Greetings from New York City! (3–5 July 2023)

We went to Montréal at least partly so we could take Amtrak’s train from there to New York City. Their Adirondack route was suspended during the pandemic, but we’d held out hope it would be reinstated in time for our trip and had been watching closely for an announcement. And, we were in luck: the route came back into service in April and we were able to get tickets.

But actually we weren’t in luck, because the day before we left Kingston, Amtrak notified us that Adirondack service was suspended indefinitely. Apparently a stretch of the track on the Canadian side was in poor repair and Canadian National, who own the rails, would only permit speeds of 10 miles per hour on that section in warmer weather. Amtrak had done the math and concluded that would take them past the longest allowable crew day for the route, so they cancelled entirely.

Fortunately, Amtrak gave us a full refund and there was an alternative. Unfortunately, the alternative involved nine hours on a Greyhound bus. This was actually two hours less than the train was scheduled to take, but a train is much more comfortable!

So, after a pleasant breakfast, Jen packed us a couple of sandwiches and Don drove us to the Gare des autocars to catch our bus.

Karen in the bus station — Karen queues for passport check and boarding in the Montréal Gare des autocars.

We were fifteen minutes out from the Gare when the driver pulled over. After a quick check he told us there was "an issue" with the bus that he wasn’t comfortable taking on a long trip. So, we re-routed to Greyhound’s Montréal garage, switched buses, and were on our way again.

Switching buses put us about an hour behind. However, we managed a slightly-shorter-than-planned stop at the border, and the driver skipped two of the scheduled breaks along the way, so we actually arrived about 8:30 pm as planned.

The hotel we’d booked in New York was right beside Penn Station, the train station we were supposed to arrive at. Fortunately the Manhattan bus station is only about eight short blocks from there, so we had an easy walk. (Manhattan blocks are long east-west, between avenues, and short north-south, between streets.) By the time we arrived we were famished — we had planned to buy dinner at one of the rest stops, but of course those didn’t happen. So we headed out to a nearby pub (Tailors) for a much-needed meal and a beer.

Nurses are awesome — On the way to the pub we spotted this awesome mural, at about 8th Avenue and West 32nd Street. Dedicated to our daughter Shona, who was a working Nurse for six years and is now a Nurse Practitioner.

The next day was Independence Day, which meant that much of the city was closed. However, the weather was fine – a bit hot and humid, with threat of thundershowers, but that’s about the best you can expect of a New York summer day. We decided to take advantage of the relative quiet and spend the day strolling Lower Manhattan, taking in the vibe.

Quiet New York street — An unusually quiet street in the West Village.

World’s largest Jenga — The world’s largest Jenga™ game, just waiting for a Big Player.

One of the two 9/11 Memorial pools and World Trade Centre 1.

9/11 memorial — Flags on the 9/11 Memorial pool, one for each victim.

Karen noticed that this tree at the World Trade Center Memorial site was clearly different from all the others. From the accompanying plaque: "This Callery pear tree stands distinct from the hundreds of swamp white oak trees on the Memorial. It was discovered amidst the wreckage of the 9/11 attacks, its bark charred from fires at the site and many of its limbs reduced to stumps. Yet somehow, the tree, still bearing leaves, showed signs of life. Recovery workers transported the tree to a nursery in the Bronx to be cared for by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. With careful tending, the stumps of burned and gnarled bark gave growth to longer and smoother branches. Replanted at the 9/11 Memorial in December 2010, this Survivor Tree bursts into magnificent blossom each spring, embodying a living symbol of resilience."

Statue of Liberty from Battery Park — The Statue of Liberty, viewed from Battery Park.

While walking in Battery Park we heard thunder and the weather radar showed we were about to be hit with an hour-long storm. Fortunately it was lunchtime, so we ducked into the nearby Toro Loco (“a funky Mexican place”) and had what turned out to be way too much delicious food while the rain passed.

From there we continued around to the East side of Manhattan, eventually making our way onto the Brooklyn Bridge and halfway to Brooklyn.

One of the two massive Brooklyn Bridge towers, seen from the pedestrian walkway.

Selfie with view from Brooklyn Bridge — Karen and Greg near the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

After returning to Manhattan we headed north through Chinatown.

Our plan was to watch the Macy’s Independence Day fireworks over the East River from the official viewing area at 1st Avenue and 32nd Street. The fireworks were due to start at 9:20 pm and we were a bit early, so Karen suggested we pop into a craft beer place while we waited.

Wall behind the bar at Craft and Carry — We ended up in Craft and Carry, which had sixteen interesting beer and cider on tap plus a wide range in cans. It was a slow evening and the staff was a lot of fun, so we had a great time chatting with them.

Buckaroo Banzai poster — The bathroom at Craft and Carry was wallpapered with movie posters, including one from Greg’s favourite movie peeking out behind the hand dryer.

Big Trouble in Little China poster — It also had a Spanish-language poster for Big Trouble in Little China, which is a sort-of but-not-really spiritual sequel to Buckaroo Banzai.

We headed from there to the fireworks and queued to get into the viewing area. Unfortunately they closed the line about 20 metres ahead of us and told us to go elsewhere. Manhattan being what it is, the view from pretty much everywhere was obscured by tall buildings. After a few minutes of not being able to see very much, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.

In the end we walked just over 20 kilometres, or 35,500 steps according to Greg’s phone. We were starved when we got back to the hotel, so Greg popped out to New York Pizza Suprema (“Artisan New York Pizza by the slice. Est. 1964.”) and we ate in the room. Great pizza, reasonable prices by Manhattan standards, 8th Avenue near West 31st, would totally recommend.

For some reason our legs were a little tired on the morning of the 5th, so we decided to keep things low-key. We checked out of the hotel, leaving our bags, and walked up to Times Square to experience the sensory overload.

Selfie in Times Square — Karen and Greg in Times Square. We managed to capture the display above Karen’s head at exactly the right moment!

From there we took the short walk to Bryant Park to join the Bryant Park Jugglers noon juggling session. Karen actually juggled for a change, managing at least eight consecutive catches of a three-ball cascade. Greg taught a couple of visitors how to juggle and did some club passing with Jeff (who was running the session), Matt, and a woman whose name he didn’t get. Unfortunately we were having so much fun we forgot to take pictures!

Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags, and onto the subway to begin the next phase of our trip.