After nearly three years of living in Spain, we finally returned home to the US. Emotions were mixed about the trip home. We were excited to see our families for the holidays. We were excited to have time to see friends we hadn't been able to see over the past few years. We were sad to leave behind our great friends we'd made over the years in Spain and the lifestyle we'd come to enjoy. There's something relaxing and enjoyable about the way Spaniards live, even if their economy is tanking. They will relax, have a beer, and watch the ship go down in flames. Así, es la vida. Izzy's brother picked us up from the airport after an early morning flight from Madrid to Dublin and Dublin on to JFK in NYC. The transition was great to go from one big city to another. It definitely helped to ease the pain of leaving behind Madrid. We spent the evening laughing, drinking, and eating some good barbeque in Harlem. The next morning, we awoke early, still six hours ahead of New York time and caught a great view from her brother's apartment.
We spent the next three days doing something we haven't done before, acting like tourists in our own country. We sauntered through the streets of New York looking at all of the sites, listening to the sounds, and feeling like we were on just another long weekend trip. On Thursday, we wandered through Manhattan.
Time Square is the epitome of American culture. It's fast, mesmerizing, and too much to take in at once. Everywhere we turned, there was something fighting to get our attention. We tried to eat lunch around the corner at the B.B. King restaurant but after sitting at a table for twenty minutes and no one coming to take our order, we got up and left.
Grand Central Station is the heart of rail transportation in New York City. Originally built in 1871 to provide competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad, Grand Central Station is an historic landmark in New York City. In 2013, the rebuilt terminal will celebrate it's centennial birthday. In 1903, the firm of Reed and Stern won the bid to use their design for the new terminal. Not be outdone, architects of Warren and Wetmore pulled some strings to get an appeal heard and have their design submitted for acceptance. In the end, the two were made to collaborate and the current building is the result of that collaboration.
After wandering around Grand Central, we headed south to the Chelsea area of Manhattan. There is a great market(
Chelsea Market) full of local shops with food, cooking supplies, and even some clothing stores. Across the street from it is one of Tom Colicchio's restaurants(Colicchio and Son's).
On Friday, we were able to catch up with a good friend of ours from Savannah that had recently relocated to Brooklyn. We spent an hour on the subway making our way south from upper Manhattan. Thank god we'd had years of having to use the subways all across Europe because it definitely helped us figure out the New York City subway mess. It's unbelievable how complicated the maps can look. I would hate to come from not knowing how to maneuver through a public transport system and then be dropped at a subway stop and told to figure it out. Yikes!
We spent the morning catching up and taking a stroll around Brooklyn to Prospect Park. It was built in 1867 by Olmsted and Vaux after the completion of Central Park in Manhattan. It spans over 585 acres and offers locals a great place to relax, play sports, and escape the concrete jungle that surrounds them at every turn. The park has several man made lakes/ponds that house famous structures like the Prospect Park Boathouse.
The main entrance to the park is the Grand Army Plaza, located at the north end. It boasts an impressive European style arch, called the Soldier's and Sailors' Arch, dedicated to the soldiers that preserved the union during the Civil War. A man named Frederick Macmonnies designed the bronze statues in 1894 to adorn the arch.
After a lunch stop at Dutch Boy Burger, we headed for the Brooklyn Bridge. It's probably one of the most famous landmarks in the city so, of course, we had to walk across it to Manhattan. Completed in 1883, it is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country. At the time of construction, it's 1,595 ft span was the longest in the world for a suspension bridge. It's design came from the German immigrant Roebling due to his experience with suspension bridges. The story of the health of his family as it relates to the bridge's construction is an interesting tale.
The original bridge's designer, John Roebling, had several toes crushed by a ferry that pinned his foot while he was doing surveys. After having the toes amputated, he developed a nasty tetanus infection that would take his life. He left the project to his son Washington, who also had some health issues. He suffered from decompression sickness because of working within the caissons used to set the foundations of the bridge. His health deteriorated to the point where he had to train his wife, Emily, in mathematics and other engineering concepts so that she could oversee the construction of the bridge. She spent eleven years overseeing the completion of the bridge. Amazing.
We spent Friday evening hanging out with our friends and enjoying a good dinner. Saturday morning, we awoke early and headed down to the edge of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance. Sadly, it was closed for renovation so we were unable to go see it up close. Instead, we walked around Battery Park enjoying the brisk Saturday morning.
A last picture we couldn't help taking or posting was this one of a New York City cop sitting in the window of a doughnut shop. We went back to Brooklyn on Saturday to find some local markets and take some pictures for Izzy's brother and his fiancé. They introduced us to an amazing doughnut shop that everyone who visits New York City should try, Dough Donuts. They were awesome.
After a short 3 days in New York, we had move on and head south to visit more friends and family along our slow return to Savannah. Our next stop was Maryland and then on to North Carolina. Coming soon, our day in Boston.
