Wow, cycling into New York. We've cycled into Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul and even though this is not such an 'exotic' place, it's still very exciting. And after about two hours on busy small roads we finally reach the Queens Greenway - a bike corridor that takes us all the way into that borough.
Thankfully our destination is easy to find - you coudn't miss it. We're going to stay with Barnaby, Hai Dung and their son, Andre, on Roosevelt Island - in the East River, between Queens and Manhattan Island. It's a small appartment and we really appreciate their kind offer to put us up for 10 days because this gives us plenty of time to explore the city.
The Christmas build-up is in full force. Ice rinks are busy, snow falls. We roam different neighbourhoods, Lower East Side, SoHo and Chinatown along with Dumbo and Brooklyn. We take the boats down the East River, walk the Brooklyn Bridge with thousands of other visitors, and ride the slightly terrifying cable car (Barnaby tells us it got stuck in mid-air recently) back to Roosevelt Island. Gayle is unimpressed by the grid of Manhattan - it creates wind tunnels and the east-west streets are all cast in shade.
Highlights include the Metropolitan Museum, the restored first synagogue of the city, a Modigliani exhibition, ice-skating in Bryant Park, the thrift stores in SoHo, and sledging on a baking tray with Andre and Barnaby on their island. We walk and walk and at the weekends when Barnaby and Hai Dung are off work, we visit Central Park. The weather is sunny or snowy. It is seriously cold some days. We return to the Met because there is so much we want to see there. All in all, we have a great time and tire ourselves out. That's the big cities for you, I guess.
The last time we saw Barnaby was when we stayed with him in Islamabad in 2008. It was a difficult and stressful time for him there so it's really great to see him looking more relaxed and happy. When we say our goodbyes we leave by boat. It seems the sensible way to go - down to Manhattan and then onto the New Jersey shore.
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Thankfully our destination is easy to find - you coudn't miss it. We're going to stay with Barnaby, Hai Dung and their son, Andre, on Roosevelt Island - in the East River, between Queens and Manhattan Island. It's a small appartment and we really appreciate their kind offer to put us up for 10 days because this gives us plenty of time to explore the city.
The Christmas build-up is in full force. Ice rinks are busy, snow falls. We roam different neighbourhoods, Lower East Side, SoHo and Chinatown along with Dumbo and Brooklyn. We take the boats down the East River, walk the Brooklyn Bridge with thousands of other visitors, and ride the slightly terrifying cable car (Barnaby tells us it got stuck in mid-air recently) back to Roosevelt Island. Gayle is unimpressed by the grid of Manhattan - it creates wind tunnels and the east-west streets are all cast in shade.
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| getting onto the ice Gayle slipped and shoved some small kids over, but once she got some spped up there was no stopping her |
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| snow! |
The last time we saw Barnaby was when we stayed with him in Islamabad in 2008. It was a difficult and stressful time for him there so it's really great to see him looking more relaxed and happy. When we say our goodbyes we leave by boat. It seems the sensible way to go - down to Manhattan and then onto the New Jersey shore.
