Thursday 18th October
It was a beautiful sunny and relatively mild start for our last full day in NYC. I headed out early so as to get a shot of the Bull and Fearless girl before the crowd set in. The walk down Broadway and back up along the Hudson Esplanade takes about 60 minutes and is a great morning walk route.
Mark and Matt headed off at about 8.30 am for a bike ride along the east river and then across to the Hudson. Annabelle and I headed up to Greenwich Village to take one of the Detour walking tours. I’d though this would be a good way for Annabelle to learn the history of this area as I’d already taken a guided walking four of the region. How wrong I was. Had I read the fine print I would have found it was a feminist lesbian poets view of the area. Not quite the comprehensive tour I was expecting. The narrator did point out the hanging tree In Washington Park used to hang many poor women and then the Library that used to be a Court House where many women were convicted, incarcerated and then buried in the side, now garden, area. We were also guided to view page 65 a particular library book showing scores of dead women who were victims of a factory fire. So, it was a rather sombre tour. We headed for coffee then home after the walk as Mark and I had made a last minute booking for a 1.45pm architectural cruise tour around Manhattan Island. Annabelle and Matt spent the afternoon doing some last minute shopping and final sight seeing as they were heading home on Friday. Mark and I though were off to Washington.
Mark and I left the apartment by 12.30 pm and managed to fit in a slice of pizza at Artichoke restaurant in Chelsea before picking up the architectural cruise at Chelsea Pier 62. This restaurant wasn’t far from the Google building and there were lots of Google types dining there. Not only that, but when our bill came we noticed we’d been given a 25% Google discount.
The cruise around Manhattan took 2 3/4 hours and covered about 34 miles. It was a great afternoon and really interesting to hear an architect’s take on all of the landmark buildings, bridges and monuments. It was also good to get a different perspective looking back over the whole island of Manhattan from the water. We made a pass by the Statue of Liberty and this afforded one of the best views we’ve ever had of this monument.
The boat docked back at about 4.30pm and so we headed to pack up a bit before heading for our final NYV night dining with Matt and Annabelle. We started off with a drink at Tribeca Tavern and then headed to Wolfgang Steakhouse with both venues packed with banker types most probably from the Citibank headquarters that was located across the road.
We all had a big day of travel the next day so turned in relatively early.
