Always an adventure: The Big Apple

Long time no see,,, sorry, but NYC kept us really busy! Such a change from slow-going, friendly, down-to-earth Oklahoma! It's been our 25+ visit to NYC, and, as always, time was too short, days were too busy. Tried to fit in as much as we could in four full days and walked almost 20 km every day, in addition to endless subway trips. Besides Midtown, Downtown and Harlem, we also explored new parts of Brooklyn (Sunset Park, Bay Ridge) and the South Bronx.  

Midtown - the area around Times Square (above) - seems to have suffered most damage of COVID19. Many properties stood empty or were shut down. Times Square was, naturally, not as populated as usually, but, the famous „Naked Cowboys“ put on a show nevertheless.

Monday was „Columbus Day“ (not political correct anymore !) and an Italian Parade took place along 5th Ave. We watched police troups, highschool bands, floats and car parades (photos below).

New attraction in Penn Station: Moynihan Train Hall (right), the new expansion to the railroad station underneith Madison Squaregarden in the city's former main post office building, the James A. Farley Building.

Had a wonderful Korean BBQ (below) - a first for us! - at Jongro Gopchang in Koreatown, in Midtown Manhattan.

 

Next: Hudson Yards with The Spire, The Shed (right) and The Edge, a new observation deck (pic below). The edge of the deck itself is very popular for „selfies“ and highly instagrammable, therefore: long lines. Views are great, photos hard to take because of thick glass walls. I was asking myself, how many more observation platforms a city still needs? One Vanderbilt Summit nearby Grand Central Terminal is about to open soon as the highest one in NYC. We had a special pre-opening media tour scheduled there as well, but it was, unfortunately, cancelled on short notice.

The Highline Park - roughly inbetween the Whitney Museum and Hudson Yards, cutting through different neighborhoods, is getting darker and darker, more tunnel-like. More and more highrises on both sides and growing trees as well.

The newly built Pier 55 - called „Little Island“ (pic above) - is an attraction on its own: viewpoints, playgrounds, vendors, an amphitheater, gardens and views towards the Hudson River and New Jersey.

Downtown, Wall Street, Soho (left photo), Nolita, Lower Eastside (bottom, center), Chinatown, Little Italy (right photo), South Street Seaport - well, there are some closings, many new chain shops, and much fewer people around due to still closed US borders. For the rest: Not too much change. Chinatown seems to take over the Lower Eastside - on one of the photos its interesting "Tenement Museum". The "World Trade Center Site" is always impressive,,,

WTC Site with Calatrava's "Oculus" and WTC1 with Koenig's Sphere:

Above: Wall Street and South Street Seaport at the southern tip of Manhattan.

"Da Bronx": We stayed in a nice, new hotel in the South Bronx - the Wingate by Wyndham - for the first three days and at our friend’s place in Harlem for two more days. The South Bronx was a „first“ for us, and, a good experience! Picking up, but still ways to go. Interesting, nevertheless. Around Alexander Ave./Bruckner Blvd. many attractive restaurants, cafés and stores opened up. We had great dinner (Peruvian/Southern comfort food) at Beatstro, sort of a "speakeasy", owned and operated by Bronx natives, painted by local artists with photos of famous DJs, reminding that this neighborhood was the birthplace of Hip Hop in the late 1970s and early 1980ies

Below: impressions from the Bronx - a street altar, Halloween decoration and murals:

      

Brooklyn’s „backyards“ - the neighborhoods which are not as well known touristically as Dumbo or Williamsburg - are a real hidden secret which we got a chance to explore thanks to our good friend Dom, a professional and successful tourguide: Sunset Park with its mostly Chinese population and the possibly best views in town, with the huge Greenwood Cemetery, where many famous people are burried (e.g. Lola Montez), an interesting culinary scene and NY’s first Coop-buildings, founded by Finish immigrants.  

