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The morning found us in good spirits and feeling well-rested despite the length and duration of our travels yesterday. It was a relatively relaxed start with our first appointment not scheduled until 10am, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast of pastries and tea courtesy of our visit to Trader Joe’s yesterday. If anyone fancies opening a Trader Joe’s franchise in the UK then consider me first in line.
And so with a spring in our step and a song in our heart (knowing Ellie, probably one from the You’ve Got Mail soundtrack) we headed out into the late summer New York sunshine. Our first destination was the Empire State Building, just one block over from our hotel. I’d also visited this landmark on the first morning of my only previous visit to the city, with my family back in the dim and distant past of 2002. On that occasion we collectively managed to miscalculate the time difference and arrived at the building an hour prior to opening, with my most distinct memory being the time we spent chatting to the security guard about his native Estonia while we waited the 60 minutes for the observation deck to open.
No such mishaps this time as we arrived bang on 10am. There were somewhat predictable hordes of tourists from all over the world milling around outside but things were kept moving efficiently by the teams of staff who were dressed in grey 1930s bellhop outfits, the period garb giving the whole experience a ‘theme park’ vibe. Getting to the top of the building required passing through various checkpoints and an airport-style security scan before moving through the museum section and King Kong photo opportunity before taking two lifts to reach the outdoor viewing area.
It was a beautifully clear day at the top of the tower and much more spacious than the scrum we’d found at Top of the Rock last night. We had plenty of time to wander around and admire the view from each side of the building for as long as we liked. As much as the Empire State is a bit of a cliche when it comes to New York tourist attractions, and plenty of people have their own preferences when it comes to the best alternative views of the city, I still think the combination of views and history this grand old building provides is pretty magnificent. And they’ve cleaned up all the damage done by Kong very well.
After heading down and out through the gift shop (as is tradition), then the beautiful art deco lobby, we stopped off for a piping cold beverage in the Starbucks on the ground floor. I’m reliably informed it is now Pumpkin Spice season, although this is a joy I will never experience myself as my tastebuds will never acclimatise to the acrid taste of bean, no matter how much sugar and flavourings are present to mask the scent of coffee. Thankfully they also had a rather tasty iced strawberry drink on offer to satisfy coffee wusses such as myself.
Drinks complete we headed across the road to Macy’s, which I’d learned during our time sitting down in Starbucks is the largest department store in the whole of North America. It even has its own in-store jail. Despite its fame the interior was very disappointing, I think we were expecting something opulent akin to Harrods but what we found could be best described as ‘slightly less glamorous than Jarrolds’. The most exciting thing we found were the wooden escalators on the upper floors. At least it wasn’t far out of our way.
By this time we were ready for lunch so we wandered back up Broadway in the direction of Times Square. On one of the side streets was a traditional Taco store (Los Tacos No.1) that Ellie had researched, and judging by the queues outside (most of which seemed to be locals) it was going to be a good one. We decided to get four tacos between the two of us as this would give us the opportunity to try each variety - chicken, steak, pork, and most intriguingly, cactus. We grabbed a space to stand as there were no seats inside and enjoyed a delicious, if slightly messy, lunch. I could have probably eaten another couple of tacos but we had a big dinner due later so I decided to leave it there. The cactus in particular proved a big hit, tasting almost but not quite like green pepper.
From there we hopped on the subway north to the vicinity of MOMA - the Museum of Modern Art. I took us on a slightly deviated route so I could laugh at the tasteless opulence of Trump Tower. Once we were outside temptation got the better of me and I decided to pop inside. Ellie stayed outside in her own personal protest against everyone’s least favourite orange fascist but I justified my visit from a purely historical perspective, and perhaps I could free Melania in the process. The interior of the building was much as expected, with the infamous golden escalator from Donnie’s original campaign launch being only a few steps away, and plenty of US flags and presidential ephemera. The gift shop was closed though so no MAGA hat or Trump trading cards for Ellie this Christmas.
We reconvened outside where I learned that Ellie had been into Tiffany’s next door and survived with wallet intact, and then made the short walk to MOMA. My relationship with the world of art has always been complex to say the least, unlike a lot of other subjects at school (nerd alert) it didn’t come naturally to me, and my response was to push away from it and never really engage. Whether I’d been denying myself a lot of culture as a result was up for debate, but either way I was looking forward to this visit as this museum featured a lot of works and artists that even an ignoramus such as myself had heard of.
The museum was spread over 5 floors with most of the famous works spread over the top two. I definitely enjoyed stumbling across some of the famous pieces I was familiar with even though sometimes the size of these painting took me by surprise - I’d always imagined The Persistence of Memory by Dali to be a huge canvas whereas the real thing is barely bigger than a postcard. Whereas some of the Monets were almost the length of an entire room.
Having had some to consider it I think the art I enjoy most falls into the spot where the subject is mostly obvious but your brain is required to fill in the gaps or come up with an interpretation (e.g. some of the more surreal Picasso works), rather than stuff which is almost photorealistic (which obviously takes a lot of talent, but I find pretty boring) or the other end of the scale where I feel I could have produced work of a similar standard aged 4 (looking at you, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko). I did have a good laugh imagining what my Dad would make of some of the modern art pieces on the lower floors, the spade hanging from the ceiling being a particular highlight/lowlight.
Culture completed, we had a quick sit in the museum’s gardens and then headed back to the hotel for a rest and freshen up. Dinner that night was my one food bucket list destination for the trip, Katz’s Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. This traditional deli sells huge sandwiches that have to be seen to be believed. During the day it’s heaving with customers but we were pleased to see it was a lot more manageable after dark.
We managed to navigate the idiosyncratic ordering system without too much trouble - you take a ticket at the start which then gets marked with all your choices and you pay on the way out, if you lose your ticket you’re fined 50 dollars! I went for a Pastrami Sandwich with cheese and brown mustard whereas Ellie had a Half Corned Beef Sandwich and Matzo Ball Soup. The taste was honestly incredible and worth the trip, even though I probably had the meat sweats by the end and had to waddle out of the building once finished.
We decided to walk off our sandwiches at the top of the Empire State Building as our tickets granted us reentry after 8pm. In comparison to earlier the place was extremely quiet and we were swiftly at the top admiring New York at night. We both remarked it was strangely peaceful up there being able to see so much life below us, yet being so removed from it on high. It was a fantastic end to the day and I’m sure the ones to come will be just as exciting.
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