Sunday, August 30, 2009

NYC

May 2009. What a nice idea to visit New York City, one of the most interesting and big cities of the world. Although, the weather was rainy, cloudy. Michael prepared the entire tour to visit: The Repertorio Español, a theater in Spanish, museums, restaurants. By the way, we found a Peruvian restaurant where they have the delicious, traditional Peruvian taste, "Pollo a la Brasa" in Restaurante Pio-Pio located in the East side: 1746 First Ave, full of noisy guests but yummy food! Therefore, Michael added in the agenda a tour to the Botanic Gardening, the Jew Community and the Cloisters, Despite of we missed our visit to the Building Empire due to the bad weather all the reservations were cancelled, our time in NYC was amazing!
Empire State Building, NYC

Michael drove five hours from New Hampshire to get the big city of NY and I was the co-pilot... who was sleeping from time to time :)

Now, we are in the great city, well known as The Five Boroughs. This phrase is used to refer New York as a city in order to avoid confusions with the Metropolitan area of New York, in other words there are two NY's one is the state and the other the city.

BROOKLYN Botanic Gardening - May 2009. If we think about NYC it comes to our minds its big buildings, gorgeous architecture, huge streets with nice shopping centers... but no, NYC is more than that, it is about its green areas, its history and culture.

The Lilac tree (above photo), were the most well looking with delightful fragrance, it lies in the Brookly Botanic Gardening. The area is 21.06 hás (52 acres). Huge! With a diversity of flowers, herbs and trees from around the world. It looks like a paradise!

The path of the Cherry Blossom is so lovely, with petals on the ground. I felt like a queen resting on pink petals!
There are many areas with amazing designs like this one that belongs to the Japanese garden style.
The below photo there is an announcement for kids to encourage and teaching them to do gardening, the program is called "Garden Kids". Brooklyn bridge, NYC. May 2009 One of oldest suspension bridges of the United States. It was built in 1870 and its length is 1825. It joins Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Also it was the first bridge suspended by steal cords. For that, this has became the historical symbol from New York.



This kind of bridges remind me something that some time ago I have read an article from the New York Times  "How The Incas Leapt Canyons". An interesting story, worth to read it! 


Impressive view of Manhattan burough from the Hudson river. As I told before, the day was rainy, but we were prepared for that. While Michael was standing up in a park, a group of movie makers were doing their job there.
recording a movie - NYC


We were delighted going to the the Spanish theater Repertorio Español located between 138 East 27th Street, New York. The "El Quijote de la Mancha" play was terrific!. Most of the artists were from Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, Argentina... buenisimo!


Blue bouquet.

A guided tour to the Jewish community. The visit was an special one, that allowed us to meet their traditions, life style among others.
This ambulance, according with our Jewish guide, said that it only attends emergencies from people of the Jewish community.

 The store has lots of silver decoration for selling. 


Now this picture was taken inside the temple.

What is Left after the 9/11
Visitors, tourist cannot avoid to stop by the place that with horror was attacked by terrorists during the last past 10 years. I must confess that it was sad looking the places around and imagining the overwhelming moment. We walked by the Ground Zero. I knew that Ground Zero refers to the place of maximun devastation, it can be the epicenter of an earthquake, etc. 

Waking few minutes from the GZ, you can notice this monument a round piece standing in a park, but it does not have a specific shape or meaning, we read what was written in the plaque. Below the story.
This monument is called "The Sphere", its creator was the artist Friz Koeni. Originally the Sphere was in World Trade Center plaza, it remained for at least 30 years ago as  peace symbol; after the disaster and with visible damage, this was relocated some blocks far away from the original place. Now The Sphere reminds the memory of who died in such devasted event.



Rebuilding the Grand Zero, NYC.



All the week was cloudy, so it was not a good idea to visit the Statue of Liberty, but it was a better day to shoot this picture for our album. The Statue of Liberty was a gift made by French people to remark their friendship in honor of the one hundred anniversary of the American Independence from the Great Britain. The lady's is 93 m high.

Museums Around
The museum for the German and Austrian art called "Neue Galerie", whas a worthy visit. Basically, this museum is about a group of German and Austrian artists who did a wonderful job with their paintings, scupltures, etc in the 20's , unfortunately most of them were chased by the Nazi regime, who considered them dangerous people against the nazi ideology.
Very close to the Neue Galerie museum, there is another one the "Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum" located in 1071Fifth Avenue, New York, the line is so big to visit it, we weren't able to get tickets.




 In Brooklyn the magnificient Public Library!
Over the floor of the Saint Paul Church, nearby to the Grand Zero, there is a plaque in honor of Queen Elizabeth II who visited New York in July 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial of the American Independence and it was right here where she was standing up.

Now, I am walking through the place where the economy operates worldwide : Wall Street.  I couldn't avoid to touch this Wall Street bull. There are a lot of tourists who try to do the same. The bull sculpture represents the symbol of optimism, aggressivenes and financial prosperity, slightly bent at their front legs and head bowing as if he is ready to attack. It was made by bronze and wieghs 3,200 kg

The Cloisters Manhattan, NYC.
This was our last place to visit. This is a brangh for the Metropolitan Art Museum of NYC. It holds medieval art and architecture.

The cloisters are in the north part of the Fort Tryon Park de Manhattan, nearby the Hudson River. Its area is 16,000m2

Interior of the cloisters
There are a lot of valuable collection. More than six thousand objects are for exhibicion in several galeries of the first floor located in the 5th Avenue.
Very nice design of the pear tree, climbing the wall. It is at least 50 years old!

Michael resting for a while in one part of the herbal and floral garden, listen to the song birds. Now, we are ready to come back to New Hampshire, after this sensational trip!!