Oscar Wilde for T Tuesday

 

It's time for Elizabeth's wonderful T stands for Tuesday - hi T gang! Today I am going to take you to New York City where you can meet Oscar Wilde.

The Irish poet and playwright, you think? Oh no! I'm talking about a bar.

Oscar Wilde is, of course, the creator of "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - but it is also an elaborately designed, Victorian style bar on 45 W 27th Street in New York City. I'm usually not too much into cocktails - I don't have more than a handful a year if you don't count Maitais - but when we spent a week before Christmas in New York in 2019 I wanted to go to a cocktail bar on Christmas Eve. Of course, New York City is not short of cocktail bars, and it took quite some research to find a place that seemed to be interesting enough to spend an hour there.

Oscar Wilde made the cut. At 118.5 feet this is New York City's longest bar, featuring Carrara marble. It is located at the former headquarters of NYC's Bureau of Prohibition - fitting, isn't it?

I did mention that it is Victorian themed, didn't I?

Seriously, I think it was a bit over the top. A big bit.

But it was fun for an hour in the afternoon when the place wasn't crowded at all. This guy certainly knew how to mix cocktails. The selection was good and the prices were Manhattan-reasonable.

I had the Pale Princess and it was delicious. I forgot what the Geek had, but it was good as well.

Cheers to Elizabeth and the T gang!

Helping New Yorkers Breathe a Little Bit Easier

Set smack in the middle of Manhattan, in the midst of all the concrete and steel where nothing reminds of nature, there is a huge urban park - Central Park. It covers 843 acres and stretches along 51 blocks - if I counted correctly. When we walked from the Guggenheim Museum, which is across from the upper half of Central Park, to our hotel near the Empire State Building it felt like an endless stretch. But when you look at the "rock desert" around you, all those skyscrapers and multi-storied buildings, you understand that you need a huge area to get at least the feel you're in nature.

Except you aren't.

Central Park is a man-made park, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect/landscape designer Calvert Vaux. The construction of the park began in 1857 and it was completed in 1876. The site was originally occupied by free black people and Irish immigrants who had been living there in small villages since 1825. Approximately 1600 residents were evicted under eminent domain.

Central Park features lakes, many playgrounds, meadows and the Ramble, the only part were you find trails that are not paved. The trees in Central Park - more than 18000 - play the most important rule of  helping New Yorkers breathe a little bit easier. In one year, a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, converting it into oxygen. The trees also help to keep the city cool in the summer heat, working as natural air conditioners.

You can probably spend an entire day in Central Park, at least when the temperatures are a bit milder than on this December day. It was a sunny and brilliant day, but very cold. However, the bare trees and the partly frozen lake had its own charm.

Central Park is great for biking and jogging or just strolling along the lakes and through the Ramble. You can also take a ride in a horse carriage, but I would highly discourage that - firstly, it's hideously overpriced and secondly and more important the horses have a miserable life.

It's a beautiful, calm and restful place, definitely an oasis if you live in a place like New York City. But in the end, I do prefer "real" nature and wilderness.

Climbing Workout - the Vessel

One of the structures I was very curious to see in New York was the Vessel. At the end (or the start) of the High Line, both were features that weren't there during our first visit to the Big Apple. The Vessel - which still hasn't got its permanent name - was only opened in March 2019 and hadn't even made it into my travel guide. I only knew about it because I had seen pictures of it on Instagram and I was intrigued.

I'm not even sure how to describe it. Wikipedia describes it as a "elaborate honeycomb-like structure [that] rises 16 stories and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to climb". That pretty much sums it up.

The Vessel was built as part of the Hudson Yard Redevelopment Project in Manhattan to plans by British designer Thomas Heatherwick. The steps are arranged like a jungle gym and modeled after Indian stepwells.

Well, I sure felt like being in a gym - there was a lot of climbing involved. I was determined to reach the top, and I did. It was actually quite fun to take the different stairs. I chose to climb the stairs in a circular way and thus rounded the entire structure more than once.

I liked the view of this hotel's outdoor space with cozy sofas, swimming pool and saunas.

The reflections in the copper were fantastic and, of course, upside down.

Back down on the ground I looked up - it looks so different from down there and truly interesting. You can see the elevator in this picture which, as far as I understand, was put in a bit later after the structure had received a lot of criticism because of its lack of accessibility for disabled people.

The look upwards from outside the structure:

We came back in the evening after dark because we were wondering whether there was some special light installed. There wasn't, but the decorated trees in front of it lit everything up beautifully.

An Image and Its Story - December 2019

Before we left for New York I was thinking about what kind of photos I wanted to take. I was pretty sure that I could easily skip images of buildings - firstly, I had taken tons of those back in 1997, but more so that there are so many much more interesting photos of New York's buildings that the world really doesn't need mine as well. However, what DID I want to photograph? I found myself looking for street lights, bridges, fences, stairs, interesting architecture like the Vessel. I also knew from my earlier visit that I liked the benches in Central Park and I wanted to take pictures of them - and one of those turned out to be the image of the month.

I'm often drawn to curved and round shapes, which is probably the reason why I like these benches. I knew that I wanted to take photos of them with the focus on the circular armrest. Isn't it wonderful how you can see through them like through a - very light - tunnel? How the eye is drawn further into the image? It gives subtle direction while your eyes can rest at the same time. It's a bench after all - for rest.

This is my last "An Image and Its Story" - after two years I think it is time to put it to rest (I guess I have a "rest" theme going on here). It was always enjoyable to look for the monthly photo that would make the cut and tell the story behind it. Thank you for following along.

