FRIDAY
I have a couple of hours to fill in before the shuttle bus to the airport picks me up. After another strenuous day of sightseeing, I just wanted to come back to the Mayfair Hotel and sit.
I caught a bus out to LACMA and then realised they didn't open until midday. So I walked up to the Farmers Market (about a mile) for breakfast. Like most markets it has stalls selling fresh produce and meat. Pete would have liked the shop that sold nothing but chilli sauce: top rating was 10++. I thought about bringing some home but worried it might spill.
Across the road was Ross, a shop we girls discovered in Honolulu that sells last season fashions at discount prices. I bought 5 outfits for $80, and could have bought more but I'm running out of space in the suitcases.
I caught a bus back to LACMA and walked along the road to the La Brea Tar Pits, which are next to LACMA. There's a separate museum explaining the Tar Pits and exhibiting lots of the bones they've recovered: did you know there were camels in North America about 20,000 years ago? Also wolves, sloths, cougars, mammoths ... very interesting. They have a "fishbowl" where you can watch the scientists and volunteers cleaning and sorting bones.
Back to LACMA, which has several different buildings in the complex. I walked through the contemporary art building where they had some Andy Warhol (which I like) and a lot of other stuff that did nothing for me. On the ground floor thee's a sculpture called Band which is huges sheets of metal, rust coloured, curving around to make shapes you can walk through.
I had lunch (with wine) at one of the cafes there and then caught another bus back to downtown to visit LA Central Library, which is architecturally interesting, with lots of murals painted on the walls and ceilings. Did a walk-through self-guided tour and decided I'd had enough.
Pete suggested buying a Kindle (electronic book reader) but I couldn't find anywhere in downtown LA that sells computers or anything like it, so I've given up. I think we can buy them on line at Amazon.
Okay, now I'm done. See you in Sydney!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Homeward Bound
THURSDAY
I caught another bus out to Century City to track down Pete's MBTs. When I got off the bus there were gum trees growing next to the footpath. I crushed a leaf (it's still in my pocket) and the smell of home brought tears to my eyes. It's definitely time to go home.
I was at the shops bright and early at 9 am, and then discovered that nothing much opens until 10 am and the shoe shop didn't open until 10:30 am. I filled in the time window shopping, found a shop called The Container Company that's a bit like Howard's Storage World, and then bought some books at Borders. The Walking Company had the shoes Pete wanted so that was alll right, and I bought some MBT sandals for myself and wore them (which was a mistake, because I had a blister by the end of another day's hard walking).
I caught another bus back to Downtown LA (I'm getting good at this) and walked down to the FIDM Museum(FIDM is Fashion Industry Design and Marketing) in the fashion district. They had a wonderful exhibit about Betsy Bloomingdale and Haute Couture. Betsy married into the Bloomingdale family (Bloomingdale department stores) and her husband started Diners Club credit cards, so they weren't poor. From the sixties to the nineties Betsy bought haute couture in Paris and she donated a lot of her clothes and accompanying sketches to the Museum. The exhibit included video interviews with Betsy and some of the designers. It was fascinating to see the designs and the detailing of the dresses.
FIDM also has a scholarship shop with discounted clothes but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I wandered around the Fashion District for a couple of hours (poor feet) - there are blocks and blocks of clothing shops, mostly cheap imports (I've never seen so many stretch jeans with diamante pockets) but with some designer shops - usuallly just wholesale, not retail - as well. Big bottoms must be fashionable, because all the jeans were displayed on big bottomed dummies and I even saw some panties with foam inserts to make your bottom bigger. Not that I need that!
There's also a Jewellery District, which I skirted yesterday - blocks and blocks of jewellery shops. These districts remind me a bit of the cities Pete and I visited in Vietnam and Thailand, which also have specialised shopping districts.
After all that I needed to sit down and rest, so I ended up at the new cinema complex that has just opened near the Convention Centre. There were lots of people headed for the Nokia Stadium to see a basketball match (I think) but I saw Scrooge in 3D. It was okay, apart from chattering children at the back of the theatre. I notice a lot of movies have sequences in them that seem to have been included so they can become a computer game or a Disneyland adventure ride at some future date. This one certainly did, and the graphics were great (especially in 3D).
I had grilled salmon at the Country Kitchen diner ("continously in operation 24 hours a day since 1926"), sitting up at the counter like they do in diners in the movies - that was fun. And I caught a taxi the rest of the way home, and was asleep by 9 pm.
This morning I'm packed and ready to check out. I'm catching another bus west of Downtown to eat at the Farmers Market and then visit LACMA "one of the finest art museums in the nation" and the La Brea tar pits, and then come back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. So this will be my last post until I get home. Pete's picking me up from the airport on Sunday morning.
I caught another bus out to Century City to track down Pete's MBTs. When I got off the bus there were gum trees growing next to the footpath. I crushed a leaf (it's still in my pocket) and the smell of home brought tears to my eyes. It's definitely time to go home.
I was at the shops bright and early at 9 am, and then discovered that nothing much opens until 10 am and the shoe shop didn't open until 10:30 am. I filled in the time window shopping, found a shop called The Container Company that's a bit like Howard's Storage World, and then bought some books at Borders. The Walking Company had the shoes Pete wanted so that was alll right, and I bought some MBT sandals for myself and wore them (which was a mistake, because I had a blister by the end of another day's hard walking).
I caught another bus back to Downtown LA (I'm getting good at this) and walked down to the FIDM Museum(FIDM is Fashion Industry Design and Marketing) in the fashion district. They had a wonderful exhibit about Betsy Bloomingdale and Haute Couture. Betsy married into the Bloomingdale family (Bloomingdale department stores) and her husband started Diners Club credit cards, so they weren't poor. From the sixties to the nineties Betsy bought haute couture in Paris and she donated a lot of her clothes and accompanying sketches to the Museum. The exhibit included video interviews with Betsy and some of the designers. It was fascinating to see the designs and the detailing of the dresses.
