening we went for a walk down to Riverside Park and found the water very still at sunset - noice....

Yesterday we visited The Intrepid Museum, being the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, which was in service from 1943 to 1974. It saw active service in WW2 and the Vietnam War - amazing place. Lots of very interesting displays and equipment were inside in the massive Hangar Deck (where the planes were stored below the flight deck), as well as being able to go all through the ship to see how it functioned. Just great. Then, up on the flight deck they had many planes (and a Space Shuttle?!)....

The plaque for this blue plane says: "During a Tiger test flight in September 1956, a Grumman pilot shot himself down. While performing a dive, he caught up to his own cannon fire, which damaged his plane. The pilot survived the ensuing emergency landing.'...

This is Marian in front of a 40mm Bofors Gun. John Wheeler (Marian's dad) was tasked with manning one on his ship in WW2 from the UK to India (in 1945). Fortunately he never had to use it! He tells us they were 'issued with time-honoured pith helmets for the duty'...

Pulled up alongside the Intrepid is a submarine, used to launch early nuclear missiles. These missiles had to be launched from the surface - they subsequently developed the technology to launch them underwater (as they still can). It was so interesting - completely intact as if they just walked out - we could go through from one end to the other and there were good descriptions...

There's also one of the few remaining Concorde's at the museum. We didn't go inside - we'll do that next time...

We had a very nice walk over to the south-east corner of the park late yesterday afternoon. This is another of the original bridges by the architect Calvert Vaux who designed Central Park with the landscape architect Frederick Olmsted. It remains a tour de force...

Pickle Ball anyone? In winter it is an ice rink...

Throughout the nearby West 81st Street subway station (at the Natural History Museum) there are great artworks on the tiles and floor. This is quite a large one on walls at the bottom of the stairs leading to another platform - the idea is you are going down to the depths...

This morning was a real treat. We went for a tour of the UN building. It was fantastic. We saw the four big chambers as well as meeting rooms and lots of other parts of the establishment. This picture is of the Security Council. We also saw a few others and the main General Assembly in session, talking about the Gaza issue. We were able to sit up the back and watch for a little while - I put on the earpiece and you could switch channels into 6 or 7 languages being translated in real time....

The building is a 1950's mid-century treat as well...

Front entrance (the glazed vertical strips in the above internal photo are the darker vertical strips on the external photo below)...

There are artworks all through the building inside as well as outside...

Walking back from the UN - this is the very top of the General Electric Building - an Art Deco extravaganza from 1931...