Farewell to NYC

 

On the left, our home for a week: We lived in the first brownstone (center) and, as always, it was the perfect accommodation, spacious, cozy, comfy, quiet - couldn't get any better! 

After packing in the morning, we still went out for a little neighborhood walk. Below, the (ugly) church which bells we heard in the bedroom (which felt so familiar), further below some of the houses in the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill National Historic District. 

Sugar Hill got its name in the 1920s when wealthy African Americans moved here during the Harlem Renaissance. Prominent writers, politicians, musicians and artists lived here, e.g. W.E.B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington or Langston Hughes. It was an affluent neighborhood with nice buildings, and, still, is considered a top address.

Corner stores or delis like the one on the photo are to be found on many street corners up here in Harlem. They carry all you need, from snacks to fresh fruit to some hardwear.

Community gardens (below, right) are very common, too, On the ten blocks we walked, we saw at least three or four.

A cemetery (left), one of the larger condo buildings with a garden in front (below), another building called "The Bavaria" and the famous Bailey House (below, right side), a freestanding limestone mansion built for circus co-founder James A. Bailey.

Well, that was NYC 2026. We are sitting at EWR (Newark International) and enjoying the view of the city skyline from far (below). From door to gate it took us not quite two hours (much better than from MUC to Augsburg!), though we had to walk to the subway station (5 min), from there by subway to Penn Station (15 min), on by train to the airport in Newark/New Jersey (25 min) and by bus (the AirTrain is currently not working) to the Terminal building. Quick, easy and smooth - if there would only be some more escalators and elevators instead of stairways!

Smack in the middle: Times Square and Broadway

 

Times Square on Monday morning. Not our most favorite place in NYC, but a must-see. We had an appointment at 1 Times Square (building on the left photo, right), the highrise from which the New Year's Ball is dropped. 

There, a new attraction opened this summer: Times Square New Year's Eve Ball Experiences. From a new plattform, called Skywalk, with a partial glass floor, it's possible to view the Ball up close and have 360-degree views of Times Square and NYC. There are a couple of "interactive journeys" through the history of Times Square, too. Below some of the views and sights:

On the left photo is the button they pull to activate the "ball drop" on New Year's Eve. Below, two of the "experiences", one showing the construction of the building, the other imitates a taxi drive on Times Square.

A couple of the former glass balls (not in use anymore) are to be seen in one exhibition hall. The new (9th) ball - The Constellation Ball - shows a display of over 5,000 Waterford crystals and radiant lights and is positioned on top of One Times Square (photo further above).

Passing the Flatiron Building (left), we walked to our lunch appointment at a new modern Turkish bakery - "Red Beard Bakery" (named for the owner's beard). Though it is only a hole in the wall in the East Village, the baking goods were exceptionally good: croissants, hand-held borek with spinach & feta, cube-shaped croissants with a filling, Babka swirls, Baklava Donuts, etc., and, of course, Turkish Simit and Turkish coffee. We talked to the very friendly Turkish owner and his Turkish baker about their concept and their recipes, and, had a good time eating and chatting. 

 

A welcome break before we headed out along Broadway to explore NoHo, SoHo (North & South of Houston St.), Chinatown and Little Italy. The weather was so gorgeous, sunny and warm, and it was fun to explore the different neighborhoods and to admire the elaborate architecture in SoHo.

Broadway above and one of the Mitzvah Tanks, a mobile Jewish promo vehicle, used by ultra-orthodox groups like the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim.

Chinatown below with its street vendors, merging into Little Italy (further below):

 

In the evening we met with our friends Magdalena and Michael in the West Village and checked out a new client of them, another Turkish restaurant, "Foursome", with a bar and really good food. The table went never empty, from different mezzes to watermelon salad and köfte, short ribs and manti to different desserts. A wonderful last evening in town!

2nd Day of OHNY

Sunday morning we departed for the Upper West Side to inspect a rooftop garden, called "Lotus Garden", open only during OHNY. On the top of a parking garage (left) we found a lush and peaceful oasis of perennials and trees - not your usual "community garden" with veggie beds and few decorative plants. There was a gold fish pond (below) and some seating space, around 20 plots are taken care of by different neighbors.

 By subway we got to lower Manhattan with Trinity Church (below) with its magnificent colored windows, and through Wall Street with its Stock Exchange (below) to Federal Hall. This National Monument is surrounded by scaffoldings for a long time (they say it'll be renovated one day), but it's open to the public and shows interesting historical exhibitions.

When the Constitution was ratified in 1788, New York remained the national capital. George Washington was inaugurated here as the  first President on April 30, 1789. When the capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the building housed city government. 1812 the building was demolished and a new one on the site, built as a Customs House, opened in 1842. In 1862, Customs moved to 55 Wall Street, and nowadays Federal Hall became the US Sub-Treasury.

Out to Brooklyn's Navy Yard next, not far away from the start of the Brooklyn Bridge: Kings County Distillery is located in the old military buildings. They were offering tours and tastings and we took part. Excellent whiskeys, mostly Bourbons!

The photo above shows murals in the Navy Yard area, nearby the distillery, the photo below was shot I took from the subway station "in the middle of nowhere", at Broadway Junction in East New York (Brooklyn). We went there to see another OHNY sight: The Noble Signs company with its museum of historic signage.

Back to the "city" (Manhattan) by train after this tour through the sign museum (and production site).

,,, and on we went to the Center of Book Arts, where they showed the printing and book designing process:

 

After a full day of sightseeing and spending a lot of time on trains since on weekends most express trains don't run because of construction work, we  had the great pleasure in the evening to attend an intimate house concert in our friends Mark & Beth' house (in their apartment, while we stay on 2nd and 3rd floor). House guests are always welcome when they arrange their concerts four times a year. "Barnaby Bright" was playing Americana music for around 45 people, highly professional, and, in the break, good food - smoked fish and pastrami - was served. It's been a delightful evening.