FIDM also has a scholarship shop with discounted clothes but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I wandered around the Fashion District for a couple of hours (poor feet) - there are blocks and blocks of clothing shops, mostly cheap imports (I've never seen so many stretch jeans with diamante pockets) but with some designer shops - usuallly just wholesale, not retail - as well. Big bottoms must be fashionable, because all the jeans were displayed on big bottomed dummies and I even saw some panties with foam inserts to make your bottom bigger. Not that I need that!
There's also a Jewellery District, which I skirted yesterday - blocks and blocks of jewellery shops. These districts remind me a bit of the cities Pete and I visited in Vietnam and Thailand, which also have specialised shopping districts.
After all that I needed to sit down and rest, so I ended up at the new cinema complex that has just opened near the Convention Centre. There were lots of people headed for the Nokia Stadium to see a basketball match (I think) but I saw Scrooge in 3D. It was okay, apart from chattering children at the back of the theatre. I notice a lot of movies have sequences in them that seem to have been included so they can become a computer game or a Disneyland adventure ride at some future date. This one certainly did, and the graphics were great (especially in 3D).
I had grilled salmon at the Country Kitchen diner ("continously in operation 24 hours a day since 1926"), sitting up at the counter like they do in diners in the movies - that was fun. And I caught a taxi the rest of the way home, and was asleep by 9 pm.
This morning I'm packed and ready to check out. I'm catching another bus west of Downtown to eat at the Farmers Market and then visit LACMA "one of the finest art museums in the nation" and the La Brea tar pits, and then come back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and catch a shuttle bus to the airport. So this will be my last post until I get home. Pete's picking me up from the airport on Sunday morning.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Looking south west from Santa Monica
WEDNESDAY
I decided to catch a bus to Santa Monica today, as I thought it would involve less walking and give my aching feet a rest. The Visitor Centre instructions worked again for which bus to catch - all the way down Wiltshire Boulevarde, for an hour and a quarter. The smog here is really bad, even the surrounding hills are obscured.
On my to do list for Santa Monica was doing a tour on a Segway. The shop wasn't open when I arrived so I walked out along Santa Monica pier (complete with amusement park). There were a mob of photographers and a very small crowd surrounding someone making a speech about Santa Monica being the end of Route 66, and unveiling a plaque.
Continuing to the end of the pier, I looked vaguely in the direction of Australia and felt homesick. I fly home on Friday, and am looking forward to being back with Pete again. The pier had its 100th birthday this year and there was an interesting display about the history.
Back to the Segway shop. In case you don't know, Segways are a two-wheeled platform that's battery driven and steered by shifting your weight. I've always wanted to try one, but in Sydney apparently they're illegal to be used on the footpath (motorised vehicle) or the road (not registered). They have a maximum speed of about 12 miles an hour.
In Santa Monica you can ride them on the bike paths and the beach and the footpath (but in Venice, next door, not on the footpath). The shop wasn't running guided tours today but I was able to rent one for two hours ($75). A couple of German guys who are in the television industry and over here for the WMA (whatever that is) turned up so we all got our training together. The Segway is amazingly easy to learn to use, I love it.
After a few turns around the shop floor we were out on the footpath, down a steep roadway to the beach, and then off on our own. I wasn't game to go on the sand so just cruised the bike path all the way up Santa Monica Beach and down past Muscle Beach to Little Venice. It's a great way to sight see, and after a while I could relax and admire all the beach houses without thinking too hard about steering. There were lots and lots of people out exercising: walking, biking, roller-blading, skate boarding, walking the dogs, playing beach volley-ball. A bit too cold for swimming or surfing though, and after 2 hours I was cold too and ready to take it back to the shop. Pete, they're only $5,000 US, can I have one for Christmas?
I walked up to Third Avenue Promenade - four blocks of shopping with the street closed off - and found I'd missed the farmers market that's there on Wednesday and Saturday, they were just packing up. There were some gorgeous dinosaur sculptures in the promenade, with the bodies created by growing ivy over a wire frame. The shops were interesting, and I dropped into Old Navy to buy a $10 shirt as I was still cold. And I think I got chatted up by a Mexican cowboy, but it was hard to tell as he didn't speak English.
The Cirque du Soleil was performing at 8 pm on the beach near the pier, and I thought about sticking around but decided to catch a bus along Santa Monica Boulevarde and look for shoes for Pete. (He's given me the addresses of five shoe stores in LA that sell MBTs, hoping I could buy them for him at a cheaper price.)
Well, Santa Monica Boulevarde is a very very long street. I was looking for 12,050 Santa Monica Bouldevarde and couldn't find it, despite getting off the bus twice and walking for what seemed liked miles, so I eventually gave up and caught the bus again back to downtown LA via Sunset Boulevarde. Poor feet! Riding the bus is interesting, we went through some very rich looking areas (Beverley Hills, Los Angeles Country Club) and some very poor looking areas. Most of the people who catch the bus look like workers, and most announcements and notices in LA are bilingual. I hadn't realised what a strong Mexican influence there was in LA. Nearly all the Americans I've met have been friendly and helpful, but in LA I've noticed this even more. A young guy with a small daughter got on the bus and he looked like he was stoned; two elderly Mexican ladies noticed and were so concerned they mentioned it to the bus driver; and the driver asked the guy very nicely as he was getting off the bus whether he was okay, and to take care.
I thought I'd like to go to a show last night, and there were tourist signs in the street saying "theatre district this way", so I wandered around for a while looking, but concluded that the theatres were there historically but are now shops and bars. I stopped by a Thai restaurant that had only just opened (three days ago) and had a very nice vegetable curry and two beers (lovely to have vegetables again!). And was so buggered by the time I got back to the hotel that I went to bed, channel surfed unsuccessfully, and was asleep by 8 pm!
Tomorrow: shopping for Pete's shoes, and museums and art galleries.
I decided to catch a bus to Santa Monica today, as I thought it would involve less walking and give my aching feet a rest. The Visitor Centre instructions worked again for which bus to catch - all the way down Wiltshire Boulevarde, for an hour and a quarter. The smog here is really bad, even the surrounding hills are obscured.
