Boston - continued

It is late on Tuesday afternoon and a couple of decent thunderstorms have swept over the city reducing the temperature and the humidity although Wednesday is forecast to be in the high 80's (30+c) with high humidity again.  Boston is a nice city with a waterfront a bit like Melbourne's docklands, although Boston's waterfront has active businesses and lots of people around and isn't windswept.  My hotel is a couple of minutes walk from the waterfront.


Boston and the state of Massachusetts is very proud of its role in the early settlement of the United States and their part in the American Revolution when they achieved independence from the English.  One of the popular tourist attractions is the Freedom Trail.  The Freedom Trail is a marked trail that winds through the streets of Boston from Boston Common to Bunker Hill and visits various important sites in the history of Boston and of the revolution.  Walking the Freedom Trail is a great way of seeing the city and surrounds and visiting some of the important historical and tourist sites.


The Freedom Trail starts at Boston common and is marked along the entire distance by a red brick trail set in the footpath.  Part of the tour includes a visit to the State House, this is Massachusett's parliament house and was built in 1798.  I did a tour of the building and saw the "sacred cod".  The sacred cod is a 5ft long carving of a cod fish that hangs from the ceiling in the lower  house.  Not to be outdone the senate chamber has a carved "holy mackerel" hanging from its ceiling.  The Freedom Trail takes in three very early cemeteries, graves in these cemeteries date back to the late 17th century and include a number of the early patriots.  The headstones from this time often include skull and crossbones or dancing skeletons and look quite ghoulish to modern sensibilities. 

State House Boston

The leaders of the Revolution including the likes of Sam Adams, Paul Revere and John Hancock are still held in very high esteem in these parts and they and the other revolutionaries are still referred to as the "patriots", and I thought that Sam Adams was famous for making good beer and Paul Revere was famous for his pop group, Paul Revere and the Raiders.  Talking about Paul Revere, his house is visited as part of the Freedom Trail.  Revere's house was built around 1680 and was used as a residence of some sort up until 1908 when it was restored and opened as a museum.  (As an aside I was talking to one of the guides in the Revere house and she was talking about the design of the rooms being in part to help with the heating of the house during the winter.  I got to talking to her about the winter temperatures, she told me that daytime winter temperatures in Boston were usually in the low 20s but often in the teens or single figures.  These are Fahrenheit figures and loosely convert to -5 to -15 Celsius).


Now here is an interesting historical fact that I have picked up here and will share with you.  Paul Revere made his famous night time ride to warn the local militias that the British army was about to advance.  Legend has it that as he rode he shouted out "the British are coming, the British are coming".  I now know that he didn't shout that as everybody living here still thought of themselves as British so the warning wouldn't have made any sense.  See if you hang around this blog long enough you will learn something.


The Freedom Trail walk finishes at Bunker Hill.  This is the scene of one of the pivotal battles of the revolution.  Although the British defeated the patriots it was at great loss to them.  After Bunker Hill the British realized that although they were fighting the patriot militias the militias were capable of putting up a fight against the professional British soldiers.  The patriots realized that they were capable of taking the fight to the British and gave them confidence to continue the revolution.


Flashy, you will be pleased to note that I took the water ferry back to Boston from Charleston and claimed my senior discount for the fare.  With my senior discount the fare was $1.65 instead of $4.50 full fare.  Well done that man.


After my exertions, and it still being hot and humid, I decided that a late lunch and some refreshments were in order so I popped into an Irish bar called the Roisin Dubh or the Black Rose.   This is a nice little bar not far from my hotel.  Now the Black Rose is very proud of its Irish history and the place mats have a potted history of some Irish patriots.  This potted history talks about some Irish patriots who were transported to Australia sometime in the 1840's and 1850's.  This same history talks about one Chaules Duffy who, and I quote "in 1874 word reached the astounded Queen Victoria that Sir Chaules Duffy had been elected Prime Minister of Australia".  It also claims that another convict Morris Leyne had been made Attorney General of Australia around the same time.  I pointed out a couple of the historical inaccuracies to my server for which she was very grateful.


