Never short of something to do, somewhere to go

We met Jordi at the entrance to Chelsea Market and immediately encountered the next problem - where to eat lunch?

The answer was pretty easy - Amy's Bread.  Sorry all you GF gals, the bread and bakery here is absolutely yummy!

We enjoyed the artwork on the walls here in the market too.

Next stop was a familiar haunt on Sullivan Street - Purl.  I had someone's money to spend ;-)  See how dark it is - only about 2pm but the heavens had opened and the rain was coming down in stair-rods.

After a short respite from the weather in a nearby Starbucks, we hurried up to our next appointment at The Tenement Museum, one of the highlights of this trip.  Jordi had booked us on the "Piecing it together" tour, focusing on a couple of immigrant families involved in the sweatshops of the garment district in the early 20th century.

This photograph comes from the Tenement Museum Flickr group - this is a truly special place to visit and our excellent educator, Katie, gave us a wonderful insight into the lives of these people.  Strangely, as we drove from the airport this morning, we heard references to the museum on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour - how spooky is that?

The museum is well worth a visit.

Dinner on Monday evening was at Otto - Mario Batali's pizza restaurant, with olive oil ice cream on the menu for dessert!

Yesterday morning, Tuesday, was our last opportunity to gather up a few last minute things and to visit a few places nearby which we'd been walking past all weekend saying "there's lots of time to take a closer look".  This included the Bryant Park ice rink - cold and unatmospheric at 9am on a Tuesday morning but fairly busy with some enthusiastic skaters out there.

I had a list to fulfil at M&J Trimmings on 6th Avenue - a wonderful treasure trove of all kinds of ribbons and buttons and somewhere I could spend hours just looking around.

But something else was waiting.

We met Jordi for our last lunch of the trip at Katz's Deli - scene of the "When Harry met Sally" moment.

Our first time here and it's quite a place - the sandwiches are quite something, too!

And that, was that.  A quick farewell to Jordi whilst on the subway - till next time - and having packed our bags and made our way to JFK, we were on our way home.

What a great trip!

The High Line

This morning, in grey and overcast weather, we headed downtown, having arranged to meet Jordi at the Chelsea Market at noon.  Just nearby, however, was a recent project we fancied exploring - The High Line.

Formerly a freight railway line, servicing the Meatpacking district and the warehouses of the Lower West side, it's being developed as a green space and elevated park, currently open from 20th St down to 10th. 

The views from up above the traffic are fascinating - some landmarks such as the Empire State Building stand tall and provide a bearing for working out the others.

The walkway is made up of concrete strips resembling sleepers and the planting is "prairie-style".  The overall feel is industrial and quite in keeping with the surroundings and yet modern and cleanly laid out.

It's an easy walk with the occasional surprise - well, look what's there on the horizon!

The wooden benches were of an interesting design and there were plenty of small sitting areas and places to take it easy and enjoy the view.

Here, looking over the Hudson River towards New Jersey, with a clear view of the Lackawanna Railway Terminal there on the other side.  On a sunny day, this must be a glorious place to be.

I imagine that competition is fierce for these sunloungers on a warm day.  Don't you just love the wheels and the track reference to the former railway heritage?

A little further along, someone's private aerie is no longer as private as it once was.

There have been newspaper reports about the effects of the High Line on this hotel too.

We felt, however, that the whole project has been extremely well thought through and enjoyed our walk along it very much indeed.

 

But then we got as far as 10th St and found it came to an abrupt stop.