New York, New York (Part 2), Jul 11-15
Three weeks after I joined Mike on a business trip to NYC, we went back to the Big Apple, this time staying in a new boutique hotel bordering SoHo and Little Italy. While he was in meetings, I attended some TV show tapings, explored the Upper East Side and met up with Caroline, who was visiting at the same time.
While at Rockefeller Plaza for a Sheryl Crow concert, we spied actress Kate Hudson just before she appeared on the Today Show to promote her latest movie.
Next, I headed to the Upper West Side to see Barbara Walters & Co on ABC's The View.
Then it was down to Broadway's Ed Sullivan Theatre for The Late Show with David Letterman (more on these two TV show tapings in E-Gossip).
After meeting up with Frank and the Chicago crew at O'Nieals (a former speakeasy which stood in for Steve and Aidan's bar in Sex and the City), Mike and I went to see The Alarm at Bowery Ballroom, a fantastic venue (pics of me and the band at the after party in E-News).
I had a prime people-watching spot for lunch in SoHo.
Then wandered along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile, passing the Guggenheim, the Met, the Neue, the Whitney and the Frick Collection -- and pausing for ice-cream in Central Park.
Looking south on Madison Avenue.
After shopping and a salad at South Street Seaport, Caz and I met up with the boys and took shelter from the sun in a brewpub before going to Frank's Greenwich Village home for drinks.
On our last day, Mike and I walked down to the Art Deco courthouse.
And over the Brooklyn Bridge which, when it opened in 1883, after 13 years' construction, was the largest suspension bridge in the world and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.
Looking back across the East River to the Empire State Building and the Manhattan Bridge -- a 1909 suspension bridge with four subway tracks, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn.
We had brunch amongst the brownstones of Brooklyn Heights and strolled along the esplanade.
Our afternoon was spent at Coney Island, a south Brooklyn neighbourhood and famous beach resort on the Atlantic Ocean, where Scissor Sisters were headlining the Siren Music Festival.
The 1920 Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone, a 1927 wooden rollercoaster, at Astroland Park.
Interesting fact #1: Coney Island was formerly an actual island, separated from the main part of Brooklyn by a creek, the centre portion of which was filled in for construction of a freeway before WWII. Interesting fact #2: Coney Island is the English adaptation of the Dutch name, Conyne Eylandt (Rabbit Island). As with other Long Island barrier islands, Coney Island was virtually overrun with rabbits until the resorts were developed and most open space eliminated.
Back in Manhattan, we walked through Little Italy before stopping in SoHo for tea and cakes.
