Brooklyn and the Army, markets and hockey

Saturday morning we left Heidi's and Tom's brownstone house (pic) after a quick breakfast at 9 am to join a tour in Brooklyn's Sunset district at 11 am. Especially on weekends, when subway constructions are always taking place and delays and detours are a rule, it can take forever to get from point A to B. And, distances are huge, Brooklyn would rank as one of the largest cities in the U.S. on its own with over 2,6 mio. people.

Nevertheless, we arrived on time to the Turnstile Army Terminal tour and Andrew, our guide, did a great job in explaining the history and future of this ‘US Army Military Ocean Terminal’ - the largest military supply base in the US through WWII. Today it is a fully functioning commercial/industrial complex that houses dozens of different offices and corporations. Begun in 1918 by famous architect Cass Gilbert (who also planned the famous Woolworth Building) it was built in a modern utilitarian style. The Terminal was the headquarters for the New York Port of Embarkation, that moved 3.2 million troops (among them Elvis to Germany) and millions of tons of military supplies to fronts across the globe. The huge facility remained active through the early 1970s then it was purchased by New York City in 1981 with the intention of repurposing.

At 1 pm the tour ended and we walked back to the subway to catch a train back to Manhattan, to SoHo (pic on left), to visit Brooklyn Flea (a fleamarket, which, for the first season, also takes place in SoHo) and the new Smorgasburg gourmet market with different foodtrucks and vendors in SoHo, still open-air until end of October.

Back to Brooklyn again to meet with our friend Dom, "Mr. Made-in-Brooklyn", who is giving great tours in different Brooklyn neighborhoods. We grabbed a bite in the new DeKalb Food Hall at Lioni's, famous for his "heros", the NY version of a submarine sandwich. Had a good time together and bid goodbye at Barclays Center, where we watched the Islanders play San Diego. The goalie of the NY Islanders on the picture is a German: Dennis Seidenberg.


Another long train trip "home" to Harlem, fell asleep on the train,,, don't know how many hours we spent on trains and in subway stations today. When outside, we enjoyed the weather, sunny and over 20 deg C all day!