Bill & Sheri’s Icy Adventure

October - November 2022
We’re heading to NYC for some culture and to Iceland to see the Northern Lights, waterfalls and geothermal lagoons
  • 33footprints
  • 2countries
  • 14days
  • 216photos
  • 11videos
  • 7.6kmiles
  • 6.6kmiles
  • Day 1

    The adventure begins!

    October 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    Travelogue Day 1 - Palm Springs to NYC on October 30th. Bill's trip started out really well: PS to PHX on time, connection gate for NYC 2 gates down from arrival point in PHX. Flight to NYC on time and no issues but then....the 17-mile trip from EWR to Brooklyn took 2 hours (just love this traffic).

    Then headed out to dinner, 4 blocks from hotel, got lost wandered around for an hour ending up having dinner at hotel. Overall day one rating B.

    I do have one musing, how did the Newark airport end up with the call letters EWR? Most airports call letters make sense IAH, SFO, PSP, LAX, LGA, JFK...but EWR? Is it just a New Jersey thing?

    Sheri's obligatory airport photo included. Her trip from JAX to EWR to Brooklyn hotel was uneventful.
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  • Day 1

    Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

    October 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    Started the day with a great breakfast at Juniors (some of you may know their cheesecakes). Sheri had cheese blintzes you could have fed the whole of North Africa on and I had corn beef hash...delish. AND WARM CHOCOLATE RUGELACH! After that huge breakfast, it was time for a walk so we decided to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, along with about 2000 other people.

    Great views from the Bridge into Manhattan.

    This building in the picture was on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, standing all on its own.

    The bridge itself was opened in 1883 (construction began in 1869) as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and was also called the East River Bridge, it was officially named the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915.

    In 1884 to prove the bridge was stable, PT Barnum lead 21 elephants across the bridge.

    At the time the bridge opened, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

    We ended up walking for miles and miles and miles...see the other day one photos for more of the day's action.
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  • Day 1

    St Patrick’s and the catacombs

    October 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    We ended the day doing a candlelight walk through the catacombs at the Original St Patrick's Cathedral now called the “St Patricks Old Cathedral”. in what is now Little Italy on Mulberry Street. Most of you know of St Patrick's Cathedral in the heart of Manhattan on 5th avenue. However, well before that time, this Cathedral was opened in a much poorer part of town. Built between 1809 and 1815 in the Gothic Revival Style. It remained the Cathedral of New York City until 1879 when the “new” St Patricks Cathedral was built uptown.

    The area that is now Chinatown and Little Italy was once Five Points. The persecuted Catholics from Ireland settled the area in the 1700’s, however until 1778 when the British were defeated in the revolutionary war, Catholicism was banned in New York. Once the British left, Catholic Churches sprang up all over New York, eventually becoming large enough to warrant creation of a Diocese. Once the Irish became established and gained wealth, they moved uptown during the “Gilded Age”. The neighborhood became the home of the persecuted Italian Catholics and the area became known as Little Italy. Later the Chinese would arrive and the area was split between the Italians and Chinese. This once poor area of the city is now the second most expensive neighborhood in all of New York.

    Once St Patrick's Cathedral was built uptown, the old Cathedral returned to the status of a Parish since the Archbishop no longer resided in the church. It remained a parish until 2010, when the Pope named it a Basilica.

    Fun Facts: A Cathedral is named after the chair where the Bishop sits which is called a Cathedra, the Cathedral is the home of the Cathedra.

    A Basilica is the Pope’s House. When he visits an area he must have his own residence while there. Basilica’s are identified by the Umbrellina (the Pope’s Umbrella). The Umbrellina sits over the Cathedra and is given to each of the named Basilica’s by the Catholic Church. In the pictures you will see a brightly colored covering sitting to the left of the dais.

    Half of the cost of the original cathedral was donated by Pierre Toussaint, a black slave hairdresser, who is now on track to become the third canonized saint from the Old Cathedral. The others are Elizabeth “Ann” Seton, a nun who opened the first Catholic Orphanage and John Neumann who helped to organize Catholic Religion in the US. Toussaint is the only non Archbishop buried at the new St Patrick's Cathedral.

    The American Countess Anna Leary is buried at the catacombs of the Basilica St Patrick. She was name a Countess by Pope Leo XIII for her donations (100 million plus) to Catholic causes.

    Martin Scorsese attended the Catholic School at the Basilica St Patrick and is still a member of the church. His movie, 'The Gangs of New York', is about warfare between the various gangs living in Five Points. The area was so named due to a five-way intersection of Walton Street, 27th Street, Washington Street, and East 26th. The 4 streets came together but have five different street corners, the name originated in 1881 when the street cars could not fit all the names on the signs.

    The Basilica sits on what was once a Dutch cemetery. The Catholic Church purchased the cemetery and surrounding lands and they decided to build in the church in the middle of the cemetery. They split the cemetery and left the south side graves intact but moved others to the north side to create a new cemetery and built the church in between. Normally grave sites that are next to a church are called graveyards, however, since the cemetery existed before the church it is still called a cemetery.

