Goodbye

 

So now the tour is nearly done. Its been a great one and one that the Blog hopes will be repeated soon.

 

The Blog hopes you will follow the second leg of this year's tour which starts in September and will be back on familiar ground.

 

See you Wednesday.

The statue

Here it is because the Blog forgot to mention it

Say hello to Brooklyn

Bloggers considering a trip to New York should plan their itinery very carefully. Of course everyone has to see the main sights like the Empire State, Freedom Tower, Times Square etc etc. but it is some of the lesser known parts that make this such a great city. Soho, Greenwich, the Lower East Side, Chelsea etc all have so much going on.

And of course there is Brooklyn. So much of this tour has been spent in this amazing borough.
There are no world famous landmarks except the Bridge but there is a culture and attitude that makes the place simply Brooklyn. So when Bloggers plan their trip Brooklyn needs to be high on the agenda.  

Great Bars

Another great bar with a great view. This place is full of them if you know where to look.

Contrasts

Whilst Brooklyn is becoming very hip and trendy, or what ever the jargon is, parts of it are run down and indeed there are some parts no tour would dare to go.

But even walking a street that has seen better days or perhaps has always been that way, you can always look up and see something that excites.

The Blog thinks that may be a good motto for us all.

Cup cakes

And if you are a follower of the cup cake fashion then Chelsea has one just for you.

Variety

The thing about the high streets in these parts is that they are all different and made up of individual independent shops. One high street does not look exactly like the next and they do not all have branches of the same national chains.

Sure there is all the fancy fashion houses on 5th Avenue etc but away from there little specialist retailers rule.

And you can get anything imaginable.

This Brooklyn Cheese Shop sells cheese from Nottingham.

Subway

The subway is a cheapish and efficient way of getting around all 5 boroughs and the trains have certainly been cleaned up since the Blog's last visit.

The stations and platform areas though could all do with a big make-over. They all look very much like the one shown here.

Great Bars

The Blog had realised that a Margherita was long overdue. Alexandra, the tour organiser and daughter of the Blog (and also the daughter of Mrs Hayes it should be said), got around some tight vetting process to get the tour entry to this place.

The perfect place to relax with a Margherita or two.

 

Even to toilets had an exciting aspect

 

 

 

Why does It never rain on me

Now this is something the Blog thinks we could do with back home and someone should sort that out.

At the Museum of Modern Art this week they are showing something called the Rain Room. It rains real water in this room but you never get wet because the rain detects where you are standing and kindly makes sure its wetness misses you.

 

Street Art

Manhattan of course has lots of world class museums showing off some of the best art ever seen but Brooklyn leads the way in street art.

It is part of the Brooklyn way to make a statement or present a point of view on the neighbourhood corner.

Here is a selection of the ones the Blog has noticed so far.

Standing proud

The Blog and no doubt the rest of the tour very nearly cheered when they noticed that the famous little Red Lighthouse was still there doing its duty.

The City tried to get rid of this great icon in 1951 but residents rightly protested, hopefully with violent intent, and so it was saved and remains as a model of service and patriotism.

Boating

Followers of previous tours will know that the Blog loves a boat ride. Is there a better way to spend a boiling hot day than relaxing on a boat sailing round the whole of the Manhattan island whilst drinking beer?

Batman

Batman and Catwomen were out and about in Gotham City this morning, fighting crime and giving confidence to the citizens.

Crash

This is the most fun they had had in ages

Homes

Whilst the Blog has been so far unable to find a house that is affordable in Tuscany, housing here in upstate New York is definitely within the budget.

Here are some typical lower end of the market houses.

Upstate

The heat in the city is a killer so the tour decided to get out for the day and go upstate to the Hudson Valley.

Beacon is a sleepy little town where everything is so nicely presented and you can't imagine anything bad ever happening.

Beer

The Blog had expected the beer in New York to have been a disappointing choice of Bud, Bud, Coors and Bud but has been surprised by the choice available and just how agreeable some of those choices are.

The thing is that the enterprising culture that abounds in NYC has led to the establishment of many independent breweries all of which, the Blog can testify, offer very welcomed alternatives to the regular Bud.

And the names of these beers are puzzling but amusing with some of the best beers being: Smutty Nose; Raging Bitch; Sweet Action; Arrogant Bastard; Keegan's Mother's Milk and White Rascal.
Here is another of the Blog's favourites. The less imaginatively named Coney Island.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Customer Service

The Blog is clear that our football clubs could learn a lot about how to treat fans from clubs in the USA.

In the USA they do not treat the fans like cattle. They don't send the police to meet you off your train and make you to walk in a direction you really don't want to go in. They don't have Police dogs waiting for you as you leave the ground. They don't prevent you from walking freely into any section of the ground that takes your fancy. And they don't stop you taking your beer to your seat.

Yes at Yankee Stadium they want to see up your trouser leg and under your shirt before you can go in and yes you have to show identity to buy beer but everywhere people say 'can I help you sir?' and they are only too happy to help in anyway you need.

What is more they serve you beer in your seat!

This vendor served the Blog several times although on this occasion he was serving some other person something that wasn't beer.

Yankees

On Sunday the Blog went off alone again because there was a game on. The Mets were on the road so the Blog had to venture to the Bronx and Yankees Stadium.

The Yankees went down 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a bit like Man U losing at home to Watford, in front of 47,000 although it only looked half full the the Blog.