Bay Ridge (pics below) with amazingly huge, gorgeous mansions and a colorful mixture of ethnicities, many Italians among them. Atlantic Avenue - cutting horizontally trough Brooklyn and ending at the new Brooklyn Piers Park - again, with beautiful views towards Manhattan’s skyline, and, with piers, which are used in many interesting ways (scroll down). 

 

We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset and that just rounded off the whole experience.

  View towards Brooklyn

View towards Manhattan

Last day: Harlem, our "home away from home", staying at our friend's place at 137th Street (left photo). We explored the famous 125th Street with the Apollo Theater and all its street vendors – on the way to get more and more "gentrificated", and, Sugar Hill - the previously wealthy Afro-American neighborhood.

               

A mosaik and a community garden in Harlem:

Sugar Hill:

Well, that was it for NYC (and the USA) for this year. But, since US borders will "officially" open on Nov. 8th, there is much more optimism now,,,

Historic Rte 66 - from Tulsa to OKC

Route 66 – "The Mother Road" was established in 1926, and became one of the most famous roads in the USA, running all the way from Chicago to Santa Monica/California over almost 2,450 mi/3,940 km. Its myth was reenforced by the song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" and by  John Steinbecks novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (Früchte des Zorns), refering to the times of the so-called Dust Bowl, when the route became a migration and escape route. 

Cyrus Stevens Avery (1871–1963) from Tulsa/Oklahoma is the "Father of Route 66", he created the Highway system and took care of pavement and promotion.  The route was removed from the Highway System officially in 1985, but there are still sections kept original and under protection, also, in Oklahoma. 

We  drove on Historic Rte 66 - or, rather, what left of it, from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. The road itself isn't really impressive on that stretch, but there are a couple of interesting sights and museums on the way: First stop was the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum in Sepulpa, a collection of gorgeous polished historic cars (see pics). 

The Skyliner Motel in Stroud is another remain of historic Rte 66 and there are several murals in Davenport depicting the history as well:

Chandler is seat of the Route 66 Interpretive Center, which brings together unique Route 66 memorabilia from the 1930s to present day. It offers video experience and interactive and nostalgic trips down memory lane, not just of the "good times" of the car culture, but also of the Dust Bowl years.  There are vintage billboards and virtual hotel rooms as well.

 

For lunch we chose Butcher BBQ Stand in Welleston, a diner on Rte 66, and had a wonderful lunch with ribs - falling off the bone! - and potato salad.

Famous Round Barn in Acadia was built by local farmer William Harrison Odor in 1898 using native bur oak boards, forced into the curves  for the walls and roof rafters. A truly unique roof construction!

POPS, not far away, was packed on this Saturday. It became an iconic landmark on Rte. 66, restaurant, gas station, soda store and eyecatcher in one. Especially the 66 ft. tall bottle outside is an eyecatcher at night with its multicolor LED lights.

Arriving in Oklahoma City, the new Oklahoma Contemporary, was our first stop. Opened in March 2020 it's first of all the spectacular modern architecture, exhibitions are changing.

For our last night we stayed in the hyper-modern, chic 21c Hotel & Museum in OKC's Film District (pic below). It occupies  the former home of a Ford Motor Company assembly plant, rooms are "loft-like", spacious and modern, and, the unique thing is that there is contemporary artwork everywhere! After a nice last dinner and a visit to our last brewery in OK - the newly opened "Skydance Brewery"(Native-American operated! pic beleow, right) - we felt almost sorry that we had to leave Oklahoma this morning (left pic). Weather was so great (hot), food and beer were excellent, and, people extremely friendly.

Which is not so much the case anymore here in NYC. We are staying in the South Bronx, a still predominantly industrial neighborhood. The Wingate by Wyndham Hotel here, is new and modern, well equipped and, though rooms are small (about half size of what we had in OK!), they are cleverly planned, with fridge, coffeemaker, safe, etc. Weather is gray and rainy, but not too cold. It's supposed to get better tomorrow.