Head over heals in New York!

We had 4 days to pack in as much of New York as we could over the Easter Break. Michelle had done plenty of research and we ticked off all the main attractions like a well oiled machine (and no, that is not a veiled reference to us over indulging in NY's cocktail bars... although it would have been rude not to dabble in them a bit......)

So here is our 'Best of New York' summary:

Best semi-naked guy - The Naked Cowboy


Best tour - and probably the highlight of our time in NY was a walking tour we did, run by the WTC Tribute Visitors Center. The tour took us around ground zero and to key sites in the surrounding area. What made this tour so incredible was that the volunteers who led it were both directly involved in the events at WTC on 9/11. We heard about WTC before it was destroyed, the events of that day, what they saw, what they did, what they felt and experienced and how it has affected them. The most moving moment was when one of the tour leaders, a survivor from the South Tour explained what she experienced, the confusion of the day and how she just made it out of the building before the second plane hit - something 175 other people in the business she worked for did not.

Best restaurant - has to go to Peter Luger Steakhouse. This place is like The Sopranos meets Cheers - predominantly Italian American male waiters hurry round the restaurant, while cool friendly barmen tend to the crowd waiting at the bar for a table. You really don't need the menu - it is basically steak for 2, steak for 3, or steak for 4. A beautiful meal and a great experience. Michelle fell head over heals in love with the place (see below). A close second goes to Il Bagato - a busy neighbourhood Italian restaurant - I still can't get the mushroom fettuccine I had here out of my mind.
Best fall - Goes to....... Michelle for her grand entrance to the restaurant at Peter Lugar Steakhouse. There was legs and arms flying not to mention spilt wine and a broken wine glass. It sent the little male waiters into a flurry of activity and before she knew what had happened she was surrounded by at least 6 or 7 of them checking she was ok, replacing and refilling her wine glass and dusting her off. Fortunately the only damage to Michelle was dented pride and we went on to have a great meal (with complementary wine - a tactic to mitigate the risk of being sued we think?).

Best shopper - No prizes for guessing here - Michelle but the credit card did get off more lightly than I had feared it would.

Best cocktail bar - Flatiron Lounge (http://www.flatironlounge.com/) - a trendy art deco cocktail bar, smooth barmen, dark cosy interior and sublime cocktails. We only had time for one - but would definitely go back if we ever find ourselves in NY again.


Best architecture - The grand old and new skyscrapers of NY are incredible and give this city a feel quite different to any other city we have visited and is in stark contrast to London's skyline. Our favourite buildings were the Chrysler Building with its external detail, the Flatiron Building for its 'bow like' appearance and for being one of the first 'skyscrapers', although it is now dwarfed by the buildings around it and finally Grand Central Terminal - a very grand railway station indeed.


Best band - The Blue of Vipers of Brooklyn (you can check them out on Youtube - and see them below). This was one of the bands we stumbled on while exploring Central Park on our final beautiful sunny day. Complete with a 'wash board' percussionist these guys were great to listen to as we took some time to relax, soak up the sun and enjoy the surroundings.



Best gallery - To be fair, we only did one, but this prize goes to MoMA - the modern arts gallery. A great gallery with something for everyone - sculptures, photos, modern industrial design and art, including by the likes of Van Gough, Matisse and Picasso. The building itself is quite incredible inside - very open and it provided a great shelter from our one day of rain in NY.



Best queue: New York must be the city of queues. You queue for everything - especially tickets. security and Starbucks (although we got reasonably lucky in this respect). It was not uncommon to see a queue stretching right around block. Best queue award goes to the queue to MoMA which stretched for blocks on Friday evening when entry is free from 4pm.


Best view - There were a few - from the Statute of Liberty, from the Empire State Building, from the Brooklyn Bridge, from Central Park - but the winner is New York city by night as viewed from the Rockerfeller Center Tower. We took in this view from the 'Top of the Rock' 70th story viewing platform. If we had our time again (and had plenty of cash to spend) we might have considered taking in a similar view from the Rainbow Lounge a cocktail bar, also located high up in the Rockerfeller Center Tower.

New Zealand

Krakow Days

The second instalment of our Eastern European foray took place in February with a 3 day trip to Krakow.

After a 15 minute intensive Polish lesson by our crazy taxi driver, we arrived just in time for a coffee from our host (Magdalina - at http://www.crackowdays.com/, a fantastic B'n'B) and then to be bundled off on a tour of the salt mines.

We had heard quite good things about the salt mines - miles and miles of tunnels carved deep under the ground, interspersed with the odd chapel, lake, carved statutes - all apparently carved by the highly religious miners over the years. The mine goes down some 330m, but on the tour you get to about 135m - that's still quite a few steps! The salt mines were ok - but we far preferred the more rustic type of mine tour experience we had in Bolivia! (http://rossandmichelleontour.blogspot.com/2006/11/death-road-dynamite-and-deserts.html)

Chapel carved underground in the salt mines

Day 2 was largely spent on a tour of the Death Camps located not far from Krakow - Auschwitz and Birkenau. This was an incredible experience and something we are unlikely to ever forget. I had not appreciated the scale or nature of the atrocities carried out here - the harvesting of human hair for use in textiles, the fact that most people arrived with the belief that they were being relocated to a new life, but were put straight in gas chambers and killed. Those selected to live were housed in appalling conditions and usually worked to death.

The famous gates to Auschwitz - 'Work sets you free'

Auschwitz buildings in the snow

It was also interesting to understand why the camps were built where they were - essentially because the location was fairly central in the then occupied German territories, had an established rail network (allowing for the easy mass movement of people) and was an industrial area so prisoners could be put to work in factories.

Auschwitz was an old army barracks and so the multi-storied brick buildings were originally built for the Polish army and were not what I had visualised a concentration camp would look like. The nearby Birkenau (built as a death and concentration camp when it became apparent that Auschwitz was too small) however did match the 'Great Escape' or Hogan's Heroes depiction of a camp - rows of stable like wooden huts.

Birkenau - the chimneys are all that remain of wooden huts

The most airy moment for me remains standing in a gas chamber at Auschwitz into which new arrivals at the camp were put under the pretense that they would be showered there (hence false shower heads on the walls). Instead they were gassed and burnt in furnaces located in an adjacent room. As I stood there, I looked up to see that I was standing directly under one of the small holes in the ceiling through which the gas producing chemicals were dropped and for a moment a sense of the horror that 1000s before me must have felt as they stood there naked to see something being dropped into the room above them.

Birkenau - brick huts for women in the background

The balance of our time was spent exploring the historic centre of Krakow, Wawel Hill (with the Castle), a few of its (literally) 100s of churches, shopping (lots of great wooden toys!) and eating dumplings (more on them below).


We had a couple of great eating experiences - so cheap! Top marks go to the dumplings (pierogi) - they are sooooo good! Filled with meats, vegetables, cheese - steamed and serviced with a light sauce kinda like soya sauce. As with Prague, we were impressed with the range and quality of restaurants on offer. The pick for us was probably a place called Nostalgia - food was quite local and very good - a big hunk of pork for me and half a duck for Mich!

A great weekend to mark the end of this little Eastern European spell.