The staffing organization in American restaurants is interesting and frustrating and would only happen in a country where people are being paid a minimum wage of $8 or $9.  When you go in the front door of a restaurant you are greeted by the "greeter" who ascertains your needs, the greeter passes you onto a "seater" who takes you to your table.  Once seated your "server" (what we call a waiter or waitress) comes along and then once you have finished the "bus boy" takes away the empty plates etc.  It is great fun to ask the bus boy to get you a drink or the seater to get you some bread as this causes great confusion, particularly if you do it around change of shift time.  Of course the whole thing is to do with tips.


Today, Wednesday, I walked through Beacon Hill.  This is the old posh part of Boston.  It was settled in the old days when rich people lived on the hills so that their sewerage ran downhill and somewhat inconvenienced the poorer folk who lived at the bottom of the hill.  Although we experienced some storms last night it was still hot and humid today, so after an extensive exploration of Beacon Hill I retired to the Bull and Finch for refreshment and rehydration.  The Bull and Finch is the original bar that the Cheers bar of TV fame was based on.  Of course they keep the connection very low key and make very little of it..........NOT!  Although they play the Cheers thing to the hilt and have a Cheers gift shop etc it is actually a nice bar with good beer and food.


I fly out of Boston tomorrow and catch up with Flashy and Lady P in LA for a couple of days there before flying home. 

Boston

I caught the train from Penn Station NYC to Boston yesterday (Sunday).  For a country that put a man on the moon they really have trouble running a decent public transport system.  The station and waiting area at Penn Station was a nightmare, lots of people standing around looking at destination boards that made no sense or lacked information.  A bloke standing next to me with his wife looked at the board and looked at me and said "mate, do you have any idea how this works"?.  My response was "mate, I have no idea".  He and his wife were fellow Australians and were off to Washington DC. 


Anyway more about the trip to Boston later but first a catch up on NYC.  Saturday loomed hot and humid, so what else was different.  I intended to walk to Times Square (as I hadn't really spent any time in that area) have a look around and make my way back to Bryant Park for lunch and then walk back to my hotel and maybe do some shopping on the way.  I got distracted from these plans a bit as when I got to 6th Avenue (the Avenue of the Americas) I found that the entire street was closed off from about 38th street north to 57th street near central park.  The entire street had been turned into a massive street market with lots of food stalls, junky market stalls and buskers.  One of the food stalls was selling deep fried Oreo cookies, which I now regret that I didn't try.  The market was good fun and it seemed strange walking up and down 6th Ave without any cars on it.


Now a bit about Times Square, it is tacky, not dangerous but tacky.  There are lots of people dressed in cartoon character costumes (often looking pretty grubby) trying to charge the tourists to have their photo taken with them.  There are also all the touts flogging the tickets for the tourist buses and almost coming to blows over it. I was also a bit surprised to see some semi naked men and women (a bit like the ones we saw in Fremont St in Vegas) also posing for photos with the tourists for a fee of course.  I did get my face on the big screen at times square and got a photo of my face on the big screen, so that was good.  Maybe you need to go to Times Square of a night time to get the full benefit.


As I had been to a proper restaurant for dinner last night and had a decent lunch at Bryant Park through the day I decided to go to a local Irish bar for dinner, so I ended up in Foxy John's Irish Bar in 47th street.  I was chatting to the young Irish barman and we swapped Vegas stories although his was much better than any of mine.  His father who lives in Ireland decided to celebrate his 60th birthday with a couple of mates in Vegas so my young barman friend and a couple of his mates decided that they would join his dad in Vegas for the celebrations.  My new young friend arrived in Vegas a couple of days before his dad arrived and one day woke up in hospital with a punctured and collapsed lung.  He claimed that he did not know what had happened, but he was hospitalized for, I think he said, 9 days.  We swapped morphine stories and agreed it is a marvelous thing and nearly as good as Guinness.  After 9 days in hospital he discharged himself to return to NYC and off course due to the collapsed lung he couldn't fly.  It took him 5 days to travel by train from Vegas to NYC with Amtrak.  I didn't have a Vegas story to match that. 


