I got to go along to
New York, to help my daughter
move there for graduate school. Good thing this worked out, as just before leaving she developed a stress fracture in her foot. So we learned about
accessible transportation* in New York as well!
We spent two weeks at a budget hotel in Queens, waiting for Rosalinda’s
Upper East Side Manhattan apartment to open up. Luckily we found it on the first day - we used a
broker, which is common Saw a number that would have worked. Hers is a little more old style/classic first Manhattan apartment than others we saw. Little less costly than the others, but similar rents to those around here in San Francisco Bay Area. Ikea guys came first evening with bed and table and chairs!
Front of Rosalinda’s building. Pre-war construction. High ceilings.
She has a “
fifth floor walkup”. That means no elevator and you schlepp your groceries and stuff mailed from home up, up, up. It took me 2.5 hours to move up the stuff from boxes at home. With Rosalinda’s
busted foot, she stayed below with box cutter, repacking in our essential Target handled bins. and had them ready for me upon return trips. Highest
humidity day. I had to stop and rest from heat both top and bottom!! I sure appreciate my health in a situation like this. Good to know I can do a hard thing.
Great family scene in
Queens - where we stayed in
hotel. East Indian
(Punjabi and Gujarti speakers), Latino and African American neighborhoods side by side. Lots of languages to hear. People
sit on their stoops at night and visit. Very
friendly and I could always say ‘hi’ when taking my after supper walk.
Practiced my Spanish nearly every day on my trip- walking, on subway, and with one of guys assembling bed (who spoke no English). Interesting to see Italian and Indian heritage workers speaking excellent Spanish with coworkers. I didn’t know before that 25% of people there are Spanish speaking. On bus Rosalinda observed that my Spanish was much improved. Starts to flow naturally when I use it casually like that.
Bodegas about every two blocks in Queens. Really good produce and meat. Lots of
high quality produce all along streets too. Also all-fruit smoothie carts. Often fruit in carts better price than in stores. And good.
Queensboro Bridge from the hotel window, I watched the commute traffic morning and evening. They definitely go into work later. Traffic moves pretty well still at 7:30 a.m.
Kinda Christmas’y look in the evenings.
We DID get tired of the hotel - refrigerator and microwave, but only one chair and a desk other than bed. Rosalinda elevated her foot and ate on the bed often two meals a day. It was so great to have a table and chairs when we moved to apartment.
Might have been worth paying 40$ to have somebody else ‘pick’ the Ikae furniture. We had two carts like this. It meant Rosalinda did things with her foot she shouldn’t have to avoid having me get knocked to floor by boxes.You have to go TO Ikea to get delivery date you want. Otherwise it takes 2-3 weeks if you online order.
Moving to Manhattan with an incomplete foot is challenging - but there are a lot of
payoffs. The
East River is a five to ten minute walk from Rosalinda’s new apartment. There is a
walkway and a park with a dog area BUSTLING with
cute little dogs,
sunbathing and benches all along the river. It’s a real
neighborhood scene both day and night.
Central Park is very accessible from Rosalinda’s place too. Six and a half blocks. Easy walk or, when you are minimizing walking, - as Rosalinda is working to do now - you take a cross town bus and can keep the walking to about a half a mile to see Central Park scenes like this. You can rent these wind powered boats, or bring your own. You can also rent a sloop in the boathouse to keep your own boat. This is the “
Conservatory Water”. The
Alice and Wonderland statue is at one end. Also the
Hans Christian Anderson statue, where there are weekly H.C.A. readings. I had a nice talk in Spanish with a man from Argentina (his home language is Italian but he was happy to speak Spanish) about H.C. Anderson when we were both photo’ing there.
Lot of great
tile art in the subways.While Rosalinda in class, I got off at 23’rd street station returning on the R Line (back from the free Staten Island Ferry) to photo many
hats at the 23’rd street station.
There are many excellent opportunities for
time travel at The Cloisters and next door Fort Tyron.
I’ve always wanted to see the
Unicorn Tapestries. But I had no idea what a wonderful museum they live in. I went back to
“The Cloisters” for a second visit on one of the days Rosalinda was in Orientation all day.
Fort Tyron Park next to the Cloisters is right on The Hudson - gorgeous gardens, benches and views. I ate my lunch there on my second visit before heading into Cloisters. The museum itself is a fantasy of an Abbey, created from pieces of monastical buidlings from all over Europe, transformed into the sense of one building. Beautiful secret
enclosed gardens too.
Plus I got to fully enjoy the
Unicorn Tapestries collection.
It’s part of the
Metropoliton Museum of Art and I used my Met ticket from another day, to get in. Both museums have a ‘recommended’
price, so you can offer less and they take it with a smile. Same with
Natural History Museum and City of New York Museum - both of which I squeezed int when Rosalinda was resting foot in the afternoons.
*To locate
accessible Bus and Subway info - use the
MTA trip planner and
check the Accessible box. Currently about 25% of subways are accessible - but we found that rerouting and maintenance can alter that. Busses worked best for foot injury for my daughter. Pleasant riding busses too and it helped us
learn the geography of the city better.
http://tripplanner.mta.info/MyTrip/ui_web/customplanner/TripPlanner.aspx