On my to do list for Santa Monica was doing a tour on a Segway. The shop wasn't open when I arrived so I walked out along Santa Monica pier (complete with amusement park). There were a mob of photographers and a very small crowd surrounding someone making a speech about Santa Monica being the end of Route 66, and unveiling a plaque.
Continuing to the end of the pier, I looked vaguely in the direction of Australia and felt homesick. I fly home on Friday, and am looking forward to being back with Pete again. The pier had its 100th birthday this year and there was an interesting display about the history.
Back to the Segway shop. In case you don't know, Segways are a two-wheeled platform that's battery driven and steered by shifting your weight. I've always wanted to try one, but in Sydney apparently they're illegal to be used on the footpath (motorised vehicle) or the road (not registered). They have a maximum speed of about 12 miles an hour.
In Santa Monica you can ride them on the bike paths and the beach and the footpath (but in Venice, next door, not on the footpath). The shop wasn't running guided tours today but I was able to rent one for two hours ($75). A couple of German guys who are in the television industry and over here for the WMA (whatever that is) turned up so we all got our training together. The Segway is amazingly easy to learn to use, I love it.
After a few turns around the shop floor we were out on the footpath, down a steep roadway to the beach, and then off on our own. I wasn't game to go on the sand so just cruised the bike path all the way up Santa Monica Beach and down past Muscle Beach to Little Venice. It's a great way to sight see, and after a while I could relax and admire all the beach houses without thinking too hard about steering. There were lots and lots of people out exercising: walking, biking, roller-blading, skate boarding, walking the dogs, playing beach volley-ball. A bit too cold for swimming or surfing though, and after 2 hours I was cold too and ready to take it back to the shop. Pete, they're only $5,000 US, can I have one for Christmas?
I walked up to Third Avenue Promenade - four blocks of shopping with the street closed off - and found I'd missed the farmers market that's there on Wednesday and Saturday, they were just packing up. There were some gorgeous dinosaur sculptures in the promenade, with the bodies created by growing ivy over a wire frame. The shops were interesting, and I dropped into Old Navy to buy a $10 shirt as I was still cold. And I think I got chatted up by a Mexican cowboy, but it was hard to tell as he didn't speak English.
The Cirque du Soleil was performing at 8 pm on the beach near the pier, and I thought about sticking around but decided to catch a bus along Santa Monica Boulevarde and look for shoes for Pete. (He's given me the addresses of five shoe stores in LA that sell MBTs, hoping I could buy them for him at a cheaper price.)
Well, Santa Monica Boulevarde is a very very long street. I was looking for 12,050 Santa Monica Bouldevarde and couldn't find it, despite getting off the bus twice and walking for what seemed liked miles, so I eventually gave up and caught the bus again back to downtown LA via Sunset Boulevarde. Poor feet! Riding the bus is interesting, we went through some very rich looking areas (Beverley Hills, Los Angeles Country Club) and some very poor looking areas. Most of the people who catch the bus look like workers, and most announcements and notices in LA are bilingual. I hadn't realised what a strong Mexican influence there was in LA. Nearly all the Americans I've met have been friendly and helpful, but in LA I've noticed this even more. A young guy with a small daughter got on the bus and he looked like he was stoned; two elderly Mexican ladies noticed and were so concerned they mentioned it to the bus driver; and the driver asked the guy very nicely as he was getting off the bus whether he was okay, and to take care.
I thought I'd like to go to a show last night, and there were tourist signs in the street saying "theatre district this way", so I wandered around for a while looking, but concluded that the theatres were there historically but are now shops and bars. I stopped by a Thai restaurant that had only just opened (three days ago) and had a very nice vegetable curry and two beers (lovely to have vegetables again!). And was so buggered by the time I got back to the hotel that I went to bed, channel surfed unsuccessfully, and was asleep by 8 pm!
Tomorrow: shopping for Pete's shoes, and museums and art galleries.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Disneyland
TUESDAY
Today I caught a bus to Disneyland. It only cost $1.25, but it took an hour and a half (but a taxi costs $75 so I think I did okay). The Visitor Centre's handy guide to how to catch public transport to tourist attractions is coming in very handy.
Entry to Disneyland was $72 for just a one day, one park ticket. I thought that would do me. It was exciting to walk through the entrance to Disneyland and down Main Street. I went on lots of rides (can't remember them all now). The scariest was a Space Ride - lots of very very fast twists and turns - but I didn't scream much. I did the Jungle River ride with the hippos rising up out of the water, just like the postcards, and took lots of photos. I had my photo taken with Mickey Mouse (which reminds me, I forgot to mention that yesterday I went to Madame Taussard's wax museum and had my photo taken with lots of other famous actors). I walked for miles and miles and miles - from 11 am to 5 pm and was exhausted by the end, but I reckon I saw everything I wanted to see (apart from a few attractions that were closed):
NEW ORLEANS - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean
FRONTIERLAND - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
CRITTER COUNTRY - Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
ADVENTURELAND - Indiana Jones Adventure, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse
TOONTOWN - Mickey's House, Disney Railroad
TOMORROWLAND - Honey, I Shrank the Audience*; Innoventions; Space Mountain; Star Tours
*I must say the 3D films were fun, particularly when they were combined with sprays of water and puffs of air to simulate touch as well as sight. It really felt as if there were mice running up my leg.
I caught the bus home again - another hour and a half trip, but at least this bus had television entertainment. Had dinner at Californian pizza restaurant, and walked home to the hotel, and discovered the internet computers in the lobby.
Tomorrow I'm going to have a less exciting day visiting museums and art galleries and doing a little light shopping.
Today I caught a bus to Disneyland. It only cost $1.25, but it took an hour and a half (but a taxi costs $75 so I think I did okay). The Visitor Centre's handy guide to how to catch public transport to tourist attractions is coming in very handy.