So this brings us back to Penn Station and my impending Amtrak journey.  It is well known that rail travel in the USA is the poor relation and the infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate.  Consider this, the distance from NYC to Boston is about 200 miles (300kms) and the rail journey takes about 4.5hours.  In Europe this rail journey would take 2 hours.  Enough of the criticism, once you get through the madness of Penn Station and get on the train things start to improve.  The train was roomy and comfortable (in business class at least).  I had a surprising pleasant lunch of a turkey BLT wrap, cinnamon bun and a Coors beer whilst watching the green countryside pass by.  The train passed through some pretty little coastal towns and coastal regions.  It was sad to see a lot of the towns were surrounded by disused and abandoned factories but the same thing is happening in a lot of small towns in good ol Aus.


I am staying at the Harborside Inn in Boston.  It is a really nice, reasonably new hotel near the waterfront area and is a prize winning conversion of an old warehouse.  I am quite spoilt for choice for bars and restaurants as the hotel is near the Quincy market and Feneuil hall tourist areas as well as the attractions of the waterfront. 


There is a drink with my name on it in a bar somewhere so this will have to do for now.  More to follow about Boston shortly. 

New York City - continued further

Hot and humid today (Friday) and about to get hotter and more humider over the next couple of days..  Slow start this morning as I had a teeny weensy hangover.  Last night I had a nice dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant which included a glass of proseco and a glass of a tasty Sicilian red, showing remarkable restraint so I thought.  Anyway as I walked back through the lobby of my hotel I thought well I could have a nightcap and went to the bar and ordered a vodka martini (with a twist).  Well I was the biggest martini I have ever had, must have been close to half a bottle of vodka in it.  And then I met my new 2nd best friend, Alfred from New Jersey and a fine time was had by all, my other new 2nd best friend, the barman kept on topping my drink up so I have no idea how much vodka I drank, but judging by the way I felt this morning it was a lot. 


I have been for a walk along 45th street to 1st Avenue where the United Nations buildings are located.  I had some idle thoughts of maybe doing a tour of the UN buildings however when I got there and saw the length of the queue and how they were standing in the hot sun I decided this wasn't for me and my delicate condition.  I wandered up 1st Ave, stopping for a large Coke on the way, and made my way to the aerial tramcar that goes over the East River to Roosevelt Island.  The tramcar depot is next to the 59th Street Bridge made famous by the Simon and Garfunkel song "Feeling Groovy (59th Street Bridge Song)".  I also would have walked past the street that Flashy and Lady P stayed in when we were all last here in NYC in 2008.  I think that it was somewhere around 54th Street.


Roosevelt Island is in the middle of the East River and is quite small, it is about 3km long and probably 1/2km wide.  The island used to house NY's lunatic asylum and various hospitals but is now mainly apartment buildings with some offices and medical research facilities.  There are lots of parks and open areas and it has been set up as a bit of a model village.  It was quite strange there as it was very quiet and peaceful yet NYC is only a stones throw away across the river.  The aerial tramway is a large cable car and is part of the public transport system so I could use my subway metrocard to pay the fare.  I had lunch of a slice of pizza and another Coke on the island and a little sit in the shade in one of the parks.


I caught the cable car thing back to Manhattan and walked back through the West side district to my hotel.  On the way back I had a serious need for a sugar boost so I have had my 1st doughnut for the trip and delicious it was too. 


I meant to mention this before but it is good to see that the American dream is still alive and well.  I travelled by taxi from Berkley to San Francisco airport to fly to NY.  The taxi driver had been a refugee from Nigeria but had lived in the USA in San Francisco for about 30 years.  He was telling me about his children, his daughter was going to college in SF at one of the good universities there.  His son was studying medicine at one of the prestigious uni's on the east coast to become a doctor.  Still not many countries in the world where this could happen.


A couple of observations about NYC.  When I was here with Jon and Clair in 2004 one of the features of the city was the constant noise of car horns tooting.  When I was here in 2008 you hardly heard a horn toot (a new law had been passed banning the use of horns except in the case of an emergency).  Well the horn tooters are back in town, not as bad as 2004 but certainly more than 2008.  The other thing is the number of police around the place.  There are police everywhere, especially around the bottom end of the island around the World Trade Centre and the Statue of Liberty ferries. 


