Railroad Park and Art Museum

Time is flying and days are much too short, though we get up early and home late every day. Commuting by subway costs a lot of time and besides having lots of exercise by walking all the steps up and down subway stations, we spent quite a bit of time on trains these days. But, that's exactly where you meet the whole "melting pot" of NYC...

The High Line Park and the new Whitney Museum were on top of our to-do-list and on "Black Friday" we combined nature and culture instead of going shopping as many locals do on that day because of special sales on this day after Thanksgiving. Many stores open very early, at 6 am or even earlier, and some streets (especially Broadway) were packed with people.


The High Line is an old elevated railroad track, which opened in 1934 and was mostly used for carrying goods to and from Manhattan's largest industrial district. In 1980 the last train run and demolition was discussed, until in 2012 eventually a group, called "Friends of the High Line" took the initiative and commissioned a famous design and landscape architecture team to plan a new "strip park" with "authentic" plants and flowers, with stages, deck chairs, art installations etc. It took until fall of 2014 when the park - constructed, planted and opened in three sections - was accomplished and the whole thing, from the Hudson Rail Yards and Javits Convention Center (north) down to the Meatpacking District, through different neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, was opened.

Designed by famous Italian architect Renzo Piano the new building is situated between the High Line and the Hudson River and makes the collection much more attractive than before, besides increasing the space. While the indoor galleries are rather plain (with movable walls for changing exhibits), the outdoor space - several museum terraces towards the river and the High Line – are spectacular and offer a completely new perspective of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District.

The Whole World in one Place: NYC

Back to NYC, the "Big Apple", a 8,5 mio. metropolis consisting of five cities on its own (officially called "boroughs"). It is not just another American city, but the whole world in one place; it's not your typical U.S.A. at all and it doesn't consist exclusively of Manhattan with its famous skyscrapers and museums - there is much more! It's a universe of its own, multi-ethnical, multi-lingual, multi-everything.

We were welcomed warmly at Heidi's & Tom's brownstone in Harlem (see pic), a beautifully restaurated house in which they live and rent out four guest rooms. It took us a while to get from Newark Airport to Harlem by train and subway. With heavy luggage you soon start to curse all the narrow turnstiles and stairs. We were pooped when we arrived, but glad to be "home", in our large room with a view down to the still-green little backyard garden.

Wednesday was an unusual slow day for us. We went grocery shopping first, to get some breakfast items and drinks, then we walked the 125th Street (the main axle of Harlem with the famous Apollo Theater), chatted with Heidi and Tom and the mixed crowd of guests (French/Italian/German) and in the afternoon departed to see the balloon blow-up at the Museum of History closeby Central Park for the Thanksgiving Parade. We walked through Central Park to Columbus Circle, all decorated for Christmas already (see pics). In the park we noticed, that trees still have quite a few colorful leaves - amazing for this time of the year!

We took the subway down to Herald Square/Penn Station later to pick up our media credentials for the top-notch hockey game Canadiens:Rangers in the Madison Square Garden. Great game and great show before the game, too.

We definitely dressed much too warmly in the early morning of Nov. 26 - Thanksgiving, a holiday, which is more important in the U.S. than Christmas, a big family gathering. We were out early to see Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Did it before in 2010 and, boy, it was cold then. This time, about 60 deg. F. (15 C) and sun, a perfect day for a parade!

The tradition of having a parade on Thanksgiving was started in 1924 by the department store Macy's for their employees. Figurative balloons were added constantly, corresponding to current "fashion", starting with Mickey Mouse, to Sponge Bob, Shrek, Hello Kitty, Spider-Man, Snoopy, Happy Hippo, Ronald McDonald and - newly added this year - Scrat the squirrel from “Ice Age” and Red from “Angry Birds".


More than 8,000 people participate in the parade, including clowns, balloon handlers and marching bands, while 3.5 mio. people line the streets along the 2.5 mi long parade route - it gets bigger each year. 17 giant character balloons, 27 floats, over 1,000 cheerleaders/dancers, over 1,000 clowns, about a dozen marching bands, many celebrities, and Santa Claus at the end, who rings in the Christmas season. Despite of fears of terrorism and heavy police presence, it was a peaceful and fun event.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in the afternoon in Brooklyn with our friends Paula & Gail (pic of the neighborhood) - not with turkey, but with pork roast and all the fixings (and, of course, with Manhattans). It was delicious! We bacame a little "nostalgic", too, having stayed there so many times since the late 1990ies and having enjoyed many meals there. It was a perfect day.

Hockey and Beer

Our last full day in Toronto included, of course, a hockey game of the Maple Leafs. We paid our respect to legendary historic Maple Leaf Gardens in the morning (now a university sports facility) before we attended the NHL game against Boston in the evening.


Before watching the game we had a tour in the Amsterdam Brewery's adventure brewery, the oldest microbrewery in town and grabbed a bite to eat there. The brewery is picturesquely situated at Toronto's waterfront (see pic), where right now, in the winter, not much is going on.

