The Big Apple..New York, New York! August 21, 2008

Maryland

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello All,
And so the end of our world travels is nigh! We are on our final days. Mixed emotions about finishing our travelling. We are both really loving America and it is the perfect ending for our trip. I am so excited about going home. I plan on bringing all our material possessions out of the loft and rolling around in them a.s.a.p. It will be like Christmas as I can’t remember some of the things we have. Having 10 months without most of our possessions has been a positive thing. It has made me realise how little I need objects and the things I missed most were people and not “things.”  Living out of a knapsack means no choice in clothes, no luxury toiletries, no accessories, no nice shoes, no handbags, no hair products, hardly any make up and no glamour.  However if you have no choice then I have found that I will put on any old thing. It has made me less vain, but I do look at our photos and think “Oh dear!”
So homeward bound soon to get back into the world of hard graft, family, friends, house, garden and all the material things. Brilliant!!!!
Anyway, since the last blog we have visited Washington. Very cool big city. Chris has been a demon covering all the miles in the U.S.A. I have been too much of a wimp to drive and he has basically driven us across the country. So we arrived in Washington on my birthday, after a brief night stay in Delaware. We saw a huge thunder and lightening storm from our hotel room. It lasted about 20 minutes with sheet lightening and lit the whole room as we stood at the window, with all the lights off for full effect. Even the storms here are impressive.
So on to Washington. Chris greeted me with birthday breakfast in bed and a beautiful necklace from The Grand Canyon. Very lovely! I also have been going on about wanting a foam fingers for ages. My dream came true as you can see from the photo. Very handy bit of kit, as you can see I immediately used it to its’ full potential by pointing at my new necklace. I don’t know how I ever pointed without it. Debsi Hill gave me a new top too so I had gifts and some lovely messages and e-cards to make me feel loved.
We had a look around the town that we were spending the next few days in. Gorgeous place with people of all colours, shapes and sizes making the place look vibrant and fantastic. We headed to a real diner for pancakes. Yum,the diner even had a juke box on each table to play tunes while we ate. As it was a special occasion we allowed ourselves an afternoon snooze before our night out. Chris and I had our own little party in the local town centre. It is really pretty in Silver Springs and we found a pub that made great food. After so much time together it is amazing we have anything left to talk about, however we managed to talk (mostly rubbish) most of the evening. It was a busy, balmy night and we had an outdoor table, I am going to miss these nights a lot. The evening ended about 5 beers later than it should have and at one point we enjoyed a game of “chicken” across a water fountain display, runing between the spouts of water that were on a random timer. Great fun.
Inevitably the next day was less active and no sights were seen. We had a late night cinema trip to see The new Mummy film (not great) then back to bed.
Our last day in Washington and everything left to see. We went for it!  Starting (via the subway) at the Washington Momument. This tall, smooth stone needle has open space around it and the dry grass pans out to The Reflective Pool (made famous in Forest Gump) and The Lincoln Memorial. It was a stunning day, as usual we were out in the midday sun, but onwards, we plodded to have a closer look at Lincoln. The reflective Pool is pretty disappointing, not as clean as the normal standard. Lots of geese and ducks and their droppings make it more of a stew than a place to see or feel reflected in. The Lincoln Memorial was pristine marble with the huge greek pillars and white steps leading up to a sculpture, again in white marble, of President Lincoln. A welcome cool shade before another walk to the Iwo Jima US Marine Corps Memorial. We didn’t linger amongst the massed white graves, set in lines of servicemen who have lost their lives in Service to their country. A very dignified setting, beautiful trees breaking up the white lines of hundreds of men and women’s graves.
When we arrived at Iwo Jima, we agreed it was well worth the hot walk. It is set in a quiet area of the park and and it is stunning. Much bigger that we expected, this famous sculpture shows the scene of 6 marines supporting each other in lifting the American flag marking the land in Mount Suribachi. It is really beautiful. The sculpture is based on a photograph taken of the above event in 1945 and the men (who lived) who actually lifted the flag later posed for the sculpture. I personally think this is what makes it really special. A surprisingly moving sculpture.
I was ready to call it a day and retreat to the shade, but Chris had different ideas. I feel that there are only so many memorials I want to see in a day (I am thinking 4 is a fair amount.) However my memorial crazy husband kept the pace up. We had a minor disagreement on the heat, walking pace etc then off we went again. This time we took a tube and headed back across the open spaces to The Jefferson Memorial. To cut a long story short it was very similar to the Lincoln Memorial, but with Jefferson in the middle in a dark stone sculpture. It overlooked a pretty lake which, much to our amusement, had pedalos in it. This was particularly funny as it was quite a small lake and everyone in the pedlos looked really bored and unsure why they were there.
Finally a walk across to The White House which was a bit far away to have a good look at. We took the required photo then headed for some late lunch. Chris has looked up a great French restaurant online, so we had some cool water under the umberellas with white tableclothes and genuine French waiters. Tres bien! We were amazed at how spacious the grounds were around all these monuments and buildings. Washington is a very attractive and calm city. It was a Sunday, but the landscape and buildings have a peace to them.
