New York City, Part 2- Midtown Manhattan

When you think New York, you probably think of Midtown Manhattan. Times Square, skyscrapers and yellow cabs. Despite neither of us having been here before, we’ve grown up seeing so many iconic TV shows and movies set in Manhattan that it felt strangely familiar. Almost the first thing we did in New York was meet up with our friend Adam in Times Square. Times Square has a huge impact - you are completely surrounded by giant movie screens playing ads, big crowds and people touting things. Though amazing, by the end of the week we were actively avoiding the square. It’s so busy that it’s even hard to walk along the footpath, especially at night.

Adam and Sally in Times Square

Times Square is the centre of the theatre district of New York. We managed to see two musicals in our week there. We got discount tickets to Avenue Q – a musical in the style of Sesame St, but definitely not for kids (with full puppet nudity and songs such as “Everyone’s a little bit racist”!) We’ve known of the show for years, and it really lived up to our high expectations.

On our last day we thought we’d try our luck at a discount ticket lottery for “Newsies”, a new Broadway musical by Disney. In these lotteries, theatres randomly draw names for steeply discounted tickets for that night’s show. Our chances weren’t high given the crowd of around 100 people, but our names were called out third! The show was fantastic, with everything you’d expect from a big Broadway musical – amazing singing, dancing, set and score.

Waiting to collect our tickets after winning the lottery

While New York has a reputation as an expensive city, it’s great just to walk around exploring different neighbourhoods. In fact by the end of the week our legs were aching! The architecture throughout New York is stunning. We were struck by how much thought seemed to have been put into the design of so many buildings – both old and new. One of the most beautiful buildings was the public library building. The main reading room (yes, the one in Ghostbusters) is so inspiring, beautiful and peaceful. It feels almost like a cathedral for readers!

Here is a gallery of some of our building photos from Midtown Manhattan:

We expected to find Manhattan to be urban overload – noise, traffic and concrete. We were pleasantly surprised to find it less busy and crowded than we thought – many streets were reasonably quiet and relaxed. There is also an abundance of parks and plazas, from small pocket parks (all tidy and well-used) to the huge Central Park.

There was so much going on in these parks – after a while it felt like we didn’t even have to try and we’d come across something awesome to watch or do. One evening in Central Park we came across a free concert by the family of Woody Guthrie. Iconic American music in an iconic New York park!

We also saw a free lunchtime variety concert in Bryant Park, featuring the casts of several Broadway shows. Hearing “The Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera was a highlight.

We visited the Museum of Modern Art on one of their free Friday evenings. Of course, admission being free meant everyone else was there too! It was easy to find the most famous works in the museum – just look for the mobs of people!

It’s been a few paragraphs without us talking about food, so here’s an awesome place we found that serves hummus, appropriately named Hummus Place. Thanks Lonely Planet for the hot tip!

Finally, here’s a cool photo from a time we got stuck in a brief thunderstorm near Times Square:

In our next post, we get down to business in one of the world’s most important financial centres – Lower Manhattan.

Comments from WordPress

• Gary 2012-07-26T09:49:07Z

  I am sooo jealous of the Guthrie family concert

• Alice 2012-07-26T19:55:39Z

  Hummmina hummmina humminaa… hummus… inarticulate drool sounds

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson