Mrs. BD planned, as she always does, a fine trip for me. This time, a surprise 3-night anniversary splurge at her current favorite 5-star NYC hotel (The Pierre). Best guest service in NYC, with a Jag and driver waiting for you at the door 24/7. But we are walkers, mostly.
Mrs. BD and I each lived in NYC for several years in youth and broke (not knowing each other), but because there is so much there, we like to approach it now as happy tourists (technically, "Bridge and Tunnel Crowd" I suppose) on voyages of discovery. Great fun for this ol' country boy. Of course, international tourism is booming in NY too. Mostly Europeans, plenty of Asians. We go to Europe but Europeans throng here to get away from their tired old things.
Our NYC posts are mostly for our NYC-avoidant readers. Taunting and teasing y'all. There is nothing new here for our NYC folks.
Manhattan sunrise, looking north up the East Side from our room on 5th and 61st, Nice:
Random fun pics below the fold. Marianne would have loved these -
We basically hiked it (prob 18 miles total in 3 days), hit some of her favorite neighborhood bistros, caught the Pergamon show at the Met, got introduced to the Flower District by Mrs. BD, stopped by the daughter's new work HQ with her great views of Empire State Bldg., had some beers in cafes and parks, huddled in a downpour under awnings in Greenwich Village like young lovers, napped a little.
Some of our urban hiking was thinking ahead, scouting for the next Maggie's Urban Death March Hike.
Headed downtown on 5th Ave: An early good morning, The Donald
Good morning, Rockettes:
Hi there, Jimmy who?
Then we stopped by to visit a daughter's new HQ in midtown with its dramatic views of the Empire State.
Then headed west. Howdy, canyons of 6th Ave
Good morning, Macy's
Hi there, lovely new William Cullen Bryant Park
Mrs. BD wanted to give me a tour of one of her favorite haunts, the Flower District (just south of the Fur District) on W. 28th. The wholesale flower markets open at 4 or 430 am when their delivery trucks arrive from the airports, and generally close by 11 am. Daily fresh flowers from Holland, Mexico, California, Colombia, Africa, Hawaii, the Caribbean. There are ten shades of anthurium. Who knew?
Today's shipment of Dutch tulips:
Then we continued down 7th Ave past the great FIT. Why does the world's greatest garment school look so terrible?
and onward in Chelsea past the NYC Google HQ
and into the delightful West Village. Coolest CVS I've ever seen:
After that morning walk, our breakfast destination, Tea and Sympathy. I think they can claim title to the tiniest WC in North America which makes it feel even more authentically English.
After a solid English breakfast, we headed back uptown thru the Village
Then we headed up 6th Ave, then Broadway - great food trucks and kiosks there. Bought a bag of fresh, hot aranchine - as good as in Sicily.
then cut over to 5th - That's Saks and St. Patrick's. I hate to confess that, when I saw St. P's with it's recently-cleaned stone, I thought "whitened sepulchres" and I hope I am not damned for the thought because the true whitened sepulchres are places like Saks.
Then we cut a block west back to Bryant Park, where we watched all the pretty people forgetting their troubles and woes, and I had two refreshing Bronx Pale Ales. Delicious.
Then back to hotel for a little rest. That was just one of our three hikes. Another was from City Hall down thru Tribeca to the West Village again, and another back and forth through Central Park to the Met Museum to see the Pergamon show.
Where did we eat? Nothing fancy. Cafe Cluny on W. 12th - not great food but a cozy neighborhood bistro; Gradisca on W 13th which Mrs. BD loves and has Emilia-Romagna cuisine (had to have their veal with tuna sauce - Vitella Tonnato) and is also cozy as heck; the member's dining room at the Met Museum; and our old standby Giovanni Venticinque on E 83rd where they have a Tuscan menu and know us well. Also very cozy. Not a hip young crowd, to put it mildly.
All great fun.
We missed AOC, a Mrs. BD staple on Bleeker she wanted me to try. Also, missed Jean Georges which might be my favorite but we get there often enough I suppose, for lunches. A couple of times a year.
I promised a word on Pergamon. One of the great metropoli (metropolises?) of Greek civilization, dwarfing Athens. There is a show right now of Pergamon artifacts and sculpture at the Met. They seem to have liked to sculpt hermaphrodites, and also Athena (below)
