New York City

On Friday January 20^th we went to New York City. The original reason for this trip was to go see Lysistrata Jones, a musical comedy which started out in a small theatre in New York, and then had such good reviews that it made it to Broadway In December. My brother in law is the costume designer on this play so I had to go see it. Because I know nothing about how Broadway works, and because it is not easy to get time off from work in December, we booked for January. Except that the play closed a week before we arrived. Rats!

But…….. but……. but…..it’s NEW YORK, and we’ve never been there before! How bad could it be to make the trip anyway, even though it's January? So at 05:30 a.m. we pulled out of the driveway to make our way to Syracuse by car, and from there take the train to New York. Cheaper than flying by $800 for the two of us, easier than winter driving and least likely to be affected by the weather (which was especially important when the play was still on) the train is the ideal way to get to New York in January.

It was just twilight when stopped for coffee and bagels at the usual Mallorytown stop and shortly after we crossed over the bridge at Hill Island and hit the US border and then interstate 81. Despite the fact that we'd had a snowstorm overnight, the road was pretty clean and we pulled into the parking lot of the train station in Syracuse around 9:30 after having filled up the car, so it would be ready for the return trip. The station is small but efficient and the Amtrak personnel extremely helpful. The train was on time and inside was like a roomy airplane with no doors on the overhead luggage storage. It was clean and comfortable.

The line is called the Empire Service and runs from Niagara Falls NY to New York City. We left right on time and began to make our way through the countryside east of Syracuse. All along our journey we were accompanied by the plaintive sound of the train’s horn, especially when there were workmen on the adjacent track. Before leaving home I loaded up my e-reader with several books, but the rain rocked considerably side to side and there was no chance of being able to read significant amounts of text before getting motion sick. The scenery proved to be interesting enough, and the window was clean.

Initially we saw only farms and houses, but after the first stop at Rome we started to see how the economy in this area used to be manufacturing based.  The tracks runs along the Erie Canal until Schenectady (where they veer south towards New York City) and it is obvious that many businesses chose to situate themselves here for these transportation options.Warehouses and factory buildings dating from the beginning of the 20^th century line the track. Some are still in use, some are renovated and converted, but many are in rough shape and a good number are completely abandoned.

What could this have been?

In between the urbanized areas we saw pale winter landscapes illuminated by a bleached January sun. Red dogwood branches and and yellowed grasses protruded through the snow cover along the track. Dormant fields flew by with plow patterns evident through the snow sculpted by the wind. 

Little pink houses for you an me?

Around 11:30 we were ready for some sustenance, and the photographer went to check out the restaurant car. Amtrak takes food pretty seriously, no soggy-ish refrigerated sandwiches. He returned with two breakfast sandwiches which were actually too hot to touch and we had to wait a few minutes after unwrapping. (Who wants to start a weekend away from home with a burnt palate?)  The sandwiches were immediately dubbed the "sausage Mc-Amtrack with egg". They were far tastier than their better known "cousins" It seems all Amtrack food must be served at temperature extremes, because the bottle of Perrier water was a block of ice.

Heritage building near Fonda 

By noon we passed Little Falls NY. It is a rustic village and the first one we saw nestled against the beginning mountains. Next stop: Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, NY

When we reached the Albany-Rensselaer station the train was stopped for a good 10 minutes. When we departed again it became obvious that all the personnel had been changed. I guess this way they do half the journey twice and sleep in their own bed each night.

Somewhere around Poughkeepsie the snow disappeared, and we see green weeds in the brown grass. At this point the landscape became also more urban, and at one point we even saw graffiti on a tree. 

No snow on the landscape here.

Once on the island of Manhattan the train spends a good deal of time underground. We arrived at Pen station a few minutes ahead of schedule, and began to find out way out of this maze to the surface, which should be 7th street. The station is at least three levels deep and various subway lines stop there as well. It is located underneath Madison Square Garden.  Outside it felt like shopping in Down Town Montreal on Christmas eve. People are in a hurry and you have to be assertive or you spend all your time allowing someone to go first. There was no snow at all on the streets Friday evening. Within two blocks I noticed a Dutch couple are walking just behind me, and before we made it to the hotel we noticed a group of people from Quebec.............

As we got closer to Times Square the advert screens became ever bigger and taller. In the square itself even the police booth is lit with bright neon lights, or no one would find it. We found our hotel, the Casablanca with no trouble, and checked in. The building has the same vintage early 20th century feel as we encountered in down town Chicago, something I really like. The two elevators are tiny, the lobby floor is tiled in small black and white tiles, and is all made of polished oak and the ceilings are high.

We dropped our stuff in the room and refresh. We chose to have dinner at the Russian Tearoom, a good 15 block hike north. The restaurant is next to Carnegie Hall, but scaffolding prevented us from taking a decent picture. I have never before had someone whip a table out of my way so I could enter a booth easier! Later I read on Wikipedia that the restaurant is considered a shadow of its former self. I had no reason to complain. The cocktails were imaginative, the food was excellent and the service attentive.

We took a walk around time square after dinner and the photographer got some good shots. The Toys 'r Us store has a mini (two stories tall) Ferris wheel in the store. Around the corner we happen onto a Sanrio store. He pretended he does not know me............

Must....not....grow....up.....!

The city that never sleeps.

By this time we were pretty beat and returned to the hotel and went to bed. At night the lights from times square flash in through the bathroom window.