Sunday 7th October 2018 (updated)

We did 12,000 or so steps on Saturday, but we knew we would crush that today. I had looked at the map, and a plan had come together.

Only, I have man flu, and as the day went on my temperature went up and up and I was sweating for England. And sneezing. I was a mess. But also driven to take snaps and see thing I have only dreamed of seeing. So, carry on as normal.

First of all we walked up Greenwich Street for about ten blocks, past all these grand old buildings, offices and tree lined streets, not having a village feel, but this was The Village. I was most taken by the wonderful fire escapes that covered the sides of the buildings facing the street, and all of them worth snapping.

We stopped off for breakfast at a café, sat at a table and pretended it wasn’t trying to rain. We both have pancakes and either bacon or sausage, and lashings of syrup. And plenty of hot joe. New York, or this part, seems to be populated by dog lovers, and a succession of these walked their pooches past, most looked pampered, but why not?

And being a Sunday, it was also very quiet on the roads too, just a few cars and trucks passed us as we ate.

Refuelled, we set off north some more, walking down the main road past what seemed to be a former fire engine house now converted to a dwelling before turning down a tree-lined street, where the trees' roots has caused the pavement to become all uneven; very uncity-like., until we went one block west and in front of us, was the start of the High Line. The High Line is an old elevated freight railway, that has now been converted to a walk and wildflower garden.

But before we walked that, we had an appointment with Mr Hopper at the Whitney Gallery. And we were half an hour ahead of schedule, so we sat outside a while, just resting up. I got talking to an artist who had set up a stall to sell her work, and got onto the subject of copyright theft as she thought I had snapped her work, and I said I would not do that as I respected people’s work and their copyright.

She was very pleasantly surprised, and so we had a long talk, until it was time to go into the museum.

We went to the top of the building, out to the viewing platforms to get views over the city to the huge scrapers in Uptown before those in the queue had a chance to join us looking out. I took several shots, needless to say..

Contemporary art can be challenging, and not all floats my boat, but there were some great stuff in there. And some blank canvases, that’s all I’m saying. I saw lots of work based on light and music, or audio visual, including a video wall of images and sound from Krafwerk's Musique Non-stop, was very arresting.

Outside again, we buy a drink and a pretzel, then climb the steps onto the High Line and find a place to sit and eat and sip our lemon tea.

Now, I like a walk, especially if there are plants and butterflies to look at, what I was not expecting is that half the city would also be out walking too, and getting in the way too, I mean, we’re all photographers these days, but damn, there were some crowds and slow walking people. The line goes fairly straight for a while, around and sometimes through buildings, until it reaches uptown where it snakes around where some of the brand new skyscrapers are being built, and then around the sidings for the Long Island Railroad, making pleasing patterns to the eye and the trains and track are mirrored by the buildings they both burrow under.

Highlight really was seeing a Monarch Butterfly, near enough to snap, even if I did not have the macro lens, but still, amazingly beautiful to see. It kinda glides rather than flutters, and is larger than I imagined them to be.

Near the end of the walk, the line winds through some spectacular new scrapers being built, then around the sidings for trains operating out of Penn Station, then one final corner and the walk drops to street level, right by the Mega Bus stops, and the place was even busier, that and the ComicCon taking place the other side of the street.

So seeing people dressed in blue body stockings or dressed like Lara Croft or a black Harry Potter could be seen. And a family of Flash. Or all four of them dressed like The Flash.

It is so warm now We go into a bar for a swifter, but the choice is poor, almost as bad as the service, and a pint of ale (poor) and small bottle of cider (also poor) was fifteen bucks! But we did get to watch escapees from ComicCon come for food and drink, good to see it being a family thing.

By now we were flagging, and I was sweating badly, we walked up to Penn Station, past Madison Square Garden. We were not hungry, but it was gone two and we felt we should be eating, and anyway needed a rest, so we go into a huge Irish bar, got a table with views of two NFL games, ordered steak slices with salad and a side of fries and onion rings.Even though it was a chain place and we got the last and so worst seats in the place, the food was really good and tasty. Also served with a smile and nothing too much trouble as it always is in the US. Or pretty much so.

Moving on, I was feeling worse and worse, but we did walk down to the Flatiron Building, a walk of four blocks down Broadway, where there was some incident going on, police and ambulances around, lights flashing, but I got the shots I wanted. Everywhere you look, there seems to be something going on, or the sound of a subway train just below the road surface or steam rising from the middle of the street.

We back up Broadway to the Empire State Building; I asked a guy in uniform who was opening door for folks how much it cost. We are told is was $38 each to go up, and we baulked at that, so we thought about it and decided not to go up. We sat beside the street for a while on one of the few benches, with all stratas of life walked by, some pushing all their possessions in a shopping cart, others dressed in shiny designer gear.

Last thing I wanted to do was snap Times Square at the blue hour, which we had to wait an half hour for, se we went into an Irish pub, there’s always one, and had another swifter and I watched more NFL. I was now so darned hot, I should have had juice, but beer seemed to be good to be honest. One last push now to Times Square and we could go back to the hotel....

Times Square was mad. I mean Leicester Square and Piccadilly on acid. And went on for 5 blocks. And the crowds got heavier and heavier, and there was pushing and shoving. It starts near Macy's, and from there you can see the neon shining brightly a block or so in front. And yet the further you walk north, the more there is of it, and crowds get thicker and thicker.

I had wanted to see the statue of George M Cohan, the man who made Broadway and the writer of Yankee Doodle Dandy, I saw one statue but it was of some dignitary. I did see the statue, right at the top of the square standing in front of what looked like a temporary stand, and when I look mack of my pictures, because of the camera's resolution, his name can be made out.

We had had enough, I got more shots then we turned for home, pushing through the crowds coming in the other direction or walking in the cycle lanes, always a dangerous step. We reach the subway and dive down to the platform below. We wait for a Downtown Train, which rattled and shoot us back to Canal Street, and from there we went via a deli get get a quart of OJ and some tortilla chips.

I laid on the bed drinking deeply from the carton, and made just about all of it vanish. I did feel better though I have to say.

23000 steps done.

Ouch.