Bye-bye New York!

After a leisurely breakfast at the NU Hotel and packing we went out for a last walk. Of course,,, on our last day in town, the sun was out and skies dark-blue, though it had just around 40 deg F in the morning. We checked out Sahadi's on Atlantic Ave and bought some food for the plane. This Middle Eastern grocery store spreads out behind three old storefronts. More than 200 glass and plastic bulk bins are filled with nuts, dried fruit, spices, seeds, and chocolates. There is a grandiose cheese section, a prepared foods counter and over 30 different olives in our olive bar.

Through the "very old-money,snobbish" Brooklyn Heights with its old brownstone houses (pic above) we walked to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, another fantastic viewpoint besides the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Views are spectacular, especially in the sun!

We bid farewell to the Brooklyn Bridge, passed by Borough Hall (pic), where a farmers' market took place today. Bought our last apple cider there.


We got back to the hotel around noon. Left soon again and it took us not quite two hours to get to EWR (Newark Airport): by subway Line C to Penn Station, by NJTransit (train) to the Airport and by AirTrain to the Terminal. With a couple of stairs inbetween, which transforms a trip with heavy luggage into a workout ,,, don't hope for too many elevators or escalators in NYC!

Our luggage was precicely calculated: 48,5 and 49,5 pounds per checked-in piece (max. is 50 p.), plus, not too light hand luggage - consisting of many books. Our friends Paul and Wayne will understand that we couldn't leave Strands without buying some books.

Check-in and security went quick with PSA Pre and Premier Access and therefore we are having plenty of time now to work at the nice workspaces they are offering in the airport. Plane will start at 6:30 pm and - to date - should be on time.

Feet are tired after having walked 85 km/53 mi in one week, not talking of the many miles we rode the subway. New York is always fantastic!

PS: Our flight was smooth and short, not quite seven hours to MUC. We arrived early morning, about 6:35 am, just when the sun came up. It took us a while to get home by two different trains and streetcar, but, eventually, we were home at 9:30 am.

Hidden Gems in Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of the five boroughs of NYC, with estimated 2.7 mio. residents. It was named after the Dutch village of Breuckelen and borders Queens, which is also located on Long Island. The first settlement in the area by Dutch farmers in 1636 was soon followed by other settlements. In 1816 the most populous section of Brooklyn was incorporated as a village and in 1834 as a city. Brooklyn became a borough of New York City in 1898. Today, Brooklyn, if independent, would be the fourth largest city in the United States after NYC, Los Angeles and Chicago. '

Think about the size and how spread out Brooklyn is! It's certainly a city on its own and has not a whole lot in common with Manhattan. Feels like being in a different place, with so many diverse neighborhoods. Tuesday morning we took the subway (F Line) to get to our friend Dom's apartment in Gravesend (pic below), to the far south of Brooklyn. Together with him (he's a tourguide by profession, check out www.madeinbrooklyntours.com!) and in his car (traffic and drivers are crazy in NY!), we explored parts of the borough we've never been before and probably wouldn't have dared to visit on our own.

First stop: Rockaway Beach (pics above), a neighborhood on the Rockaway Peninsula. It is the largest urban beach in the U.S. stretching for miles along the Atlantic Ocean. The beach was once known as the "Irish Riviera" because of the large Irish American population in the area. It was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and there are still some houses boarded up as well as new (ugly) buildings coming up. For the rest: very peaceful, very beautiful!

Jamaica Bay contains numerous marshy islands and is a wetland estuary surrounded by the Rockaway Peninsula to the south, Brooklyn to the west, and Queens to the east. Comprising an area almost equal to the size of Manhattan, the bay consists of numerous islands, meadowlands and a labyrinth of waterways, along which people are living in houses on stilts (e.g. in Broad Channel):

The region is famous for its many species of birds, butterflies and fish and as a favorite stop for migratory waterfowl, especially, in the Gateway National Recreation Area. We watched a hawk and different ducks. In the background we watched planes starting and landing: JFK Airport is closeby and Manhattan's skyline is to be seen from far.

On we drove, east, to the Brooklyn-Queens border. Highland Park contains the Richwood Reservoir (pic) - today a large nature park/forest. The Reservoir operated as a water supply for Brooklyn from 1858 to 1959 and there are still the historic pumping stations . In 1990, the site was decommissioned and in 2004, Mayor Bloomberg announced to develop the site into a public park.