Just when I thought the Christopher Warn Tour of Washington was over, we stumbled across another gem. Capitol Building, where the senate sits when in session. A truely beautiful piece of architecture with an ornate central dome and white carved steps, ponds, fountains, balconies and doorways. I had no idea Washington was so lovely. It made me feel ashamed that our previous afternoon snoozes and hangovers stopping us seeing more of it. Despite my regular moaning about the heat and my aching feet, I loved every minute of our sight seeing. If you come here I would recommend taking the CW Tour and some comfortable shoes! It is cheap, but very fast walking is involved!
Our goodbyes to Washington made our trip’s imminent ending even more real. We drove to New York knowing this was the last port of call. No more travelling, no more car. We returned our hired car in the madness that is New York driving the next day. We were a little disappointed to find our motel room smelt of cats wee. We were kind of expecting the motel to be a bit dodgy as it was cheap. This is one of the things that makes me happy to be coming home, no more strange beds, grubby rooms, cat wee smells etc.
So the car has now left us and we have a huge mound of things piled in all spare spaces in our motel room. We have definitely not been travelling as lightly as before. We have bought new bags to put everything in. New York is everything we hoped it would be and we have been sightseeing like a couple of maniacs. Yesterday we drove through the Lincoln Tunnel to 5th Avenue and then headed to The New York Library. This is where Carrie was supposed to get married in Sex In The City. I was a little over excited about this and everywhere reminds us of films we can’t quite put our fingers on. The library was a working place ,so very low key and had a great entrance with marble steps dividing into two stairwells once inside the high open entrance halls. We were focussing on the uptown end of NY and soaked up the atmosphere as we walked the steamy streets. We found a little oasis of green amongst the sky scrapers and tucked into a sandwich. The little green patch, Bryants Park was a relaxing square of grass and everyone seemed surprisingly low key. People sunbathed and ate lunch with skyscrapers, The Chrysler Building and The Empire State building casting shadows over them.
Feeling very happy to be here, we headed onward on foot to Grand Central Station. Huge place with stalls and boutique type shops mixed with fast food cafes. We headed to where I think the Bourne Identity might have been filmed, not too sure. The station’s huge famous windows let the NY sun shine in as people headed for trains or underground tubes. Some just stood around taking photos, we were in that gang. With more still to see we walked to Times Square. As busy as expected, with loads of neon adverts and fliers for theatre productions being thrust into our hands. A bit smelly and hectic ,we kept going until we reached our bus stop. The bus stops here are very dark and grubby with queues that make little sense. We found the right bus due to Chris’s naval navagation training and headed to the place that dreams are made, THE MALL.
This place has over 200 shops under one roof, restaurants, cafes and cinemas. Only for serious shoppers!My heart was racing with glee, Chris was up for it and we had 4 hours until our last bus. I won’t go into the details, but we were incredible. Like Torville and Dean we manoeuvred ourselves around prams, toddlers, teenagers, couples, shops and cafes. We left exhausted with sore feet and bags of stuff. My dreams have come true. There is a shopping centre big enough for me.
Like true travellers we got 2 buses back to our motel and rubbed our feet. Great day, miles and miles of New York covered and still time to watch the olympics highlights, yippee!
And now my final blog! We have spent the day visiting Mid and Downtown NY. We were up and ready for the day nice and early. A bus ride into town (about 30 mins )and we walked to The Empire State Building. We were in the queue to go to the top and gave up on the idea half way through. Mostly because there was a 1 hour 15 minute wait and also because it was a bit like a cattle market. The staff there were really rude ,so we left before anyone else could try to sell us something. I am glad we did, for principles if nothing else. I am sure the Empire State Building will fall into rack and ruin now we have not contributed our 20 quid!
Back on the streets of NY we walked passed Madison Square Park and saw the gorgeous “Flat Iron.” This is the building that is like a section of cheese. Thin at one end and opens out to form a triangle.
We followed the road down 5th Avenue ,on the sunny side of the street of course. Quite a trek to Greenwich Village where we saw the house used in “I am Legend.” This is the more bohemian area of NY. Lots of model looking people wearingly achingly cool clothes and talking loudly about their latest audition into their iphones. Pretty little italian restaurants, galleries (with paintings with no price tag), professional dog-walkers and general wealth. Some people were trying a little too hard and we passed a man that was dressed like one of The Krankies(the weird wife who used to dress as a school boy, remember her?)
We strolled along in our flip flops caring not a jot for fashion, as our minds were focussed on the scenery. We briefly passed the Ground Zero site on our walk to the docks. It has high fencing around it and work going on inside, I don’t know what the future plans are for it, but there was a large area of flatness amongst the skyscrapers .
Eventually, weary, we arrived at the docks and headed along the water to the Statton Ferry. Great trip over and back, no fuss, no queuing, no cost. We enjoyed the glorious weather and saw The statue of Liberty in the distance. Very nice too!
We are now snuggled up in our motel room (wee smell has gone.) and are aching all over after 2 days and lots of flip flopped miles. NY is wonderful and we are making sure we are making the most of it.
This is my final blog and so I will say a brief goodbye. Thank you to all who have stuck with us and Chris will be putting in one last blog before we finish this very long travel blog. I am so excited about coming home and getting back into our house. When you see me, give me lots of wine, don’t look at my podgy belly (from too much food,not baby) and I will try not to say “When we were in ……….”
Bye
Sophiexxxx