Deciding what to do for dinner tonight.  Might catch the subway shuttle to Times Square as I haven't been there of a night time yet and walk back and find somewhere nice for dinner or I might go to Bryant Park, there is a nice little outdoor bar there. 





 

New York City - continued

In my tourist activities around NYC I have determined that there should be some new rules for tourists and locals;

• no slow walking (as Flashy says, if they walked any slower they'd fall over)
• when entering a building or doorway no stopping for photos, selfies, discussion until the doorway is cleared.
• this is for the locals, you don't have to wear gumboots just because you got a little rain, unless you are mucking out the stables or somesuch.
• ban all German tourists.  They have started and lost two world wars, never had an empire to speak of and still think that they run the place.
• no wearing of funny hats bought at tourist places, unless you are under 12.
• ban selfie sticks.  The only exception being if it is stored in the appropriate place when not being used.
• when buying tickets you should know what you are buying, this doesn't require 10 minutes of discussion whilst the line builds up behind you.

This list is not comprehensive and no doubt will be added to as my travels continue.


Anyway I am having fun.  On Tuesday, which was the rainy day I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commonly known as the Met.  Myself and about 30,000 other people had the same idea and the queues stretched up and down the street outside.  The line moved quickly and within half an hour I was inside the building and found my next surprise.  The guide books say that admission to the Met is free but that they will accept donations.  Well they have a "recommended" donation list, $27 for adults, $18 for seniors etc.  You have to queue up (again) and tell the attendant how much you want to "donate".  I got even with em, I told them I was a senior (although I am not 65) and donated the senior amount of $18.


The Met is huge, with many, many, many rooms of various types of art.  It would be easy to spend days there.  I only looked at some small sections of the European masters and some American art including the famous large painting of Washington crossing the Delaware.  Eventually I got "paintinged out" and decided to walk back towards my hotel through Central Park.


On the way back to the city I walked past the headquarters of the next president of the USA, Trump Towers.  Later that day I was talking to some fellow drinkers and the barman at the hotel bar and the subject of the presidential elections came up.  The barman who is a card carrying democrat said that there is no way known he will vote for Hilary.  Another lady said that they don't want no more Clintons, Bushs or Kennedies.


This is my third trip to NYC and I have only just discovered Bryant Park.  Its a lovely little park behind the NYC Library and is very popular with tourists and locals.  There is a couple of eating places and lots of shady places to sit.  It also looks like they have an outdoor theatre, but of course that wasn't running through the day.


I have visited the World Trade Centre 9/11 memorial and museum.  As usual the Americans have done a marvelous job with both the memorial and the museum.  The new WTC building has an observation deck known as the One World Observatory.  This is located on the 100th floor of the building at about 1250ft high.  As you could imagine the views from this observation deck are stunning. 


One of the other interesting things that I have done is the High Line.  This is a disused elevated railway line that has been converted into a 3 mile long park that pretty much follows the Hudson River along the westside.  It is very well done and has some restaurants and cafes along the way.  I stopped for lunch at a little café and two girls sat down at the communal table near me, they were sisters from Mt Martha and Eltham. 


Today, Thursday, I walked about 12 kilometres.  I walked from the WTC to Washington Square and then the High Line, along the High Line and then through the city to my hotel.  This took me through some really nice parts of Soho, Tribeca and Greenwich Village.  So very different than central Manhattan where my hotel is.


I still cant post photos and now I also cannot respond to your comments.  Please be aware that your comments are noted and appreciated.

NEW YORK CITY

It is Tuesday morning in NY and raining quite heavily.  I was supposed to be doing the statue of liberty and Ellis Island tours today but have decided on a change of plans due to the rain.  The rain is heavy enough to cause flash flood warnings and delays on the subway.  It might be an indoors day today with a visit to some museums.  I arrived at JFK at about 4.00 pm on Sunday 9/08 and it was the usual mayhem.  There were numerous touters offering rides into the city as an alternative to taking a taxi.  The touters are now claiming to represent Uber drivers and can be quite aggressive.  The fares being offered by these guys were usually about $10 more than the fixed cab fare from JFK to Manhattan Island.


