I wake up to a wet New York.
Cities have their own weather personalities. Warsaw, for example, feels prickly and broody when winter precipitation comes down on its people. Paris does okay in the rain, so long as you stay away from narrow streets where it's hard to navigate. New York? You're forever avoiding the weather. You cut through Grand Central to stay out of the heat. Or get on a subway to avoid a downpour. It takes incredible skill to walk through a busy street with an umbrella. There's just no room for everyone's rain gear.
My skills will be put to a test today.
I go down for a quick breakfast. Croissant, fruit. Plants. Remember? My hotel has lots and lots of plants.
My friends aren't up as early, so I take a stroll. To Central Park, around Columbus Circle. And I think -- when you live here, you rarely look up at the sky scrapers. You look at what's at eye level. And maybe that's a good thing. Some of the lower buildings are as attractive, or perhaps even more attractive than the tall ones.
And then we set out together. Via Rockefeller Center.
(protection against the rain!)
These guys will be your focal points for my photos today. Obviously you dont know them (unless you read Like a Swallow!), but they'll help you place the human element into the city vignettes.
We have tickets for a skyscraper viewing. I know, it's not the weather for it. But there are no refunds! We'll view clouds or fog or rain pelting against windows. We'll view something!
We walk through Grand Central Terminal: how many times have I caught the crosstown subway here? Or the subway from school when I was very young? Countless times. Really, in the hundreds.
One Vanderbilt Summit is our viewing station and it is right here, towering next to Grand Central. It's a new platform for seeing New York from up high. But that's just a tiny bit of it: what you sign onto is the experience of seeing the city in a crazy new way. Like, with helium balloons floating around you. Or with mirrors reflecting your world from all sides (they warn you: don't wear a skirt for this!). It really is sort of over the top. But in a strange way it works. Because, well, New York is over the top. Exaggeration is so common to it! The tallest this, the most of the other, the weirdest that. So walking through the three levels of One Vanderbilt, starting at the 91st floor feels almost... normal.
(in the elevator)
Let me post a few pics -- of the clouds, of the space, of the lifting clouds... You'll see what I mean!
(Getting off: to a dizzying amount of color. Too, there is eerie music throughout....)
(Everything is made of mirrors and glass. You wear shoe covers to keep it clean. The place is so well staffed! They make sure you're keeping things tidy and in order. Like in Disney World!)
(The initial disappointment: everything outside is under a thick cloud cover. With rain drops over the glass.)
(So we concentrate on having fun in other ways: here we are, lying down on the floor. You can look up, you can look down. There are a million reflections and viewings!)
(Standing up again and looking up...)
(Still, you want to see the city! Where is New York??)
(At the next level, you pass through a room with many many helium balloons. You think to yourself -- why? But you know, it works! And you linger longer than you would have thought possible...)
(And here's our good fortune: the clouds are lifting somewhat. Enough to see ... the city!)
(much better! and with the United Nations now in full view...)
(I know that building!)
(Yeah!)
(We are grateful.)
And now it's lunch time.
(Walking up Lexington, you can see the Chrysler Building now at ground level.)
There's a food court on 51st and Lexington called Urbansapce and I figure they'll find something there they'll like. (All choose salads. Me -- well, I'm ready for another coffee and a scone.)
And now we need a quiet place where we can review what's next and rearrange our mindset. We walk along 57th street...
(looking up again)
... to my hotel. Green plants and quiet spaces. Cups of warm tea. Perfect for an exhale.
And then they return to their place to rest and I keep the IT person company in my room for nearly two hours as he tries to determine why the access point is not working (meaning I cannot get internet in the room). Fun. I sit in my window seat and study the world below. (I'm on the 6th floor.) Umbrellas. Fire engines. And an urban Amazon delivery. To just one building. Ah, city life.
Toward evening, we have tickets for a performance at Birdland, the jazz club. Well, jazz theater. But with drinks and food. The Anderson brothers are playing Benny Goodman stuff and I'm happy to have a chance to listen to this. I don't go to concerts very often these days and indeed, the last jazz performance I attended was in New York some twenty years ago. I could tell the person I was with didn't like the music, nor the venue, not the whole evening. You never want to be at a jazz club with someone who is completely not with you on the music front. But, this time is different: my friends are enthusiastic.
And the music is so beautiful, so exquisitely beautiful that it chokes me up with emotion.
We order some foods and drinks and the afternoon rolls into the evening and we don't care about the weather or the rain or the fact that life can get complicated. The hours spent at Birdland are all about the pleasure of listening to fabulous music while sipping cocktails and downing not a small amount of food (crab cakes!) with people who are your lifelong friends.
Broadway evening walk.
And a retreat. To rest up for tomorrow.
With so much love...
