The reason we live in London now is so we can access travel adventures in the UK and Europe, however we found a reason to venture over the Atlantic to New York again. We are both big Billy Joel fans (His was my first gig, 19th May, 1976 Sydney Opera House). Back in 2010 we noticed that he did regular “home town” gigs at Maddison Square Garden. When we realised that he is still doing them seven years later we looked up his age, looked up our ages and decided there was not a minute to lose. We bought tickets to his September show and the logistics came later.
He didn’t disappoint! More than two and a half hours of belting out hits to an energetic and very enthusiastic crowd’s utter pleasure. He is quite the New York institution. The couple we sat next to had been twelve times! He usually produces at least one guest star each performance and this time he was joined by none other than Paul Simon and Miley Cyrus! We had a really enjoyable night and sang along with enthusiasm.
When we were last in NYC in 2010, the World Trade Centre Memorial was still under construction so we were keen to see it completed. It is an almost surreal place on the footprints of the original twin towers and the beautiful symbolism of the water falling then flowing into seemingly infinite voids was incredibly moving. The way that the names of the victims are cut out of bronze parapets rather than engraved or in relief was also symbolic of the void their deaths created for so many. 9/11 Memorial staff place a white rose on the names of the victims on their birthdays which is almost unbearably sad.
I couldn’t bear to go into the museum so we just spent some contemplative time at the pools and among the trees with the huge waterfalls drowning out the noise of the city.
We actually had no idea that the One World Trade Center had an observation deck but when we saw a very short queue we figured, why not. The lift is a 3-D visual perspective of the history of New York on that site thanks to floor to ceiling LCD screens on the three walls, which is a pretty cool way to spend your 47 seconds of ascent (and descent, the whole thing in reverse). The views from the 100th floor are awesome. We had excellent visibility the length of Manhattan, in fact all five boroughs and New Jersey too.
During our days in New York we walked The High Line, an elevated park built on an old rail line, the Hudson River Greenway another new park that runs along the… well the Hudson River (obviously). We visited our old friends; The New York Public Library (home to Winnie the Pooh and co.), Brooklyn Bridge, Guggenheim Museum, Grand Central Station, Central Park and Alice [in Wonderland] and friends, We ate bagels and waffles and remembered that we had forgotten just how big Manhattan is! On our first day we got back to the hotel just in time to shower, change and get to MSG for Billy where we quickly consumed the most expensive hot dog and beer on earth (!!!) Still we weren’t going to survive three hours with nothing to fuel our enraptured sing-a-long.
Over our two days we walked approximately 30 kilometres! About a quarter of those in pursuit of some “little things”, but more about that later. On our last night we had a great time catching up with our friend Bruce enjoying good food and a few bevies before going back to his place overlooking the East River with a stop off for some corner shop red. That all went very well until it was time to rise at about 5am to get our train to JFK for our flight to Boston. Hmmmmm, nuff said.
Boston was new to us so we prioritised our two day stay. First stop the John F Kennedy Library and Museum which was brilliant. Just awesome. I couldn’t help feeling how the Presidential Seal has been badly let down of late certainly by comparison to this erudite man of passion and foresight.
The displays are fascinating and the videos of him delivering some of his most memorable speeches were very moving. It’s hard to remember that his presidency lasted just under three short years. This place is a tribute to his accomplishments and as such I’m pleased to say that the events of November 22nd, 1963 are dealt with in one small display with a simple television broadcast of the news being broken to the world. I hurried on through. I’ve always felt haunted by the photo of little John Jr. saluting his father’s coffin even though I was only three myself when it happened. There was a special exhibition of 100 significant objects from his life to mark the 100 years since John F Kennedy’s birth. The building has a spectacular atrium and is built on Columbia Point on Massachusetts Bay, a nod to Kennedy’s love of the water.
We visited downtown Boston and walked some of the famous Freedom Trail. The whole thing takes at least a day. Our accommodation was a lovely B&B in the leafy suburb of Newton with a fabulous restaurant nearby which was so good we returned to the same place on our second night. Their specialty was small plates of lovely fresh local produce. They made a bowl of brussel sprouts into a scrumptious delicacy! The scallops, beef tenderloin, baked eggplant and more…mouth-watering.
On our second day we did a tour of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox and oldest ball park in the US, 1912. It really is very quaint and the tour was very informative even for us non-baseball types (we were the only non-Americans on the tour). We walked the three and a half miles to Harvard University to soak up some Ivy League scholarly vibe, oh, and a mega burger from the famous student eatery Bartley’s Burgers. Ian had a “Taxachu$ett$” with Boston baked beans on it (!) and I had a “Tom Brady” and bloody good they were too. Then back in downtown for a bit of shopping and strolling by the harbour including the site of the Boston Tea Party.