Entry to Disneyland was $72 for just a one day, one park ticket. I thought that would do me. It was exciting to walk through the entrance to Disneyland and down Main Street. I went on lots of rides (can't remember them all now). The scariest was a Space Ride - lots of very very fast twists and turns - but I didn't scream much. I did the Jungle River ride with the hippos rising up out of the water, just like the postcards, and took lots of photos. I had my photo taken with Mickey Mouse (which reminds me, I forgot to mention that yesterday I went to Madame Taussard's wax museum and had my photo taken with lots of other famous actors). I walked for miles and miles and miles - from 11 am to 5 pm and was exhausted by the end, but I reckon I saw everything I wanted to see (apart from a few attractions that were closed):
NEW ORLEANS - Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean
FRONTIERLAND - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
CRITTER COUNTRY - Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
ADVENTURELAND - Indiana Jones Adventure, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse
TOONTOWN - Mickey's House, Disney Railroad
TOMORROWLAND - Honey, I Shrank the Audience*; Innoventions; Space Mountain; Star Tours
*I must say the 3D films were fun, particularly when they were combined with sprays of water and puffs of air to simulate touch as well as sight. It really felt as if there were mice running up my leg.
I caught the bus home again - another hour and a half trip, but at least this bus had television entertainment. Had dinner at Californian pizza restaurant, and walked home to the hotel, and discovered the internet computers in the lobby.
Tomorrow I'm going to have a less exciting day visiting museums and art galleries and doing a little light shopping.
Hollywood
MONDAY:
I bought a weekly pass for the Metro (train and bus) and caught the metro red line to Hollywood, with a bundle of tourist brochures and the metro map in my shoulder bag.
First stop was Graumann's Chinese Theatre: a movie theatre built around 1933 in Chinese style, with lots of original paintings on the walls. It's famous for the imprints of movie stars' hands and feet (and sometimes other appendages) in the concrete pavement outside. I did the official tour, which was fascinating, about the architecture and the history. It's still used occasionally for movie premieres, and the rest of the time it's a working cinema. I went back that night and watched The Fourth Kind, just to experience it; but the movie was lousy and I definitely don't recommend it - a part documentary/part recreation of someone's alleged experiences with alien abduction.
Next stop was Ripley's Believe It Or Not (because the Hollywood Museum next door was closed on Mondays). Ripleys was very entertaining for the oddities it contained. It included, interestingly, a portrait of Jesus created by writing the gospel according to John in very small print (remember that portrait I was extolling at the portrait exhibition in Louisville?)
Then I caught the metro to Universal Studios and took their official tour. That was also very interesting, and part of it was like a theme park ride. There were parts where we were told we had to be quiet because there was filming going on, and we did actually drive through the set for Desperate Housewives and see some activity (though as I've never watched the show I couldn't recognise any of the actors).
Then back to Hollywood Boulevarde for dinner and the movie. I had some time to kill and wandered around the shops for a bit. There was also a movie premiere across the street, of a movie called (I think) Old Dogs with Robin Williams. Lots of people and photographers were lined up along the street watching.
I caught the metro home after the movie (see above) with no hassles at all.
I bought a weekly pass for the Metro (train and bus) and caught the metro red line to Hollywood, with a bundle of tourist brochures and the metro map in my shoulder bag.
First stop was Graumann's Chinese Theatre: a movie theatre built around 1933 in Chinese style, with lots of original paintings on the walls. It's famous for the imprints of movie stars' hands and feet (and sometimes other appendages) in the concrete pavement outside. I did the official tour, which was fascinating, about the architecture and the history. It's still used occasionally for movie premieres, and the rest of the time it's a working cinema. I went back that night and watched The Fourth Kind, just to experience it; but the movie was lousy and I definitely don't recommend it - a part documentary/part recreation of someone's alleged experiences with alien abduction.
Next stop was Ripley's Believe It Or Not (because the Hollywood Museum next door was closed on Mondays). Ripleys was very entertaining for the oddities it contained. It included, interestingly, a portrait of Jesus created by writing the gospel according to John in very small print (remember that portrait I was extolling at the portrait exhibition in Louisville?)
Then I caught the metro to Universal Studios and took their official tour. That was also very interesting, and part of it was like a theme park ride. There were parts where we were told we had to be quiet because there was filming going on, and we did actually drive through the set for Desperate Housewives and see some activity (though as I've never watched the show I couldn't recognise any of the actors).
Then back to Hollywood Boulevarde for dinner and the movie. I had some time to kill and wandered around the shops for a bit. There was also a movie premiere across the street, of a movie called (I think) Old Dogs with Robin Williams. Lots of people and photographers were lined up along the street watching.
I caught the metro home after the movie (see above) with no hassles at all.
Eeeek!
SUNDAY:
I've been having problems with my beloved Asus eee pc on this trip - something to do with the authorisations for hidden files on the root directory, I think, which from what I read after Googling seems to be a bit of a bug that requires greater knowledge of Linux commands than I have. In desperation I decide to update my software, and now I've lost it completely. Maybe a complete reinstall? I need a computer repair shop that understands Linux.
Anyway, I'm behind with my blog again, and am updating this from the lobby of the Historic Mayfair where I'm staying in downtown Los Angeles.
Sunday was boring, and in retrospect I should have stayed with the Kiwi Express tour until Nashville and then caught a connecting flight to St Louis to pick up my flight to LA on Sunday night. What I actually did was hang about my hotel in St Louis (miles from anything interesting, unless I walked 1/2 an hour to the nearest shopping mall, which didn't open until 11 am so it was too late anyway), do my laundry, and watch crappy television.
I checked out at midday, caught the airport shuttle bus to St Louis, and then hung about there (reading) until my flight took off at 5:30 pm. I ran into two of the Kiwi ladies I'd been touring with at St Louis airport, on their way back to New Zealand via LA. Luckily the airport had a bookshop and I picked up a couple of vampire novels by Charmaine Harris.
It's a three hour flight to LA but there's a two hour time difference so I didn't get in too late. I took another airport shuttle (I'm getting good at this) to my hotel in downtown LA, the Historic Mayfair and had a late dinner at the hotel. It's very handy for transport, and quite attractive, but a little run down compared with the hotels I was staying in on tour. It's on 7th Avenue, and 5 minutes down the street there's a metro station and lots of buses. More about that in the next post.
