Waverly Restaurant meets Warhol

New York: Part II - WTC, Staten Island Ferry, Empire State Building

My buddy Scott Tarry from Nebraska and I spent the afternoon after the conference by visting the WTC centre site. I was expecting it to be erie or uncomfortable and although clearly it will always be a special place of rememberance, the site itself is really just a building site and feels like it. The area is off limits to most people but I saw a service man take some time remembering someone special.






Arriving at Battery Park to find the queues for the trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were impossibly long we took the much cheaper (free) option of riding the Staten Island Ferry and got views of the statue and lower Manhattan for nutin.



After queuing for an hour we arrived at the top of the Empire State Building just as it was turning dusk. We spent an hour up at the viewing level as it got very cold but I'm pleased with some of the results.

New York: Part I - A walk through lower Manhattan

Yet another conference brought me to New York for the first time in 15 years. I was staying at Washington Square just near Greenwich Village. The Washington Square Monument is at the end (or beginning depending on which way you look at it) of 5th Avenue.
Each morning I ate breakfast at the Waverly Restaurant with my buddy Scott.


A suggested walk through downtown took me to one of the most famous guitar shops in NYC on Bleeker Street and then "I boogalooed down Broadway" (Springsteen's "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City), through Little Italy and past the fabled CBGBs (home of punk rock) on Bowery.

Right down the street from CBGBs is the Bowery Misson for homeless folk, and then beyond that I walked through the massive Chinatown district which really does feel like Hong Kong in places (except the weather!)



I finally hit the bottom of Manhattan at the Brooklyn Bridge.







After taking advantage of one of the benches that run along the embankment and having a short discussion with a frankly scary person, I headed back up town and met up with JP Bowersock (guru to The Strokes and most recently guitar slinger in Ryan Adam's Cardinals) and his school buddy in the East Village. JP is a thoroughly nice fellow. We went to a crazy Chinese restaurant that had every kitsch styling imaginable, some cheap beer and some excellent aged rum.
I guess I must have walked about 7 or 8 miles all in, especially as later I walked back to my hotel and then back into the East Village to spend a thoroughly excellent time in Arlene's Grocery with a real nice band from Champange Illinois called Coustic Blend and the very excellent Johanna Stahley.

Spring Flowers

Berlin

Apparently there are 80,000 hotel rooms in Berlin and all are busy during the ITB tourism conference. Mine was given away as I failed to check into my room by a certain time (of which I was unaware). The next two days involved three Art'Otels (they focus more on the Art than the 'Otel!), cold showers, failing telephones and over €200 extra for getting access to a shoebox size room! I was however treated to some excellent food at Borchart and a walking tour of Berlin with my friend Jesper. The Norman Foster designed dome on the Reichstagg is stunning.












We visited the memorial to the Jewish dead of WWII. At the outskirts of this memorial you walk between what feels like tombstones. Walk on and you are dwarfed by monoliths of concrete in all directions. A very moving place.





Jesper is a Dane living with his Berliner wife Lena. Julie is just seven months old and is a charming, beautiful, contented baby. We travelled on the U-Bahn which announces the next stop with what sounds like a funeral bell.



This plaque is set in the line of cobbles that marks the route of the Berlin Wall and is set in the road just near Check-point Charlie.

















Moved about 30 feet from it's original situation this section of the wall will become part of a memorial.

Mini

First efforts with new camera

These are really a first go around learning how the camera works. I was so frustrated with latency problems on the pentax mini camera that portraits were virtually impossible. I have no excuse not to get some good shots with the Canon but it make take some time relearning stuff I forgot 20 years ago.


Here was a rare opportunity to catch Hannah at play. She plays for hours quite contentedly, but I was lucky enough to be able to share in some of her play over the weekend.

40th Birthday Bash

My best man, CT and his wife Helen came up and took us out for my birthday. We went to the newly remodelled Yim Wah House chinese resturant at Caxton Gibet where they used to hang highwaymen. We ended up on Table 40! The meal was excellent and I'd recommend it.
Chris and Helen only got married a year ago and have a rare talent to enjoy life and whatever it throws at them, which included having their wedding DVD and Kenyan safari trip photos stolen when their house was broken in to when they were away celebrating their paper anniversay.
Chris is Adam's Godfather and although they haven't seen each other in a while they seemed to get on like a house on fire.



My mum was good enough to supply baby sitting duties for the evening.