I checked into the Roosevelt Hotel on the corner of 45th Street and Madison Avenue.  This hotel was built sometime in the 1920's has now entered a period of what could kindly be called "faded elegance".  At some time in the past the Roosevelt would have been a pretty classy place to stay but is now a bit worn and tired.  But it is very clean, the rooms are a reasonable size (for NY anyway), has a great lobby bar and an interesting rooftop bar.  The location is also great as it is pretty much in the middle of Manhattan Island.  I have already made great friends with the two barmen at the lobby bar.


Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted much since Vegas.  If I get the chance I will go back and fill in the gaps.  However if you have a look at Flashy and Lady P's blog (address previously provided) that will bring you up to date with the general thrust of the trip to date.


I am just going to throw this in about San Francisco.  We travelled a lot on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit).  This is SF's public transport train system.  Not one, I repeat, not one train had any graffiti on it on either the inside or out.  There was also no graffiti on any of the stations.  The other thing that I noticed was that mobile phone reception was available on the entire system, even in the tunnels, including the tunnel going under the bay.  Why cant we have graffiti free trains and mobile reception in the loop in Melbourne??  Maybe instead of another committee the Vic state government just send an e-mail to the BART people and ask them how they do it.


Anyway, that off my chest, back to NY.  It looks like the US is dragging itself out of its GFC induced doldrums.  NYC is very busy with lots of building works going on, as well as new buildings going up lots of buildings have scaffolding around them indicating renovations are going on.  However there are lots of homeless around, particularly around Grand Central Station which is near my hotel.


Again I am having problems with adding photos........ so I will post this blog sans pics and try and sort this out later.

Further Adventures in Vegas

Given I have fallen so far behind with the blog I have decided to change the format slightly, so from hereon the blog will be by location not by date (this means that I don't have to remember what we did each day).


If you are interested Flashy and Lady P also have a blog, "cockailscanyonsandcalifornia.blogspot.com.au"


Myself, Flashy, Lady P and the NZer's went on the helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon which was quite the adventure.  Before being seated in the helicopter we had a safety briefing were and issued with life jackets, after embarkation and being strapped in we received our headsets with microphones attached so that we could talk to each other and the pilot. 


The flight to the GC took about 45 minutes and for somebody who had never been in a helicopter before was very interesting and exciting.  The country around Vegas is very desolate with very little signs of life or greenery.  We flew over the Hoover dam and Lake Mead and then a little way up the GC before landing at the bottom of the canyon.


During the flight the pilot was on constant lookout for other helicopters as they were all over the place.  When we landed in the GC there were two other choppers there from the same company and another three about a kilometer further up the canyon.  Did I mention the temperature.....I don't think so.....it was around 103 Fahrenheit (F) in Vegas each day that we were there.  You can do your own conversion to centigrade, but it was bloody hot.  It was 107F on the tarmac at the airport and 100+ on the ground in the GC.  The helicopter company had built a rudimentary shelter at the base of the canyon and it was there that we had champagne and a packed picnic supper before boarding the chopper for the return flight to Vegas. 


At one point we were flying at an altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level but we were only about 50 feet off the ground.  A lot of this area is on a high plateau.


The other great adventure (for the boys anyway) was a trip to machine gun Vegas (MGV).  For a large amount of money the kind folk at MGV let you fire all sorts of weapons.  We fired all sorts of pistols, rifles, sub machine guns finishing up with 40 rounds through a belt fed machine gun. 


 Being in Vegas of course we had to visit some casinos, so in no particular order we visited; Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Venice, Paris, Wynn and Caesars's Palace.  These all have a theme of some sort but also huge gaming rooms and lots of restaurants and bars.  The Venice does it well with a canal with full size gondola's running through the middle of the shopping precinct.