    The catacombs built for the church all hold up to 12 caskets. The catacombs are unsealed and resealed with each subsequent burial until the 12 person limit has been met. There are still vaults which are unsealed and could be opened for additional residents, but the City of New York outlawed any additional human remains to be buried within the city because the bodies were contaminating the water supply. Only cremated remains can be interred at the site.
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  • Day 1

    Dinner at Peter Luger’s

    October 31, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    Finally, dinner at Peter Lugers. Not sure if this is just an old school place, or if they’re money laundering….the only take cash or debit cards. NO CREDIT CARDS. If you go, take PLENTY of cash because it ain’t cheap. However, the food is excellent and plentiful, wait staff is pleasant and the place is packed so make a reservation. If you drink, be prepared to pay $25 to $30 per drink.Read more

  • Day 2

    Foggy morning for some

    November 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    After having our second morning breakfast at Junior’s, we came out of the restaurant and saw this new construction going up. People on those top floors will be waking up to fog some days. But the rest of the time they should have some pretty spectacular views!Read more

  • Day 2

    Touring Brooklyn Heights

    November 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F

    We spent a few hours walking around and getting lost in the Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Beautiful area with tree-lined streets covered in colorful leaves this time of year since it is Autumn. You can see in some of the photos in this group the beautiful colors of Fall.

    We made our way down to the promenade which was built because the people living in the heights did not want an expressway in their area causing traffic congestion and noise, and of course would not be esthetically pleasing (geez people with money). I guess we should be glad they got their way, because the promenade is really an oasis on the waterfront with amazing views back to Manhattan. It also seems to be a place where dog walkers gather (and there were a lot of them). Not sure how that guy with all those dogs keeps them straight, behaved and moving forward. I have enough trouble with Buster, can’t image 20 of him at one time…

    The east coast churches are beautiful inside and out due to their age and the architecture types they were built under. I find them so much more interesting than the modern churches today.

    During our Brooklyn Heights Tour, we passed 70 Willow Street. Truman Capote lived in the bottom floor for ten years (1955-1965). While there, he wrote 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s' and 'In Cold Blood', his most famous works. The house was owned by his friend Oliver Smith, who he got drunk on martini’s one night and convinced him he should live there. He wrote a minor work about his time in Brooklyn called 'House On The Heights', which opens with “I live in Brooklyn by choice”.

    When Oliver would go away, Truman would throw parties at the residence and tell everyone he owned the house.
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  • Day 2

    Dinner and Theatre

    November 1, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 63 °F

    First live Broadway show of the trip. We started with dinner at Le Grande Boucherie. I love a good cassoulet and the duck confit and sausage were excellent. Sheri had mushroom Ravioli (yes I did taste even though it is NOT Keto Friendly) but I’m on vacation! I’ve decided that all of New York only has one VERY expensive price for dinner. Drinks still $25 a shot…

    Onto the show. With Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster it has to be good and Music Man was terrific. The chemistry between those two was amazing. It fun and funny, kind of silly and goofy but just an overall enjoyable play. It was Broadway Equity Fights AIDS night, so I gave donation at the end of the show.

    Back to the hotel and time for sleep. Tomorrow starts a new day and we are off the Chelsea to explore and then another Broadway show.
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  • Day 3

    Tooling around Chelsea

    November 2, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    First Up, breakfast. Went to the Chelsea Marketplace and had breakfast at Friedman’s. Nice place, good service. My tea glass was the size of toy set tea cup, but good. Sheri got a coffee cup you could swim in, not sure why the tea glass was tiny, maybe they are pro coffee. We’ll see happens after the election (just a random thought no meaning here…)

    Off to the man-made green space built on huge, giant cement planters. It was pretty amazing and provided views of the Hudson which were beautiful. Took a bunch of pictures which you will see in the grouping.

    Along the way, we found the land of misfit buildings:

    Two buildings were built side by side at angles leaning towards each other (in SF this would NOT be a good thing. Besides SF likes their buildings to lean on their own not because they were designed that way. It’s more exciting to see if they’ll survive that next earthquake. (For those of you not from SF you may not get the reference…they built a new high rise in SF on landfill and then it started leaning, so far by two inches.)

    Next to the leaning buildings, was a structure of all glass, but shaded white, with clear space in between each floor for what I assume are the windows. It looks like it was snowing outside and someone wiped away the snow so they could see out.

    Next to the snow building was one that looked like brown bubble wrap, with each bubble being a condo.

    Next to the brown bubble wrap building was a building that looked like a jigsaw puzzle, but not one that was already put together, just pieces laying around.

    Down from the jigsaw puzzle building was this sleek beautiful high rise. With a suspended outside deck at least 40 stories up. Not one I would be spending much time on… Sheri, however, was all for bungee jumping from there.

    Being good coffee drinkers, we went to the Starbucks Roasters and had tea. Okay, whatever. We met a few ladies from Houston who were there on a shopping spree and seemed to be having a very good time spending their money.

    As we then made our way back to the subway, we found a CVS built in a former bank building. The interior is amazing and a bit disorienting.
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  • Day 3

    Dinner and Funny Girl

    November 2, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 63 °F

    Our final show in New York - Funny girl with Lea Michele. First, dinner at a Cuban restaurant, Victor’s Cafe. Started out with Champaign Sangria. Sheri and I agreed they were soooo good we had to order another round. Then some guacamole and Plantain chips (yum), Ropa Viejo for me and Lechon Asado (Roast Pork) for Sheri. The food was delicious and this place is highly recommended.

    Then on to the show at the August Wilson Theatre, a very small venue but wow what a show she put on. Somehow Sheri scored 5th row center seats, so we were up close and personal. Overall the entire cast was good, but Lea hit it out of the park. Three standing ovations during and at the end of the show. Just an amazing performance, if you get the chance, go and be prepared for one of the best Broadway has to offer at this time.
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