I've been having problems with my beloved Asus eee pc on this trip - something to do with the authorisations for hidden files on the root directory, I think, which from what I read after Googling seems to be a bit of a bug that requires greater knowledge of Linux commands than I have. In desperation I decide to update my software, and now I've lost it completely. Maybe a complete reinstall? I need a computer repair shop that understands Linux.
Anyway, I'm behind with my blog again, and am updating this from the lobby of the Historic Mayfair where I'm staying in downtown Los Angeles.
Sunday was boring, and in retrospect I should have stayed with the Kiwi Express tour until Nashville and then caught a connecting flight to St Louis to pick up my flight to LA on Sunday night. What I actually did was hang about my hotel in St Louis (miles from anything interesting, unless I walked 1/2 an hour to the nearest shopping mall, which didn't open until 11 am so it was too late anyway), do my laundry, and watch crappy television.
I checked out at midday, caught the airport shuttle bus to St Louis, and then hung about there (reading) until my flight took off at 5:30 pm. I ran into two of the Kiwi ladies I'd been touring with at St Louis airport, on their way back to New Zealand via LA. Luckily the airport had a bookshop and I picked up a couple of vampire novels by Charmaine Harris.
It's a three hour flight to LA but there's a two hour time difference so I didn't get in too late. I took another airport shuttle (I'm getting good at this) to my hotel in downtown LA, the Historic Mayfair and had a late dinner at the hotel. It's very handy for transport, and quite attractive, but a little run down compared with the hotels I was staying in on tour. It's on 7th Avenue, and 5 minutes down the street there's a metro station and lots of buses. More about that in the next post.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
And so we bid a fond farewell ...
Louisville is where I part company with the Kiwi Express tour. Sue and I shared a room for the last time on Friday night, and this morning we finished packing up our surplus clothing in FedEx boxes and staggered several blocks to the local FedEx office. It turned out to be open for business, but not open for sending international parcels; for that, we had to go to the other FedEx office a taxi ride away. Our part of downtown St Louis was remarkably deserted, with no taxis to be seen, so we staggered another couple of blocks to the UPS office (once I'd found it hidden in the depths of a hotel) where a nice girl called Chelsea took half an hour to work out how to do international freight - something she'd never done before. My box weighed 21 lb 10 oz and cost over $200 to send home, but there was no way I was carrying it back to the hotel to repack into my two overflowing suitcases so it's now on it's way home without me.
Back at the hotel, the Kiwi Express buses were departing at 12 noon so I stayed to say goodbye and wave them off. I had a great time on the tour, it was very well organised, and we did a lot ... but it was lovely to be on my own again.
I had three hours before my taxi arrived at the hotel to take me to the airport, so I called in to the Visitor Centre. They recommended a walking tour down Main Street, taking in some museums and the Museum Hotel, and a film at the Kentucky Centre. The walking tour was interesting, with lots of historic buildings and different styles of architecture.
According to the guy in the Visitor Centre, the Museum Hotel is supposed to be rated the best hotel in America (I must look it up on Google). He says the urinals are amazing: the mirrors have the eyes of blind dart throwers that watch you (no, I'm not making this up). The hotel also has large red penguins above the entrance. On the outside wall there was an artwork that was a thousand paper emperor butterflies attached to the wall, with white plaster hands holding yellow carnations. Inside, above the reception desk, were four wooden figures, naked; and in the foyer and surrounding rooms there was an amazing exhibition of portraits. One of them was chipboard with black paint, and the paint had been partially etched away by a pattern of bullet holes leaving the outline of a face. Another portrait was composed of tiny writing, with different shades of grey achieved by different densities of writing - the guy next to me said it looked like Prince, and I had to admit I didn't know what Prince looked like.
I couldn't find the restrooms so can't report on the mirrors, damn it.
Further down the street I went to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. it was more shop than museum, with lots of works by local artists and craftworkers for sale; but they did have some very beautiful quilts on display from someone's collection, all with a water theme. I have never seen quilts like them - definitely art, not just craft. At the other end of the scale they also had an exhibition of folk art: very crudely carved and painted figures which didn't appeal to me at all. And there was an exhibition about the Day of the Dead, which I think is a Mexican festival where people create elaborate altars to commemorate the dead, with photos and decorations.
I walked up the Belvedere to view the Ohio River: wide, picturesque. Louisville started because there were rapids on the river and people had to get out of their boats and carry their goods around the rapids, according to the sign.
And then I found out where all the people were: there's a pedestrian mall on Fourth Street, with shops and restaurants. I bought more books at Borders (in anticipation of long waits at airports) and toothpaste at a pharmacy, then headed back to the hotel to catch my taxi to the Louisville airport. My taxi driver said: "Oh, you must be from New Zealand" - he knew there was a group on tour from New Zealand in town, and picked up the different accent. Small town!
South Western don't do seat allocations, you just get a number that determines what order you get on the plane and then pick your own seat. I paid a bit extra to go on early (and get a free glass of wine) and that worked fine. The plane had empty seats and it was a quick flight, just 45 minutes, so we got in to St Louis early.
Now I'm at the SpringHill Suites in Earth City, St Louis, 10 minutes from the airport, and looking forward to a quiet evening on my own. The rest of the tour should be arriving in Nashville about now, and settling into the Opryland Hotel.
Back at the hotel, the Kiwi Express buses were departing at 12 noon so I stayed to say goodbye and wave them off. I had a great time on the tour, it was very well organised, and we did a lot ... but it was lovely to be on my own again.
I had three hours before my taxi arrived at the hotel to take me to the airport, so I called in to the Visitor Centre. They recommended a walking tour down Main Street, taking in some museums and the Museum Hotel, and a film at the Kentucky Centre. The walking tour was interesting, with lots of historic buildings and different styles of architecture.
