July 24 We’ve made it to the Arctic Circle

We’ve finally arrived in the Arctic Circle; we’re in Longyearbyen. It is sooo good to feel cold air after weeks of hot humid weather. Patches of snow here and there on the slopes which look a bit like icing sliding off the top of a cake.

We’re 1309 km from the North Pole and 18692 km from the South Pole. Ain’t it a big world!?  Love the warning sign!

We have been warned not to go out ‘at night’ because polar bears are known to come in to town. Hmmmm check out sunset 12am and sunrise 2am 😏 Fortunately we’ll be asleep so we’re totally safe. 

Picturesque

Tomorrow we head out to sea ...... polar bears and walruses here we come!

July The Hudson

In the past I have probably only associated the Hudson River with Manhattan - the Hudson and its neighbour the East River, but it is 500 km long, a big water way (not as mighty as our own mighty Murray though!). It once married up with the Erie Canal at Albany to form a major shipping route between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean and thus the world.  I guess I forgot my history lessons and also that great Pete Seeger song......

I've got a mule and her name is Sal

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal .......

We know every inch of the way

From Albany to Buffalo

(If course that’s more than 15 miles, more like 600 km).

The Mohican tribe who formerly inhabited both banks of the lower part of the river called the river the Mahicantuck meaning ‘great waters in constant motion’ or ‘river that flows two ways’. Why? the estuary of the river stretches around 250 km from New York Harbour - and it is tidal. It’s source? Lake Tear of the Clouds (love that name) on the slopes of Mount Marcy, New York’s highest point in the Adirondack mountains. 

We travelled south along the river on the Lake Shore Ltd train from Chicago to NYC and then north along its banks 4 days later from NYC to the Ile de Montreal on the Adirondack train. The route is reputed to be one of the most scenic train routes in the world. I’m in two minds about that as I reckon the journey we took through the deserts of Nevada and Utah and through Colorado river valley would be hard to top. But I have to say that over the course of the day and 600 odd km we did pass some beautiful scenery along the Hudson River valley and beside Lake Champlain. We were travelling close to the border between New York State and Vermont.

Our carriage was not air conditioned properly and with an outside temperature of over 30 C it was a little uncomfortable but we finally rolled into Montreal Gare Centrale in Montreal, the largest city in Québec province and supposedly the oldest city in Canada being settled in the 1600s by the French. Montreal is set on an island in the Saint Lawrence River. 

We were there 2 days but couldn’t get on a river cruise which worked ok for us because we really needed a rest! Maybe another time. 

And then we arrived in Oslo. Over the last  few days I have been reminded how much I hate airports and flying. Airports one of my most unfavourite places - walk walk walk wait wait wait. And planes are noisy, airless and either stifling or freezing. A means to an end Heather so get over it (but you can see why land travel is so attractive to me)!

Oslo is rather gorgeous particularly around the port. The low sweeping building houses the Norwegian Opera and Ballet

Yesterday we took to the skies again this time into Spitsbergen, the largest island in Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle. 

July 18 New York - a different perspective!

What better to do that cruise around Manhattan on a 1920s-style yacht. Seen from the water Manhattan is like a silver forest of soaring skyscrapers the skyline or rather the waterscape punctuated by no less than 20 bridges - I was stunned! 19 of those span the East and Harlem rivers.  The huge expanse of the Hudson accommodates only one, the immense George Washington into New Jersey. The views are stunning, mesmerising. Some building are so big they have their own post code. We had a marvellous guide, a member of the American Institute of Architects. Our heads were spinning with stats and facts but it was s fantastic cruise.

This is our little craft. We were welcomed with bubbles and nibbles. Life is tough!



This is New Jersey’s tallest building.



Had to have at least one pic of the lady!

Our favourite- the Brooklyn bridge.








Queensborough bridge. I quite like.

And its cable car

this is intriguing. The river campus of the Rockefeller Uni built over the 6 lane FDR freeway.