Christmas in New York

A few years ago the Geek and I decided to stop giving Christmas and birthday presents to each other and travel instead. This year our daughter chimed in - no presents, but a trip. While discussing where to go in the winter she mentioned that she had never been to New York (except for driving through during our cross country trip in 2007). After some research we had booked our flights and a hotel just two blocks north of the Empire State Building between Fifth and Sixth Avenue - a perfect place for exploring the Big Apple.

The Geek and I had spent ten very happy days in New York in 1997 and were wondering how much the city has changed since then (apart from the World Trade Center). I have to mention here that we were madly in love at that time and probably saw everything with rose-colored glasses. It was quite different this time.

There is no doubt that New York is magical during the holiday season. Everywhere there are lights, Christmas music is playing (the most played song was "All I want for Christmas is you"), it's glittering and sparkling, magic.

And there are crowds. And more crowds. And... even more crowds.

People are pushing and shoving, kids are crying, adults are cursing - suddenly the magic just disappears and all you see is the consumerism behind the magic.

The front facade of Saks Fifth Avenue had a huge display of the "Frozen" theme that would lit up every ten minutes with a light show that was fantastic, I have to admit. The music could be heard over several blocks. A lane of Fifth Avenue was completely closed off to traffic so that people could stand and watch the light show. Both the sidewalk and the lane was completely blocked and if you were trapped in there you were stuck for the next ten minutes. It happened to us and it wasn't exactly fun (I don't particularly like crowds).

Of course, we also took our own "magical" photos - the magic being that the Empire State Building grows out of the Geek's head! However, I do like the photo of Kaefer and myself in front of the huge Christmas baubles behind the Rockefeller Center.

I can't tell you enough how glad I was about my knitted hat and scarf! It was flippin' cold in New York (17 F, fortunately it warmed up considerably after that), with the chilly wind blowing along the streets. Even New Yorkers were complaining about the freezing weather. No wonder I came home with a serious cold (just like back in 1997...).

I had brought my DSLR to New York, but from the very beginning I mainly used the phone to take photos. It was just too crowded to always stop, strip off the backpack and get out the camera. It always involved taking off my gloves, too, which wasn't pleasant especially during those first few days. I pretty much used the big camera only to take pictures of Brooklyn Bridge (which compared to 1997 had turned into a zoo) and a beautiful sunset behind the Statue of Liberty. After the third day I left the camera in the safe in our room and only took pictures with my phone. It was much more convenient and I actually took way more pictures in places I wouldn't have pulled out the camera (like in the subway).

Experiencing New York City in the holiday season was certainly exciting. I enjoyed many parts of it. We visited coffee shops to warm up and had cocktails in the evening. There was a wide range of food to choose from and we were extremely lucky to find a German restaurant with excellent food and delicious beer just five walking minutes from our hotel. We ate our fair share of bagels with all kinds of cream cheese (avocado and herbs, anyone?). We strolled along Christmas markets and ate honey roasted almonds. There were wonderful museums to discover like the National Museum of the American Indian and the Met Cloisters as well as the very moving 9/11 Memorial with its reflecting pools. Most of the people we met were very nice, ready to chat and answer questions. They put a friendly face onto this hectic monster of a city. We had some really nice and interesting conversations with people, both visitors and New Yorkers.

But I was glad when we finally returned home. I'm simply not a city person anymore. I didn't like the crowds at all, the consistent noise, the honking of the cars, the impatience, the rush. Every day we walked between 7 and 11 miles, and it was all on pavement. It's hard, and it hurts - my feet hurt, my legs hurt, my hips hurt. I was bone tired every evening and still I couldn't sleep because there was no way that we could open a window in our room and I simply can't sleep without fresh air (as much "fresh" air as you might even get in NYC). But what got me the most was the wastefulness, the mountains of trash, the plastic bags, the "to go and throw away" mindset. The streets were littered, the subway was littered and every night bags of trash piled up in the streets. It was disgusting. I learned to truly appreciate what I have in California. We might be seen as "wacko" by the rest of the country, but boy am I proud to be this kind of wacko.

There certainly will be more posts about our trip to New York in the future. For now let me wish you happiness, health and joy of living for 2020.

A Fence at - Guess Where?

Today I'm joining Theresa's Good Fences again, but... I am not telling you yet where this fence is that you can see in the lower part of the image. Guess where it is and tell me in the comments!

To make it a little bit more difficult, this photo was taken almost 20 years ago. However, it still looks almost the same. Almost...

I'll come back later and add the location to this post.


Update: This picture is taken from the Statue of Liberty in New York. People are lining up to get into the statue and climb up to enjoy the view.

Only one person recognized it - Christine from Northern Ireland! You rock, girl!

On Top of the Big Apple

My good fences this week come from high up in the sky - from the visitors' platform on the Empire State Building in New York. We visited New York in 1997 when the Geek was working in Allentown for a couple month. We met for 10 days over Easter in New York and spent a gorgeous time there. This was my first trip ever to the United States.

Everything was so easy at that time... no long lines because of security checks. You just waited in line to get on the elevator that would transport you to the top of this famous building in no time at all.

This "fence" of course is more of a barricade, to prevent suicidal people of jumping the fence and throw themselves down. Here's a detail:

It looks rather sharp and you certainly would think twice before attempting to get up and over there. The entire fence was curved as well.

Quite impressive, right?

Just one look down, please - one of my favorite views of this big city:

I'm linking to Theresa's "Good Fences". Please come and visit!