According to the guy in the Visitor Centre, the Museum Hotel is supposed to be rated the best hotel in America (I must look it up on Google). He says the urinals are amazing: the mirrors have the eyes of blind dart throwers that watch you (no, I'm not making this up). The hotel also has large red penguins above the entrance. On the outside wall there was an artwork that was a thousand paper emperor butterflies attached to the wall, with white plaster hands holding yellow carnations. Inside, above the reception desk, were four wooden figures, naked; and in the foyer and surrounding rooms there was an amazing exhibition of portraits. One of them was chipboard with black paint, and the paint had been partially etched away by a pattern of bullet holes leaving the outline of a face. Another portrait was composed of tiny writing, with different shades of grey achieved by different densities of writing - the guy next to me said it looked like Prince, and I had to admit I didn't know what Prince looked like.
I couldn't find the restrooms so can't report on the mirrors, damn it.
Further down the street I went to the Museum of Arts and Crafts. it was more shop than museum, with lots of works by local artists and craftworkers for sale; but they did have some very beautiful quilts on display from someone's collection, all with a water theme. I have never seen quilts like them - definitely art, not just craft. At the other end of the scale they also had an exhibition of folk art: very crudely carved and painted figures which didn't appeal to me at all. And there was an exhibition about the Day of the Dead, which I think is a Mexican festival where people create elaborate altars to commemorate the dead, with photos and decorations.
I walked up the Belvedere to view the Ohio River: wide, picturesque. Louisville started because there were rapids on the river and people had to get out of their boats and carry their goods around the rapids, according to the sign.
And then I found out where all the people were: there's a pedestrian mall on Fourth Street, with shops and restaurants. I bought more books at Borders (in anticipation of long waits at airports) and toothpaste at a pharmacy, then headed back to the hotel to catch my taxi to the Louisville airport. My taxi driver said: "Oh, you must be from New Zealand" - he knew there was a group on tour from New Zealand in town, and picked up the different accent. Small town!
South Western don't do seat allocations, you just get a number that determines what order you get on the plane and then pick your own seat. I paid a bit extra to go on early (and get a free glass of wine) and that worked fine. The plane had empty seats and it was a quick flight, just 45 minutes, so we got in to St Louis early.
Now I'm at the SpringHill Suites in Earth City, St Louis, 10 minutes from the airport, and looking forward to a quiet evening on my own. The rest of the tour should be arriving in Nashville about now, and settling into the Opryland Hotel.
Friday, November 6, 2009
... and Horses
Today's Friday, and we travelled from Morgantown, West Virginia to Louisville Kentucky. We stopped on the way at Kentucky Horse Park, but got there too late for some of the live attractions so settled for a short documentary on horses, and then a visit to the museum. The museum was excellent: history of the horse starting with evolution from a small shy quadruped, and then horses and humans from about 4000 BC in Egypt, Asia, America and Europe. I wish we'd had more time to spend there.
Our hotel in Louisville is downtown, rather than out of town, so we were able to walk just a few blocks to find a restaurant for dinner after our usual happy hour. We five Aussies decided to take a 15 minute horse and carriage ride on the way home, which was fun. Our driver (a very pretty girl who lost her job as a paralegal because of the recession) said our horse was the first carriage horse in Louisville doing these carriage rides, and he's now 34 years old, but missed it so much when they tried to retire him that he still works a couple of nights a week.
I noticed from the bus as we drove through the Appalachians that a lot of the deciduous trees have now lost their leaves completely. The pattern of their branches against the setting sun reminded me of a painting I'd seen: haunting, but alien to an Australian landscape.
Tomorrow I see the rest of the tour off to Nashville and continue on my own to Los Angeles via St Louis.
Our hotel in Louisville is downtown, rather than out of town, so we were able to walk just a few blocks to find a restaurant for dinner after our usual happy hour. We five Aussies decided to take a 15 minute horse and carriage ride on the way home, which was fun. Our driver (a very pretty girl who lost her job as a paralegal because of the recession) said our horse was the first carriage horse in Louisville doing these carriage rides, and he's now 34 years old, but missed it so much when they tried to retire him that he still works a couple of nights a week.
I noticed from the bus as we drove through the Appalachians that a lot of the deciduous trees have now lost their leaves completely. The pattern of their branches against the setting sun reminded me of a painting I'd seen: haunting, but alien to an Australian landscape.
Tomorrow I see the rest of the tour off to Nashville and continue on my own to Los Angeles via St Louis.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hershey and Harley
Another big day today. Our first stop was the Hershey chocolate factory in Hershey. It's big: much bigger than the Cadbury factory in Tasmania. We didn't go into the factory itself (like the Cadbury tour) but went on a kind of amusement park ride through a tunnel, with life size cow puppets singing, voice over commentary, and mock ups of all the stages of factory production. It was cute, and the quickest introduction to how chocolate bars are made that I've ever seen.
At the end of the tour we got two free samples, and then visited the shop. I couldn't stop smiling: all that chocolate! But I was very restrained (unlike some of my fellow tourists) and only bought some hot chocolate powder and one chocolate bar - and 5 chocolate marshmellow pumpkins on special after Halloween for 50 cents. There was a very cute denim jacket with diamante spelling out Kisses (Hershey are famous for Hershey Kisses) that I managed to resist.
Next stop, at York, was a Harley-Davidson factory. We did quite a long tour with a tour guide of the factory where the custom-built Harley motor cycles are built, and that was fascinating: alll the way from stamping out the basic parts, to laser cutting and trimming, to chroming and painting, to the assembly line, to testing. Too bad they don't give free samples there! In the show room there were several motor cycles that we could sit on and have our photos taken, and of course there was a Harley shop as well.
Next stop was Gettysburg, but it was getting late and so we just had half an hour at the museum - not enough time to visit the battlefields or see the audio-visual presentations. I had run out of books to read (had even reread the Da Vinci Code) so bought "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" which I'm enjoying immensely. I seem to remember reading "Oldest Living Confederate General Tells All" some years ago, and this is along the same lines but told from an old woman's point of view.
Then on to the hotel, take away for dinner, and the usual happy hour. I've managed to book a flight on South west airlines from Louisville to St Louis, and a hotel near the St Louis airport for Saturday night, and this blog is now up to date again, so it's all good.
(There's lots of stuff that gets left out of the blog because I can't remember it - after a couple of cocktails - but I think of it later. too bad.)
