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It's a balmy 84 degrees outside and the city of New York is well and truly alive on a friday night that heralds the start of Memorial Day weekend right accross the mainland. My first experience at crossing the street is a bit tenuous as I try to remember that the traffic is on my left over here. Careful as I am its a spooky feeling possums, but I manage to cross the four lanes of West 54th without too much incidence. Dinner at the Morning Star Diner with some people from the flight introduces me to the New York Beef Sandwich, which by the way, isn't two slices of bread with a slice of corned beef slapped in the middle. No this is a typical big meal comprising rye bread topped |
| with sliced browned beef, american cheddar cheese and it comes with fries, onions plus coleslaw. At $7.50 its all I need in a meal, there will be no room for dessert tonight. The coffee is a bottomless cup and the rest of the diners have the waiter assigned to our table seeming to make endless trips to refill their cups. The service is good here and that means a tip of 15% for our waiter which is dutifully left on the table while we pay for our meal at the cashier on our way out. Broadway is just two blocks away and really looks spectacular at night. It was here that new yorkers welcomed in the new millenium and having watched the celebrations on television back home it appears to have a real familiarity about it. Yes, it is noisy and damn crowded but the atmosphere is great as is the spectacle of all the color from the many neon signs that blaze away in the night sky. |
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Everywhere there are people hawking tickets to the theatre goers, bands belting out a variety of styles and hawkers either selling something or collecting for some cause. Its a vibrant and very much alive scene but after an hours walking around the jet lag starts to take its toll and I head back to the Holiday Inn for what I hope will be a good nights sleep. Seven hours later I am awakened by the sounds of a city stiring. I have one special place to look up this morning. It's Joe G's Pizza Bar which is featured on many occassions in the David Letterman Show. I find it right next to the Ed Sullivan Theatre where Letterman broadcasts from. I introduce myself, tell them I've |
| come all the way from australia to see Joe G's and after some hearty handshaking I'm seated for a great breakfast of hand made italian sausages, scrambled eggs, potato and onion, heaps of toast and delicious Grape Jelly. This is the life I think to myself as I take in the sight of the famous yellow cabs, many beautiful horse and carriage sets passing by and a steadilly building saturday morning crowd moving along the pavement. From breakfast I take to the streets and set off for Central Park. During the day I'm told by the local NYPD guys that its very safe in the park so I venture in to discover a very beautiful setting. From here its the Trump Towers, Rockerfellow Center and after a sidewalk lunch down to Time Square with the huge sea of people all milling around seeming to go nowhere. This area is a photographers paradise with the neon signage and billboaords spectacular even during |
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daylight, so I get plenty of shots in. After late lunch its time to prepare for the next leg of the trip. Late afternood I will travel by train to Philadelphia and then on to Lancaster in Amish Country. That means being at Penn Station by 3:00pm to catch the flyer which is electric powered to Philadelphia and then diesel to Harrisburg. I won't have to change trains, they will just do a change over while we can stretch our legs. The trip to Philly is a fast journey, something every tourist who chooses to travel Amtrak must be grateful for. Why is that? Well this would have to be the filthiest piece of railroad I've seen anywhere in my time spent travelling the world. It is a |
| bloody eyesore with every sort of rubbish and dead animals thrown in. About the only thing I didn't see was a human corpse. Thankfully the trip from Philly to Lancaster is the exact opposite and a tourism dream. The countryside is very lush with beautiful trees, neat towns and villages and picturesque Amish farms. The religious sect lives just as it was portrayed in "Witness" which starred Harrison Ford. The sight of Mules running alongside the track as we speed past lovingly cared for farmlands and people moving around in horsedrawn buggeys is like stepping back in time. I arrive at Lancaster and step onto the same platform that Ford strode along while filming. It seems |
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