On our way to the Air Canada Center CN Tower and the skyline were spectacularly lit up and we forgot about the snow flurries coming down.

Game ended late (overtime) and it's been a long day! This morning we had a "business breakfast" - very delicious! – in the Chelsea hotel, walked St. Lawrence Market neighborhood with the famous flatiron building (see pic) for the last time and then took the new (expensive) fast train to the airport. Thanks to Global Entry immigration and customs went fast, flight is delayed and we have time to catch up with paperwork at gate 68 of Toronto Pearson Airport (see pic).

City of Neighborhoods

Toronto is a city of neighborhoods, more or less distinct, some small, some big, some ethnic, some just fancy and hip. From ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown and Little Italy or India Bazaar and Greektown (still very "greek"!), to the more up&coming neighborhoods like West Queen West, Leslieville. The Annex or the Village (LGBT neighborhood) and Kensington Market - Toronto has a lot of diversity to offer (see pics). We tried to check as many as we could by walking and taking public transportation and our feet became sore.

The Village:



Greektown & Leslieville:

Fortunately, though it was cold, especially on Sunday we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine and first thing in the morning we therefore took the elevator up to CNN Tower (ca. 550 m). From the observation deck in 350 meters height views were spectacular: towards the islands (a recreational area where a handfull of people live permanently) and towards downtown and inland.


Also, at our following visit of Fort York – the old fortification, dating in the 18th century, around which the first settlement grew – sun was out.

In the so-called Annex "Honest Ed" is a landmark, a variety store with daily-changing offers, really cheap merchandise of all kinds: clothing, hardware, fabrics, household items, even medicine and groceries. What you can't find here, you won't find anywhere. It's an institution since 1848 but is endangered now. Most probably Honest Ed will go out of business next year, but at least Ed Mirvish's (the founder) theater imperium in town will stay.

In the afternoon we visited some museums, four in total. Started at Bloor Street, a main axle of the city, with the famous ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). A spectacular cube-like expansion was added a couple of years ago by famous architect Daniel Libeskind (see pic). Second came the Gardiner Museum, one of the best museums for ceramics, including a prestigious Meissen porcellan collection.


In the Entertainment District we visited AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), also great architecture, this time by Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry. ACAD (Academy of Design Toronto) is an eyecatcher because of its colorful building on stilts (see pic).

Back to Downtown: The Old and New City Hall - what a contrast! Passing by Eaton Centre (the largest shopping mall in downtown) and The Bay - short for "Hudson's Bay Company", which was a trading company founded in 1670, which became famous for its striped blankets which were traded in the past for native american artwork.

Culinary, colorful and a little weird

Day 1 - Saturday: Rain, not really fun to be outside to take notes and photos. In the morning we first met with our old friend Bruce, the "city historian" and a very knowledgeable Torontonian, in the St. Lawrence Market, situated in Old Town. This is the core of Toronto, here the city was founded in 1793 as "York". The market in its historic building (see pic) is gorgeous and mouth-watering and offers a huge variety of produce from fish, meat and sausages to fruits and veggies, baking goods and dried goods. It's not one of these popular fancy markets with cafés and champagne bars and such, but an authentic, permanent produce market. Saturdays, in addition, the local farmers come in to sell their produce in a separate building, home-baked produce, juices, veggies and fruit, maple syrup and apple cider.


After a bite in the market ("peameal bacon on a bun" - a local speciality) on to Queen West and West Queen West, esp. the latter one of the fanciest neighborhoods in town, with shops, cafés, restaurants and galeries lining up.

Kensington Market, next stop, appears sort of "hippie", colorful and a little weird. Retro and vintage shops, vegan/vegetarian shops/restaurants, murals and some strange people are characteristic. But, we noticed that more and more chic cafés and restaurants are gobbling up the old mexican grocery stores and authenticshops in the neighborhood.


In contrast, adjacent Chinatown has stayed the same, a bit shabby, not touristic at all, hectic and lots of hustling and bustling.


By streetcaar - warming up a little - on to Union Station, the historic railroad station built in the Beaux-Arts style 1915-20 (renovation still in progress, pic shows Grand Hall). Adjacent is the Financial District with the Hockey Hall of Fame in Brookfield Place, a building designed by famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (see pic). Toronto is one of the fastest growing cities in North America and allegedly 500 new citizens a day move to Toronto permanently. Highrises and condos are springing up like mushrooms, it's crazy to watch over the course of time. Architecture not necessarily is highly attractive, rather monotonous, and we were wondering what the future will bring.

At 4 pm we had an arranged tour at the Steam Whistle Brewery in the old Roundhouse, used for steam locomotives in the past. Founded in 2004 it's one of the older microbreweries in town. They have a czech brewmaster and only brew one kind of beer: Pilsener, but that's a really good one! The brewery grew considerably since we've been there first time and is very popular, though they don't have a real pub or so. Tours are great, given by actors or want-to-be-actors, and tastings are generous.



Back to the hotel at around 7 pm with some bread and cheeses from the market for dinner. Almost 10 hours on our feet and tired.