Subterranean travellng

Lower and middle class travelling always seems to be about getting up early. This is why we were all up at 3:30 am. The girls were shutled off to the airport leaving the lonely bloggers behind to swan around in 2 adjoining rooms. 2 beds. 2 bathrooms. 2 desks. 2 TV's, 2 vistas and a private corridor connecting them. Almost upper class stuff - maybe in the 1500's perhaps but not now ( the tacky dull veneer, lack of fridges, kettles and antique electronics sort of brings it down a notch or two). So we did the obvious and went straight back into the usual collapsed state of exhaustion that is also known as sleep on this trip. Take out coffee and muffins in the spare room for breakfast whilst we made the most of the free WiFi which somehow leaks into this room and we were off to hit the town. It was all planned out based on what we'd learned so far and pretty much went to according to it. First stop was Tiffany's. Here they are so cool they do not show prices off the items on display. They did let us into the store ( which was nice). They correctly assumed we would not be needing to stop at the 2nd floor but would have the gall to walk around on the 4th and 3rd. Got some great designs ideas for the 3D printer though.

Surely the beauty is in the design - not so much the material. Time will tell. A stroll down 5th Ave and then Park Ave (yes blazon name dropping here) poking our noses into a spectacular Catholic cathedral with mass underway. A little weird as they had the doors open, swarms of the usual NY tourists streaming through - most showing the typical disregard for others. Still, the guys up the front were doing their thing unperturbed. Unfortunately it looked a little bit like a religious tourist attraction than the real deal. But what do we know? maybe its just a case of get 'em though the doors whatever it takes. Onto Grand Central Station to soak up more grandiose architecture and using that portal to plunge for the first of many times into the strange underground world that is known as the subway. Emerging to a view of Macy's in the foreground and the Empire state in the back one we wandered around in the former for a while seemingly unable to escape from the men's dept. Eventually we did and popped across the road to Stretchers to spend a riveting hour selecting shoes and writing blogs (2 people/2 separate tasks).

Then it was straight back into the subway and off downtown to Greenwich Village for a coffee in the very famous Regio's. Amidst the original Caravaggio's, the first espresso machine in NY (1927) and the standard NY milling throng the coffee was good. It was once the best in town - others may have passed in since. All very enjoyable though. Retracing our walking tour steps we went straight to John's Pizza. By now it was 4:00 pm so after scoring one of his prized booths ( somehow the doorman saw and booted out the people who jumped in ahead of us - yay for us again) we indulged in a fabulous coal fired oven pizza of which only 3 are allowed to operate any more.

So whilst the carbon footprint was pretty high the result really did seem worth it. Especially as it has been scientifically proven that NY water creates the best pizzas and bagels in the world. This of course means just in the USA as the majority of mindsets here cannot comprehend anything being better anywhere else. Then it was back into the grimy, noisy subways again to be able to luxuriate in our two bedroom alcove for 90 minutes before bouncing out again. In the crisp cold air we found our subway line closed so we up and downed a few steps until we found one working in the direction of Broadway. Finding the theatre was pretty easy as was the red guy who handed us our personalised tickets to the show. We have cinema complexes here they have theatre complexes. There is a lot of theatre being acted out here.

Shear Madness was a real hoot. Many satirical lines thrown in amongst very good and funny acting. Audience participation in solving the whodunnit plot. Leaving feeling quite uplifted our buoyancy was somewhat deflated by the how long (3 trains) subway journey home. Saturday nights sees the system slow down. The lack of information and confusion due to closed lines along with the dregs of the town does take the shine away from the whole experience. Despite that it was a great day. The subways did get us around the huge metropolis quite well and in the end (once again) we collapsed into an exhausted and extended sleep - ignoring the ever present sounds of sirens echoing around the concrete canyons. Tomorrow the long trek home begins.