At the end of the tour we got two free samples, and then visited the shop. I couldn't stop smiling: all that chocolate! But I was very restrained (unlike some of my fellow tourists) and only bought some hot chocolate powder and one chocolate bar - and 5 chocolate marshmellow pumpkins on special after Halloween for 50 cents. There was a very cute denim jacket with diamante spelling out Kisses (Hershey are famous for Hershey Kisses) that I managed to resist.
Next stop, at York, was a Harley-Davidson factory. We did quite a long tour with a tour guide of the factory where the custom-built Harley motor cycles are built, and that was fascinating: alll the way from stamping out the basic parts, to laser cutting and trimming, to chroming and painting, to the assembly line, to testing. Too bad they don't give free samples there! In the show room there were several motor cycles that we could sit on and have our photos taken, and of course there was a Harley shop as well.
Next stop was Gettysburg, but it was getting late and so we just had half an hour at the museum - not enough time to visit the battlefields or see the audio-visual presentations. I had run out of books to read (had even reread the Da Vinci Code) so bought "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" which I'm enjoying immensely. I seem to remember reading "Oldest Living Confederate General Tells All" some years ago, and this is along the same lines but told from an old woman's point of view.
Then on to the hotel, take away for dinner, and the usual happy hour. I've managed to book a flight on South west airlines from Louisville to St Louis, and a hotel near the St Louis airport for Saturday night, and this blog is now up to date again, so it's all good.
(There's lots of stuff that gets left out of the blog because I can't remember it - after a couple of cocktails - but I think of it later. too bad.)
Princess Di and Pops A Cappella
We left Boston at 7:30 am. Some of our good friends (including the Owens family, who are off to Canada) left the tour at this point - we hugged Mary goodbye.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
It was a long drive to Philadelphia. We stopped in Philadelphia to visit the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but there were no tickets left to Independence Hall so I decided to see the Princess Di exhibition which was on at the Constitution Exhibition Centre instead: $23 and half an hour to see it. Actually it was good value: lots of photos and film clips of Diana from when she was a child right through to her marriage, plus jewellery, The Wedding Dress, and several other couture outfits that she wore.
The highlight of the day - and one of the highlights of the trip - was visiting Pops A Cappella. they are a mixed a cappella group that toured New Zealand earlier this year and had joint shows with Waikata Rivertones. They put on a pot luck dinner for us, and performed for us, and invited the Rivertones to perform as well. They rehearse in business premises owned by Siemens, so we had to sign in as visitors and be escorted down to the rehearsal hall. Like the River Blenders they were delightfully friendly and hospitable people. I really enjoyed their singing: while they don't do the "synchronised swimming" choreo of Sweet Adelines, they were very expressive and had lots of interactive stuff going on between the men and the women, which was a lot of fun. They also had some very good soloists. It made me want to sing mixed a cappella too.
For this night only we stayed at a hotel called the Staybridge Suites in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where we five Aussies shared a two bedroom, two bathroom suite. Sue was banished to the sofa bed in the living room as she has a very fluey cough.
This netbook worked for a while and then wouldn't connect to the internet: very frustrating, as I need to book flights and accommodation to get me from Louisville to St Louis on Saturday.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Boston
We're in Boston (or at least, in Andover near Boston) so it must be Tuesday.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Today our coach took us into Boston. In the morning we visited the JFK Library and Museum: a bit of a challenge for our coach drivers as there were roadworks, and I heard them saying to each other "what does your GPS say?", but we got there in the end after asking a policeman or two.
As JFK was the President who really made television his tool, there was lots of great archival footage, starting with Kennedy family home movies when he was just a gorgeous boy and then going to Paris when his father was Ambassador to France, and then various election campaigns and his victory speech, right through to the assassination. We only had an hour, and I wish we'd had more time to spend there, but we were running late.
We had a quick lunch at Quincy Market, which has some wonderful food stalls and a few interesting shops, and then picked up our onboard licensed guide for a tour around Boston. She was excellent: Swiss by birth, she emigrated in the sixties to the US.
Boston is very pretty, surrounded by water and with some wonderful parks and historic buildings. We visited Old North church (where the Sons of Liberty shone two lamps in the window to let Paul Revere know which way the British soldiers were coming: "one if by land, two if by sea") and sat in the enclosed pews that still had the names of the people who rented them back in 1794. We drove past Boston Common, where cows were grazed, and saw the land reclaimed from the sea that has been turned into park, and the statue of the duck with her ducklings: Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Oack, Pack and Quack.
And we visited USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides), one of America's first Navy ships after Independence.
It was bloody cold, so we didn't linger. After we dropped our tour guide off we headed back to Andover and had dinner at Crackerjack (another clone, but with even faster service). I discovered that blackberry cobbler is pretty much blackberry jam, served with icecream on top.
I"ve been wrestling with my ASUS eee pc netbook and in desperation followed some advice that I found when I googled the error message. It involved using Linux commands, which makes me very nervous, but seems to have part-fixed the problem. Mainly now I think the problem is that I don't have much memory, but at least I can move photos from my camera SD card to my memory stick.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Abyssinian Baptist Church
The wakeup call came at 5:45 am, an hour earlier than we'd asked, so the daylight saving change hadn't worked as well as we expected.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
On the coach again at 8:30 am with all our bags packed, we travelled to Harlem to attend a church service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. We had pre-booked, which was a good thing because there was a queue of tourists stretching the whole block waiting to get in, and we got priority ahead of all of them. We still had to queue in the chilly New York morning air from 9 am to 11 am, and whiled away the time singing.
The church is very efficient and had ushers (men in suits, ladies in white dresses and gloves) doing crowd control. At last they let us in and we took seats in the upper balcony. The liturgy was not too different from what I remember in the days when I went to church, and I was able to sing along with some of the hymns. The choir sat in the choir stalls up above, next to a very nice organ, and sang some Hayden. I was impressed that the Assistant Pastor was a woman, who spoke very well; but the highlight was definitely the sermon by Pastor Butts, who was a very powerful speaker. He welcomed visitors, mentioned us as Sweet Adelines from New Zealand, and had us sing a song (It Is Well With My Soul) which won us a standing ovation - heady stuff.