We picked up our car from the airport in the evening all set to head off early the next morning on our leaf-peeping tour of New England. South through Massachusetts and a stop in a little town in Rhode Island for some of the best coffee we found on our trip. The full extent of the horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas a few days before was filtering through to the flags that are such a feature of America. They are on so many buildings, town squares and many people’s porches. Now they all flew at half-mast as a sign of respect for the 59 dead but I couldn’t help but feel some anger towards this empty gesture, for when it comes down to it the same tired sane voices call for gun control against the powerful lobby who refuse to relinquish any concession to reducing firearm carnage. Lowering your flag just seems like much too little, much too late.
We stayed in a stately 1873 French Second Empire (no less) mansion in a little town in Connecticut, furnished with antiques and the odd ghost I’m pretty sure. It was beautiful and the local pub again had superb fresh local produce, deliciously prepared.
The next morning we set off early, heading north. I wanted to take a spin through Hartford, home of Emily and Richard Gilmore (for the GG fans).
I wish we hadn’t.
We have driven literally thousands of miles in hire cars in Europe and the US, all without incident. Our luck finally ran out in Hartford, Connecticut. It was a simple error on Ian’s part and the consequences could have been devastating. Without going into too much detail, Ian suffered a 20 cent sized bruise on his ribs and deafening ringing in one ear from the side airbag deployment. I got a weirdly placed little bruise on my arm and a tiny scratch on my hand and an uncontrollable urge to shake and sob. (Car accidents are LOUD) The other guy (totally in the right) was amazingly understanding and pragmatic and received a nasty scrape on his forearm again from the airbag deployment. Both cars were right offs. It was a very nasty incident that could have been soooooooo much worse. Thank goodness for modern day car safety standards, airbags and strong side pillars. Our attending police officers were calm, considerate and ultimately extremely helpful as they organised a tow for the car and a lift to the car hire place for us. From the time of impact to the time we drove out in our replacement car was less than two hours. Weird in many respects when the line was certainly a fine one between moving on and completely screwing our holiday.
Drive on we did through Massachusetts and Vermont to White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire with a stop in New Haven to check out Yale (didn’t spot a single Whiffenpoof!) We spent an evening in a New Hampshire pub cheering on the NE Patriots who were handing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers their butts in a sling. But the main reason we were there was the colours! The colours! We took the cable car to the top of Cannon Mountain and walked the Flume Gorge Trail.
The autumn colours were everywhere. I had thought that we would have to go to particular places to see the trees and their changing leaves but they lined the roads and spread out as far as the eye could see in many places. By the time we hit the famous Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire I was out of superlatives. Every bend brought richer reds, brighter yellows, oranges, even purple and pink. We stopped at every opportunity to soak in the spectacle and try to capture the wonder. Maine was even more colourful and surprising. This is why I chose Billy Joel’s end of September gig, in an attempt to line up with peak leaf peeping season. We pretty much hit the money in the north. Connecticut and Massachusetts were still a week or two off peak but Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were superb.
Now here is the clincher, my darling, gorgeous, beautiful Ian is colour blind and while he could appreciate the stunning vistas and the lovely trees all around us, the amazing kaleidoscope of colour was lost on him. He pointed his camera where I pointed mine and he laughed when I said my 70th “OH MY!!!” as we rounded each bend. If this is not love, then I don’t know what is.
Bar Harbor in Maine was our destination on Ian’s birthday and we donned our bibs and chowed down on the most marvellous clam chowder then whole lobster, mussels and spuds followed by local blueberry pie. It was all wonderfully delicious but the lobster was just superb. They serve it pretty much ‘au naturel’, freshly boiled with a pot of melted butter to dip in or pour on and I had to stop myself making little whimpering noises of gastronomic ecstasy.
It was time to head south again and we stopped at the lovely Portland Light (house), then Kennebunkport and dinner in Salem, home of the famous witch hunts in the 1690s where we stumbled on the Haunted Bizarre Bazar. The streets were full of people in fancy dress and the main street home to stalls with all things witchy and magic related, including a statue of Samantha from ‘Bewitched’.
Throughout every state we visited…Pumpkins. Pumpkins as a decorator item. In fact Pumpkins as THE decorator item. In every size and uniformly Halloween orange. On porches and tables, by front doors and in gardens, shop windows and counters. Not carved, just placed. Maybe they carve them closer to 31st. For sale by the hundreds.
October = Pumpkins. Who knew?
Back in Boston for the night then another early morning start to Cape Cod where we took the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. We had a car on the island and circumnavigated it during the day. More awesome fresh seafood and pretty views. The island has a permanent population of about 15-20,000 that rises to over 115,000 during the summer with visitors and summer home owners flocking to the island to enjoy the coastal life and mild clime. I’m glad we were there out of season. It was lovely, (Ian wants to move there!) with light houses and pretty, colourful timber clad houses and many sandy beaches
We flew out of Boston that night and Ian just had time to get home shower, change and head into a day’s work the next morning. Did I say that he is a good man?
So that’s it. With that one exception we had another brilliant holiday and saw some stunning sights and enjoyed some wonderful experiences. Of course one of us found the sights more stunning than the other but he swears he enjoyed the experience very much.