Anyway, the reason that we were in Vegas was for Jo's 30th birthday.  On Thursday evening 13 of us congregated at the French bistro at Paris for Jo's birthday dinner.  By this stage Kathy and Mac (Andrew's in laws) had joined us from Florida, via the Ozarks.  As well as myself, Flashy, Lady P and the NZer's  we were joined by four of Jo's Kontiki friends from various parts of Aus.  The dinner was very tradition French bistro food with accompanying wines and was much enjoyed by all, food photos to follow........not!


As everybody was going their separate ways on Saturday we had a farewell dinner on Friday night at the Italian restaurant at NYNY.  Again good food and wine much enjoyed by all.

Days 1 to 4 - 26 to 29 July 2015

Well, I was right I have been a bit tardy with the blog to date.  That is only because I have been spending my time visiting the cultural highlights of Las Vegas and improving my knowledge of the history and geography of the region.

Anyway, back to the beginning.  Donna picked me up at home at 6.00 for an uneventful drive to the airport.  The check-in gate was open and I dropped off my bags and made my way through immigration and found a café for a heart starter coffee. 

The flight boarded about half an hour late and was late taking off.  I must admit that I was impressed with premium economy and it seems to be an acceptable compromise between business and economy class, particularly for the money.

We made up time on the flight and descended through the usual Las Angeles smog on time.  After making my way through customs and immigration and having the usual jokes with the homeland security peole I was waiting at the baggage carousel for my luggage when I heard the announcement that the luggage from the Virgin flight from Brisbane was available for collection.  I knew that this was the flight that Flashy and Lady P were on so I kept an eye out for them and later saw them ahead of me in a rather lengthy queue for the exit from the airport. 

As I came out from immigration Flashy and Lady P were standing with the various limo drivers and they had amusingly prepared a sign with my name on it.  We caught the shuttle bus to our hotel, the Four Points by Sheraton (LAX), which by the way I would recommend.  We arrived at the hotel at about 8.30 and although check in time check in time is usually 3.00pm they had rooms ready for us by 10.15.  The rest of Sunday was spent lazily by the pool and collecting the hire car from Hertz. 

Warren, Tammy and their daughter Mikayla arrived from New Zealand (henceforth known as the NZer's) and made up the balance of the party travelling to Las Vegas the next day.  Further drinks and some food was partaken and then an early night prior to driving across the desert to Vegas on the Monday.

Everybody was up and about early on Monday (early for folk on holidays anyway) and after breakfast the car was packed and we headed off for Vegas, or so we thought.  Unfortunately the GPS hadn't quite come t grips with life in the northern hemisphere and took a while to get its bearings, meanwhile taking us in meaningless circles around the less salubrious parts of LA.  Fortunately Lady P and her phone and the GPS (eventually) got us on the right track out of LA and on the way to Vegas.  Everything was going well on the drive across the Mojave desert until we came across a major traffic jam.  Eventually the traffic was stopped on both side of the interstate and stayed that way for an hour or so.  We never did find out what had happened to cause the traffic jams. 

New York New York

We arrived in Vegas later in the afternoon and checked into the New York New York hotel and casino.  Most of the party who have come to Vegas for the birthday party are staying at NYNY.  NYNY is a theme hotel (as are many of the hotels in Vegas) and the exterior is designed to look like copies of NY buildings and the interior represents various NY streetscapes, it is well done and good fun.

After meeting up with more members of the travelling party, including Jo (the birthday girl) and partaking of more drinks we hopped into a limo for the short journey to Fremont Street.  Fremont Street is the older part of Vegas and has undergone a resurrection to get their share of the tourist $. It is now a mall with a roof that has a light show and various other entertainments. We had agreed some time ago that we would do the Slotzilla zipline when it all seemed a bit vague and a long time away.  Well now was the time to stand up and face the zipline like a man (or a woman ) as the case may be.  The zipline is like a gigantic flying fox that runs the length of Fremont Street.  So they strap you into a straight jacket type thing and hook you up to the steel cable of the zipline.  The zipline starts over 100 feet high and runs for 1,750 feet under the roof of the mall and over the masses of people below and was great fun and a real buzz.

Fremont Street including Zipline

The WIFI here is crap and is really irritating me so I am calling it quits here, for the time being......more to come shortly........