The congregation member next to me kept punctuating the sermon, about what it means to be a Christian, by calling out "Amen" and "Preach". There was also quite a lot of political comment as the Pastor reported on a recent visit to Washington and his support for President Obama.
During the offertory the choir sang a lively gospel song and everyone clapped. The service ended around 1:30 pm, and we got back on the coaches and headed towards Boston. We stopped at another Costco outlet for rest breaks, food (a very late lunch) and more shopping. I picked up some cardboard boxes from FedEx to post some of my surplus clothing home.
We got to Andover, Massachussetts, around 7:30 pm, had our usual happy hour and then retired to our rooms for dinner and unpacking.
Tourist attractions, New York
Saturday was another big day. The coaches left early to take us to a ferry terminal somewhere in the bookdocks (lots of swamp) to catch the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island.
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
Ellis Island is where immigrants were processed. They had a very good audio tour of the building where new arrivals dropped their baggage, went upstairs for a 6 second medical check, waited to be questioned, and then were either free to go or were detained. Seems like not much has changed. I was surprised to find out that most immigrants were accepted, back then, and only 2% (or was it 6%) rejected. But it must have been a terrifying experience. The doctors checked for trachoma by turning back your eyelids with a button hook, and medical conditions were chalked in a code on your clothing.
We caught the ferry again to visit Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Another audio tour: there was a 45 minute wait to climb up inside so most of us just walked around the perimeter, and that was interesting enough. She looks solid, but she's actually a thin layer of copper sheets over a structure designed by Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. Here's a trivia question: what's inscribed on the book that she holds? It's July 4th (Independence Day) with the year in roman numerals that I couldn't quite read.
The New York skyline from the ferry was just beautiful: especially as we came into land, with the sun turning the windows to gold and silver.
The ferry dropped us at Battery Point and the coaches took us to the Empire State Building, where we caught a lift up to the 80th floor and another lift to the 86th floor where the observatory is. It was very windy, but we were able to walk right around and see a wonderful 360 degree view of New York below us. Most of the rooftops were pretty filthy.
I lost the rest of the Aussie contingent (not intentionally) and headed north towards the Museum of Modern Art. I'm not a fan of the newer stuff, but it was wonderful to see original Picasso and Mondrian and Klint that I'd only ever seen in art books. Monet's waterlilies were supposed to be there but I couldn't find them and was running out of time and energy.
My next stop was Central Park, and by sheer coincidence I ran into Sue, Jill, Jennifer and Mary on a street corner. They were on their way back from shopping at Tiffany's. We joined forces and walked up to Central Park together to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around the park. That was fun: Sue and I had an Irish coach driver who pointed out the sights. The ice rink had opened and people were skating.
Walking along 7th avenue we saw several people and children in Halloween costumes. There was a Halloween parade starting at 7 pm but it was the other end of town so we didn't get to see it. One cute baby in a stroller was dressed as a lobster.
Next on the schedule was going to South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre. It was very hard to flag down a taxi, so eventually we split up. Jill and Jennifer went off to pursue a taxi and Mary, Sue and I ventured into the subway at 59th street. Unfortunately the Halloween Parade and the New York Marathon (on Sunday) meant some subway services had been suspended. We caught what we thought was a subway to the Lincoln Centre but it turned out to be an express that didn't stop until 107th street, so we caught another express back to 59th street and walked the few blocks to 65th street along Broadway. We had a sort of meal at Starbucks, and then found Jill and Jennifer (who'd managed to flag down a taxi very quickly) waiting outside the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
South Pacific was wonderful. I'd never seen it before, so didn't know what to expect. It's based on short stories by James A Michener, and deals with issues of mixed marriages: between an American nurse, Nellie, and a French plantation owner; and an American soldier and a Tahitian girl. Great singing, wonderful music, fantastic scenery.
We caught a taxi home - not a licensed taxi, and he charged over the odds, but he was willing to take all 5 of us in one taxi and he was there, so it worked out okay. We were home by 11:30 pm, and it's the end of daylight saving so we got an extra hour's sleep (or should have).
New York, New York
Now it's Friday. (Well,actually it's Sunday but I'm a couple of days behind with this.)
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
We're staying in Newark, New Jersey near the Newark International Airport. There are a bunch of hotels on the New Jersey Turnpike, near the airport, a long way from anything else: I guess they're handy for commuters.
We took both coaches into New York and picked up our on board tour guide, Martha, who's a born and bred New Yorker. We wished that we'd had a map of New York to trace where we went, as it got very confusing. There are 5 boroughs; there's"uptown" and "downtown" (handy when catching subways); the avenues and the streets are numbered, and the streets are either East or West of 7th avenue (I think). We had a brief walk in Central Park, and the rest of the time we were on the bus. Lunch was at the Rockefeller Centre, where there's an ice skating rink and a lot of shops.
Some people chose to stay in the city after the tour and make their own way home, but we caught the coach back and settled for Lean Cuisine in our room.
Washington to New York via Baltimore
Today was a travel day, so there's not much to report.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
We loaded all our luggage (getting heavier every day, with all our shopping) on the coaches and our first stop was just down the road at the Manassas Super Walmart: the new one, that had just relocated from the one we visited a day or so ago. More shopping.
Our lunch stop was some hours down the road at Costco. It's a cooperative wholesale outlet intended for small business, but luckily Joe's a member so we were able to shop. I escaped with wallet intact, but wandered over to J C Penney's across the car park where they were having a sale, and found a few things to buy. We're doing our best to stimulate the US economy.
We got to New Jersey late afternoon and booked into our next hotel, which is near the Newark International Airport. Staying out here in the boondocks is much cheaper than staying in New York, and theoretically it's only 30 minutes drive into the city. For dinner there was a choice of take away, microwaving an instant meal from the hotel shop, or walking down the road to another Marriott hotel's restaurant. We took the last option. I think they were a bit overwhelmed by the influx, as the service was remarkably slow.
Travellling seems to be a lot about food and shelter and shopping. I'm reading Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods and it's the same with him (but he's much funnier to read) - except for the shopping.
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