New York, New York

The magnetic pull of the big apple is strong. Helen and I had been before but the last visit was some time ago. We wanted to give Rafe and Odessa a taste of Manhattan as we consider it an essential element of the American experience. This was to be a swift visit though. Nine months into this trip around the world our budget was dwindling and New York is not a cheap place to be for long. With only a couple of days to explore, we packed a lot in.

Biking Central Park

London, our own capital city, is blessed with a large number of great parks giving space and time to breath in the big city. The same is true of Central Park in Manhattan. We know from experience that Odessa and especially Rafe appreciate the outdoors and can get a little uptight in the bustle of the city, so cycling central park was a great way to unwind. Picking up our steeds a couple of blocks south of Columbus, we navigated the traffic carefully before inserting ourself into the flow of wheeled people circulating central park. Skates, scooters, unicycles and of course rapid and not so rapid mamils all jostled for position in the New York Grand Prix. Once clear of the busiest areas the crowds thinned out a lot and we were able to meander the full six mile loop. Although Jim is a reknowned athlete, he was certainly reminded of how unsuited he is to a bicycle and how surprisingly hilly Central Park actually is. The kids naturally took it all in their stride and loved every minute of it.

Jaaaazz! – A fabulous evening at the Blue Note Jazz Club

We have been on the lookout for as many different experiences as possible for the children on this trip. Unfortunately all the rock music venues we investigated have minimum age limits for entry, likely due to their alcohol licenses. However we found that a number of the jazz clubs had so such limits, we assume due to the fact that they are serving food at tables and hence have different licenses, and so, with this news in hand we decided New York would be the place to get the kids some live music. With only a couple of evenings in town and the jazz clubs being small venues, we were a little limited in our options. But of all places, we were very lucky to bag tickets for Blue Note. Of all the jazz clubs in all the world we could have landed at, Blue Note in New York is one of the most famous and storied, somewhere all the greats have performed. Not only that, but we got to see afrobeat group Antibalas in action. It was an incredible experience to see these unbelievably talented musicians at work. Their rhythms and especially mighty brass section meant the evening’s entertainment was also more accessible for Rafe and Odessa than some more experimental jazz might have been. Everyone had a great time, and being so different to anything else on this trip, this evening at Blue Note is likely to stand out in the memory.

Taking the High Line

The High Line now ranks firmly alongside Central Park as a green space highlight of Manhattan. Brilliantly, the City of New York decided to keep an obsolete section of railroad raised above street level, and recreate it into a 1.5 mile long linear park on the west side. To meander amongst full grown trees blissfully above ongoing New York life below is a real pleasure and gave a really different perspective on the city. At several points along the way individuals and companies in surrounding buildings have reacted to this and made a focal point of their own places too in one way or another. It is a really great thing, the High Line.

The USS Intrepid Air and Space Museum

An aircraft carrier housing a collection of air and space craft – what’s not to like? Rafe and Jim took no persuading whatsoever to spend the morning aboard the USS Intrepid, permanently moored on the west side not far north west of the high line. The sheer scale of an aircraft carrier is what stuck us first, even bearing in mind that this Vietnam-era warship would be dwarfed by modern carriers such as USS Gerald R. Ford or HMS Queen Elizabeth. A couple of the aircraft from the collection that got Rafe’s attention were the striking Lockheed A-12 (the lesser known CIA-operated predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird) and patriotic Concorde in British Airways livery.

The best and most surprising thing were the opportunity to get hands-on with the warship itself. Several times Rafe could grip the helm as if piloting the ship, or sit in the navigators chair and look out across the Hudson river to downtown Manhattan. In an inflatable hangar we found the space themed area. Having recently visited NASA and been thrilled to see Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis there, it was a welcome surprise to now see orbiter Enterprise here aboard the Intrepid. Rafe noted that he has now seen half of the Space Shuttle Orbiters remaining (two of the six having been sadly lost in flight). Although the Saturn V launch and Apollo virtual reality headset experience cost a little extra it was well worth it.

One Vanderbilt Summit

Atop the recently built One Vanderbilt skyscraper is one of the newest high rise view points of the Big Apple. Summit brilliantly sets off the spectacular views of the New York skyline with interactive art and architecture. Helen and Dessa met up with great friend Fi here for some fun with mirrored floors, fast moving lifts and floating silver balls as well as a more traditional outdoor balcony. The view from the top gives a particularly impressive view of the Chrysler building, plus the location next to Central Station meant that we could take a quick look about the impressive architecture of the transport hub beforehand.

The Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building

A visit to New York would be incomplete without taking in these two icons of the city. Fortunately for us the Empire State Building was an ever-present during our time here as it is pretty close to where we were staying. By contrast the Statue of Liberty took a little more effort to sight but not too much. We simply took the free Staten Island ferry out and back, which offers a good view of the famous guardian of Hudson Bay (starboard side out, port side back). Our ever-tightening budget certainly welcomed us avoiding the temptation to take a tour any closer or onto Ellis or Liberty Island itself, and we felt on balance there was little to be gained over the free option – especially as Rafe had instantly stepped into the role of tour guide, regaling us with the history of the statue anyway.

The American Museum of Natural History

For existing geologists Helen and Fi, as well as Rafe the budding rock enthusiast and Odessa the dinosaur fan, we had to make a visit to the vast American Museum of Natural History, located a third of the way up Central Park’s west side. We knew that its fossil collection is second to none, and the kids had a great time hunting out their favourite dinosaurs (Rafe’s the Compsognathus and Odessa the Parasaurolophus since you ask).

What we hadn’t bargained for were how truly spectacular the gems and minerals collection would be, newly housed in the equally staggering architectural work of the Richard Gilder Center – which had only opened the week before our visit. The architecture struck us as distinctly Gaudi-esque, reminisicent of several of his organic buildings in Barcelona.

How we did it

Public transport was definitely the way to go to get the full Manhattan vibe, and quite often also walking was quicker than other options. Much the same as central London in this respect. We also took the subway into town from JFK airport via Jamaica, which is always an adventure in itself. Rafe got several positive comments from fellow travellers about the growing number of flag patches on his backpack.

New York is famous for its eclectic food available at any time of the day or night. Rafe and Odessa have been great getting stuck into various foods and flavours around the world and here was now different. Given we were in New York, Odessa’s renewed love of hot dogs meant we were never far from a street corner snack.

We owe enormous thanks to our great friend Amanda for lending us her east side apartment – an incredible base for our rapid exploration of the city. Not only is the apartment perfectly located, it also has the great neighbourhood bar and restaurant Bravest right across the street – so named to honour the firefighters that served on 9/11. As luck would have it Amanda passed through the city on our last night so we were able to thank her in the traditional manner at the bar.

On the subject of 9/11 of course Jim didn’t miss the opportunity to go down to the WTC memorial for a moment to remember good times with Geoff and his family. Rest easy.