The nearby Cypress Hills neighborhood is part of East New York, located in the eastern section of Brooklyn, bordering Queens. It's mainly populated by Latino-Americans and African Americans - Puerto Rican, Dominican, West Indian, but, also South Asian populations. Our friend recommended not to carry the camera openly when we walked the main axle, Fulton Street, underneith the highline, but I didn't feel unsafe at all. English isn't widely spoken in this neck of the woods, and when we went in an Ecuatorianian restaurant ("Antojitos Ecuatorianos") to have lunch, we pointed out on the illustrated menu what we wanted ,,, and lucked out. The meal was good and plenty, spicy brown rice with different meats and seafood. Afterwards we went to a little bakery and had coffee and dessert and then Dom brought us to a subway station and we bid him farewell.It's been wonderful last day in NY!

A city of its own: Brooklyn

Sunday morning: We moved from Harlem to Brooklyn by subway, fortunately on a Sunday with fewer people on the train and without rain. Since our friends were completely booked, we looked around in Brooklyn and accepted an invitation to stay in a hotel close-by Brooklyn's main downtown axle, Atlantic Avenue: the Nu Hotel, for the two final nights.

Very convenient location in Brooklyn and really comfortable hotel, not too excentric, reasonable rates and better than many hotels we have had in Manhattan in the past. Rooms are spacious, hallways colorful for a change (not brown in beige as usual!), rooms with murals from local artists, intimate lighting, windows open up, there is a bathtub, a coffeemaker, a fridge, many power outlets, and breakfast is included! They have bikes to use for free and a bar.



To our full surprise we were able to check in before noon and we soon went out again to visit the NY Transit Museum, a grandiose collection of subway cars and other relics, photos and documents from the very beginning of the subway construction in the beginning of the 20th century to nowadays.


Afterwards we walked along the new Brooklyn Bridge Park - with six old piers being transformed into parks, play & sports grounds, nature areas, a beach, etc. – from Atlantic Avenue (pics below) all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo, about 1,5 mi. Just wish the weather would have been better! Such great views of Manhattan's skyline from the green promenade, but dark clouds,,,


The Brooklyn Historical Society's new branch museum in the Empire Warehouse in Dumbo, one of the best-known and most-visited neighborhoods in Brooklyn. This renovated warehouse is one of many along the waterfront in the old days. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, Brooklyn's shore was lined with imposing brick warehouses with fortress-like facades. They stored grain, coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco and many other commodities carried into NY Harbor by ships from around the world.

In the evening we were invited to a new Japanese Ramen restaurant, E.A.K. Ramen, again on Manhattan, in the East Village. Being there, we checked out the Village again to notice how much it changed. The meal itself was delicious, from appetizers to ramen bowls and sake to go with it.

Culture, Steaks and Hockey

Time is flying, weather got worse, it even rained all day on Saturday. Following are a couple of pics from our fav places in NYC and our new culinary and sport's experiences in the last days:

Oldies, but goodies: Rockefeller Plaza (where the big Christmas tree is standing), and St. Patricks Cathedral on 5th Ave.:


MoMA (exhibition/sculpture garden with Picasso goat) - right now a huge expansion is in progress at MoMA.



The Apollo Theater in Harlem on a mural. Many great jazz stars performed there or, rather, started their career there in the old days:

Our favorite bookstore - to be mentioned in the same breath with Powell's in Portland: Strand Book Store. The cheap books are mostly outside, starting at $ 1, the "regular" (and cheap ones, too) are spread out on four floors inside - a heaven for book lovers!

On Friday we had a big feast with our friends at Butcher & Banker NY Steakhouse, in a restored bank vault from the 1930s closeby Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.After a couple of appetizers - like the smoked mozarella on the picture - we had their
signature dish, "Kan-Kan Pork" and Cowboy Bone-in Ribeye (pic), followed by a dessert-trio and accompanied by cocktails and excellent wine.

Saturday we took the subway and the PATH train to Newarks Prudential Center where the New Jersey Devils played the Florida Panthers (NHL/professional hockey). It rained out of buckets and we were glad, to be inside most of the afternoon. It's been a vivid, good game and the Devils won.