A 60-something-year-old’s guide to New York City
Rosie Hersch, 68, is a retired pharmacist, whose hobbies include studying, cooking and theatre. Her biggest passion is travel and like the song says, “I've been everywhere man (well almost).”
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. No, that’s not right because we weren’t in Rome. The journey began by heading to the Big Apple. New York is such a wonderful, exciting and dynamic place. It does not matter if you have never been or this is you 20th time, there is always so much to see and do. No wonder so many songs have been written about this fabulous town and so many movies have been filmed here. We had eight glorious days to spend in this hustling bustling town.
But if you intend to travel to New York be prepared, walking shoes are a must. There is no “pussy-footing around” because if you want to experience the sights, the smells and the tempo of this city you have to walk and walk and when you feel your feet are going to drop off you have to keep going. We had arrived to our hotel on 37th Street near Fifth Avenue at around 6pm that day. Talking about walking, when I unpacked I realised the one thing I forgot to pack were my walking shoes. This was not a good start.
After a few hours rest we decided to find somewhere to eat. Well it was now 11pm and we were quite hungry. So we headed towards Time Square and found a café. It was now almost midnight and we decided to walk around the iconic square. The neon lights were beckoning us. Throngs of people were milling about. As we meandered through the crowd I saw a Skechers shop still open on the other side of the street. My shoe problem was solved. At 12.30 am I bought a pair of Skechers’ walking shoes. Department stores like H&M are open till late in Time Square so if you are ever caught out and arrive in New York missing items of clothing just head to Time Square. You can shop any time from 11am till 2am!
My “must-do” NYC experiences for first-time visitors
If you’ve never been to New York before there are a few musts. Firstly, one has to walk the High Line. It is a 1.45-mile linear park built on an elevated stretch of a disused New York Central Rail Spur. It stretches from Hudson Rail Yards to Gansevoort St in the Meat Packing District of Greenwich Village. It offers some of the best views of New York City and along the way are beautiful gardens that are tended voluntarily by New Yorkers, modern art installation, views of the Hudson River and at one point you can even see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. The walk finishes at the Chelsea Markets, where there are food stalls and interesting shop, all of which are housed in a converted old Nabisco Factory. Chelsea is a very trendy area with numerous art galleries.
Next must-do is a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge towards Brooklyn. Walking back, you’ll see the skyline of Manhattan rise up before you and you cannot help but feel a surge of warmth through your being. We have done this walk before so this time when we arrived on the Brooklyn side we got off the bridge. We were now in the area called DUMBO which stands for Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass. There we caught a ferry back to Midtown Manhattan, but the ferries from here can also take you can to Ground Zero and other destinations. We would do the Ground Zero memorials another day.
Source: Rosie Hersch
The next activity you have to do is take the elevator to the top of the Empire State Building. This is mandatory for first timers! The spectacular view puts the island of Manhattan into perspective.
And then there’s Broadway and what a theatre feast that is. Many songs have been written about this famous theatre strips but one of my favourites is George Benson’s song On Broadway. Listen to it and it might just get you to go to…
There are three ways to purchase tickets for Broadway theatres and shows. One can do it online before you leave home. Or go to TKTS Time Square for cheap tickets but be warned not every show has availability. Another option is to wait outside the actual theatre box office that generally opens at 10am and sometimes you can be lucky and buy last minute tickets for the same night called rush hour tickets. I did all three. I bought on line from Melbourne to see a play called Blackbird starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams, I waited at 10am outside a theatre to purchase rush tickets for An American in Paris that night and I stood in the queue at TKTS Time Square to purchase a ticket for Eugene O’Neill’s famous play Long Day’s Journey Into Night, starring Gabriel Byrne, Jessica Lange and Tom Shannon. My ticket for this play was in the sixth row from the front in the stalls which New Yorkers call the orchestra level and I was enthralled. This play had some of the best acting I have ever seen and I am a long time subscriber of the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Well so much more to do and so little time.
Then it was time to go to Ground Zero. I think we all remember what we were doing that fateful day, September 11, 2001. My younger daughter had just come home at midnight from a university party and being a worrying mum I always stayed awake till my kids got home. I fell asleep but Monica was still wired up from her party so she turned on the television and that was it, she came and woke me and we stayed up all night watching the news. Now the last time I visited Ground Zero was in 2004. Back then the area was one giant hole with a security fence surrounding. Now there are 400 Swamp White Oak trees surrounding two reflecting pools occupying the exact footprints of the Twin Towers. From the rim of the pools, water cascades down a central void. There are bronze panels framing these pools and etched into the bronze are the names of all those who perished on that day. This solemn scene made me feel helpless, bewildered, and very sad.
Between the two pools is the Memorial Museum. You generally need to book tickets ahead and they are limited. There are within this structure, subterranean multimedia galleries documenting this terrorist attack. At the northwest corner is the One World Trade Centre. It is a magnificent tapered building, the tallest in the western hemisphere, the fourth tallest in the world and to me it was a comforting sight.
After this moving experience we just needed to walk so off we went back towards Midtown through the trendy streets of Tribeca, onward to Soho. By now we were quite famished so we found a lovely little Italian restaurant in Soho where prices were reasonable and so we sat for a while, ate some lunch and pondered over our morning’s sojourn
Then it was time to put those Skechers walking shoes back on and head off to the museum mile, situated along Fifth Avenue running adjacent to Central Park on the Upper East side. There’s the Guggenheim, the Howard Frick, the Whitney, the Met, and Ron Lauder’s Neue Gallery just to mention a few. There are so many incredible famous art works on display. It would have to be one of the best, if not the best, cultural strip in the world. If you happen to get to this bustling town New York and find yourself in this classy neighbourhood take a break from all your art viewing and stroll through some of Central Park – but don’t get lost. It is such a big area, it’s quite easy to miss a way out. Now you may have filled your appetite for art but there is still one more beautiful art museum to see and that is the MOMA back in Midtown and what wonderful works are displayed there… and there’s more.
A visit to Grand Central Station is high on the tourist list. The interior truly is art deco at its best. Of course a trip to New York is not complete unless one visits the great department stores like Macy’s, Saks on Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman just to mention a few. Wow, is all I can say about them.
If time permits journey to upstate New York to the famous Niagara Falls. This can be done in a day if you fly from JFK airport to Buffalo or by bus and stay overnight in Buffalo. Either way there is enough time to see the Falls from both sides, but don’t forget your passport if you go to the Canadian side. On the USA side, take an unforgettable boat ride on the Maid of the Mist and see the waterfall close up and personal, but remember you cannot escape the sprays of water swirling around you!
It was bound to happen but time had run out, it was now day eight and I had a ship to catch. I missed so many other attractions back in town like a ferry ride to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum where migrants first lived from the late 19th century until the 1930s, the Lincoln Centre, the Rockefeller Centre, Chinatown, the National Museum of American Indians, Wall Street, Madison Square Gardens, a baseball match, the Chelsea Galleries, Washington Square Park, Radio Music Hall, the Chrysler Building, Bryant Park and so many more Broadway shows. Looks like I am going to have to come back one day to this amazing place called New York City.
All I need to live the dream in this city that never sleeps is time is plenty of money!
If you have a travel story to share please get in touch at melody@oversixty.com.au
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