Our first sunny morning, so here are some pics of San Fermin Apartment, and the neighbourhood.
Our morning began with a walk through Washington Square, remembered in the title of a Henry James novel and containing a marble triumphal arch celebrating the centennial of Washington’s inauguration as President.
The Lower East Side has always been an ethnic melting pot, but at the end of the C19th it was predominantly Jewish with many refugees from Eastern Europe. That can still be seen in the local food as we stopped for breakfast at Yonah Schimmel for knishes, small pies with flavoured mashed buckwheat or potato wrapped in a thin sheet of dough and baked. The knish is claimed by Russians, Poles, and Ukrainians and was a staple New York food that filled stomachs for pennies. Our verdict was that spinach won, broccoli was ok and the one with buckwheat was a little too grainy.
Next stop is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum to take a tour of this 1863 building which has been restored and tells the stories of the immigrants who lived here. We visited the Levine family’s garment workshop and the Rogarshevsky’s Sabbath table at the turn of the 20th century, when the Lower East Side was the most densely populated place in the world and the tour was really interesting, but unfortunately couldn’t take photos.
Just down the street, we were drawn into a ‘Perfume Pop-up’ promoting a range of new fragrances … and Joanna was caught on camera!
Black Seed Bagels was our lunch stop … because I just had to try a bagel with cream cheese and lox … the Yiddish word for smoked salmon … although Joanna went for tuna and Chris for chopped egg. There was a fair queue outside which was a good sign but little seating so we sat in a small park to eat them … yummy!
Fortunately, we had some exercise ahead and a short walk brought us to Soho, the neighbourhood ‘south of Houston’ We are here to take a wander round, mainly to see the cast iron buildings dating from the end of the C19th. It was a kind of prefabrication with mix and match components moulded from iron which was cheaper than brick or stone and enabled buildings to be erected quickly and cheaply. Not that there is much metal on view, because the attraction for architects was that it could be disguised with a variety of decorative facades. Several of the buildings were designed by Isaac Duckworth, including the ‘Queen of Greene Street’, a French Second Empire confection …
… and the palatial ‘King of Greene Street’.
Finally, the Little Singer Building, once an office and warehouse for the sewing machine company is now occupied by Mango.
This stretch of Broadway is the home of pricey designer boutiques, so we had to pop into the visionary Prada boutique …
… and slightly more affordable, Bloomingdales.
Broadway is pretty much the only road which defies the grid system and stands out on a map because it follows the line of an original Native American trail diagonally down the length of Manhattan Island.
A short subway ride brought us to one of New York’s most famous buildings, The Flatiron Building with its distinctive shape, squeezed into a triangular plot right on a busy junction. Built in 1902, this 20-storey building was hung on a steel frame and was one of the city’s first skyscrapers and we spent a little while trying to find the best angle!
Having missed out on Central Park yesterday, we took the subway to the southern edge then took a kind of zig zag path through the park. We knew it was big, but walking through, it just seems to go on for ever!
Generally there is a charge for all museums and galleries in New York, but a couple have admittance by donation for a couple of hours and tonight it is the Guggenheim and we are here as much to see the amazing Frank Lloyd Wright building as the art displayed inside. It may be a beloved landmark today, but there were very mixed views when it was unveiled in 1959. Solomon R Guggenheim was one of America’s richest men and with an eye for a sound investment, he began collecting modern art which is displayed in the purpose built gallery, with circular galleries arranged around a central spiral staircase. Not that we got to see much art however, as they were in the middle of changing the installation so apart from one small room with paintings, all we saw was the building.
We got the bus across Central Park to Hells Kitchen to find somewhere for dinner, and ended up in an Indian restaurant with an array of curry … and most importantly very comfy chairs as we were all exhausted.
Back for an early night I think after another 9.8 miles walked!
Off Travelling Together 