This looks like an aqueduct and I fact it was built as an aqueduct but is now one of the many bridges spanning the Harlem River.



The Spuyten Duyvil bridge (spinning devil). You have to book hours in advance to pass through as it has to be opened. We passed through it on the water and also by rail twice travelling along the Hudson.

The one and only George Washington bridge into New Jersey

The water towers I mentioned before. The skyline is peppered with them.

Once on dry land we headed up onto the High Line. This is a bit of NYC history. It was once a freight line to and from the dock. It was rescued from obscurity and now thousands of people wander along its elevated pathways and gardens. Fantastic views and worth a wander. 

The High Line







Intriguing reflections bouncing offs number of buildings. All smoke and mirrors!

July 19 Flatiron food, history and architecture

I think I might have already said but this trip to NYC was all about tasty bites of the Big Apple - food and architecture. 

Our last day in this fabulous metropolis we took a walking tour of the Flatiron district. Absolutely wonderful! We passed the house where Edith Wharton lived, learned about the early development of NYC beyond its early settlement days where life centred at the tip of Manhattan Island, how the island was levelled for subsequent development and the west side became land fill. It was in this district that department stores had their beginnings including a huge toy emporium which is now Eataly an indoor upmarket food market plus plus and totally Italian. The rest of the story is in the pix but if you come to NYC do this tour. It was really worthwhile.

The iconic Flatiron building awesome fromany angle. Its location where Broadway and 5th Avenue formed a triangle with 23rd Street - it was a pretty windy corner. This was a place for women to wander back then and the wind funnelled up off New York Harbour would blow the ladies skirts up showing their ankles - shocking. The guys of course hung out there waiting for a glimpse. The cops would move them on but of course the guys would return in what became known as the 23rd Street Skidsoo!!

All buildings over 5 floors had to have a water tower on their roofs to provide adequate water pressure (you can just see one popping out the top of this building). It was a city regulation! And guess who controls the water tower industry, which incidentally were originally all wooden? The Mob who also control or owns garbage collection and scaffolding. Now the latter may not sound too much of a big deal except that there is another city reg that stipulates that all buildings have to undergo a full safety check or their exteriors twice every 10 years and sometimes one can take  a few years. One word - scaffolding!! Nice regular and reliable income!

Simply weird 



This building, now Eataly, has been many things but started as a toy emporium - Marble, terracotta trim the works. They are slowly uncovering and restoring.

A big chop!

We watched bread making as well as this - he’s making mozzarella, it’s made fresh daily. They also put on cooking demos.

The windows of Eataly are dedicated to the former toy emporium; this bit of the Statue of Liberty is made of Leggo! The construction of the Statue of Liberty was crowd funded. This part of the Statue was taken on a roadshow around the towns of the US to inspire people to contribute - it obviously worked.

Eisenberg’s dates from 1929 and the Wall crash. At that time people could get 100 year leases on buildings for a song. So many small business popped up . Come 2029 there will be an interesting change on the streets of NYC!

We were served with humongous Reuben sandwiches. To die for 😋

The atmosphere was like Pellegrini’s in Melbourne.

This is Seward, the man who bought Alaska from the Russians way back when forva trifling amount. At the time it was called Seward’s Folly but I think it payed off.  If the statue looks a little familiar you’d be right. It has Seward’s head stuck on Lincoln’s body- seems they had oodles of statues going to waste. It was a cheap option! It sits in Madison Square Park opposite the Flatiron building.

Beecher’s cheese making right in the city! We had the best cheese toastie!

We finished with dessert - of course! Not our thing but we had this pastry filled with chocolate and coated with honey before baking. It was heavenly.

This delicious thing is a chocolate Rugelach

At the end of the day we walked to Time Square and then collapsed with an ice cold mojito

Lindsay was looking but was definitely NOT tempted to eat- we were stuffed.