Wintery blast in New York

New York never ceases to amaze, but the most notable thing during this visit is the extreme cold, which even the locals are talking about. It seems that the polar vortex which followed us down the Mississippi River last year has come back to haunt us. We are people who like to walk the streets, so we are right in touch with the weather, and it's been down to about -12C so far. More very cold is predicted for a few days. We've seen the odd snow fall adding up to a heavy dusting, but at least at these temperature, it doesn't rain!

New York's builings are topped with characteristic water towers.

Parking is at a premium in New York, during a heavy snow flurry.

None of this cold stops tens of thousands of New Yorkers pounding the pavement to get to work in the morning or the opposite in the afternoon. The footpaths are crowded throughout the day and evening with people striding purposefully to their destinations. That's how you pick the tourists – locals clearly know where they are going and it shows in their determination to get there quickly. Tourists have cameras around their necks and their mouths open as they stroll fairly aimlessly and gawk at the sights.

The narrow pie shape of the Flatiron Building.

Us Sydney-siders never have to endure frigid conditions like this, but everyone is well rugged up. There are many poor and homeless in the streets, but they seem to have adequate clothing and are well adapted to the conditions. But homelessness must be a miserable existence in a New York winter, and we wonder why they don't move south where it is warmer. Maybe less tolerant & hospitable?

Empire State Building in New York's winter gloom at 5pm.

Our Hilton hotel is right in Times Square on West 42nd Street. It's an excellent location, although very touristy, right in the middle of the Theatre District. Coincidentally, the hotel we stayed in 7 years ago was in East 42nd Street, and it seems to have gone upmarket to a Westin in the interim. Our room is on the 35th floor, well above the hustle, bustle and noise of Times Square, and we have an excellent close-up view of the Swarovski Crystal Ball which signals the New Year in Times Square. It is illuminated (as is everything else in Times Square) and changes colours and patterns continually. How long do they keep it there? Our corner room also has good views to the north & east, and of the Hudson River. From the lift lobby, we can see south to the end of Manhattan and the new WTC1 building.

Looking to the north east from our hotel room at dusk.

Heidi Klum greets us at the front door to our hotel in W 42nd St

It's always busy at the Subway Station in Times Square.

The shows on all around us seem to be the old favourites, the Lion King, Wicked, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera as well as Disney's Aladdin which is new to us. There are a number of other shows we have not heard of, and they don't seem to be getting much hype. Is the live theatre industry stagnating and being reduced to recycling old standards for new generations, even here on Broadway?

Busy scene down Broadway to Times Square.

Crowds in Times Square jostle for position to be captured by Revlon's #LoveIsOn camera.

Bryant Park between 42nd & 40th Streets was a pleasant find, and a nice place to relax our weary walking feet for a while. It has (apparently) the city's only free ice skating rink – skate rental is $15. Even early in the morning this rink was well patronised, and much more later, and we can see that New Yorkers' skating skills vary from raw beginners having a go (we didn't) through to quite accomplished. The park has a nice cafe called 0 Celcius (quite appropriate in this weather) but, strangely, it seemed to be closed. Also, there were signs of the recently finished Bank of America Winter Carnival, with lots of stall structures bearing business names being deconstructed and taken away. We missed a nice festival, by the look of it.

Most fountains in NYC seem to be off for the winter, but this one in Bryant Park bravely soldiers on.

The magnificent main atrium of Grand Central Terminal

We made a pilgrimage to the World Trade Centre site. On our previous visit it was a desperate scene of incredible chaos. Today there is still plenty of construction going on, but the memorial park looks close to finished and it is, of course, very emotional to contemplate the awful atrocity here in 2001. The new single skyscraper WTC1 looks complete, but is, apparently, not open yet.

No1 WTC rises from the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.

Proud patriotism at the nearest Fire Station to the World Trade Centre.

Cafes selling good European-style coffee in New York are now easy to find (compared to our previous visit). One we heard about and hunted down was the Bluestone Collective in Greenwich Village. It took us two days to find this place because we confused Greenwich St with Greenwich Ave. What we found was a tiny bolt-hole run by a guy from Melbourne which served some Aussie-style breakfasts like pan-baked eggs & baked beans, quite delicious. He even knew what a skinny piccolo was! Bluestone was very busy, and must be doing well because he's opened up two other outlets in NYC.

Chilly wedding photography in Washington Square.

Water well in full flow at Chelsea Markets.

An absolute highlight of NYC is the Highline, an abandoned (since 1980) elevated railway line running south from Penn Station. For several kilometers, it's been converted (~2005) to a garden-lined footpath which, on chilly winters' days, seems to be a welcome sun-catcher at least in parts, and affords good views of the Hudson River to the west, and glimpses of the city skyline to the east. This is a very popular walk. What makes this walk particularly enjoyable is the close-up views of new and interesting apartment buildings being built en-masse on this side of the city. What looks like a run-down and long neglected stripe down the Hudson waterfront is staging a magnificent residential revival. The Highline ends abruptly at the southern end at Gansevoort St. Obviously beyond here, the elevated railway was demolished for some unenlightened development.

Jersey City skyline from the Highline.

Frank Geary type architecture in the new apartment blocks along the Highline.

Another “find” that we read about and hunted down was the Four & Twenty Pie shop in the boondocks of Brooklyn, a very low rental area on the far side of the grotty Gowanus Canal, not that far but a world away from the trendy (& wealthy) village area of Brooklyn Heights and its stunning views of Manhattan. We shared a slice of apple and salted caramel pie, and then another one, it was sooo delicious.

Beautiful residential architecture in Brooklyn.

Intense steel structure holds up this old Subway Station in the New York MTA.

Opening bridge topped by a railway line over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

The superfood entrepreneurs must have been wondering what to do with all the kale growing in NYC?

The New York Subway, run by the MTA, is both famous and fascinating. The stations are old/ancient, held up with massive riveted steel beams. The trains are old but clean, almost totally free of graffiti and litter, a stark contrast with Sydney metro trains. It takes a while to get the hang of the lines and station numbering system, but after that, it's easy! Fares are simple and cheap - $2.50 a ride no matter how far, and half that for us seniors.

Central Park at dawn is popular with joggers and dog-walkers even in freezing weather.

Paris to USA

Charles de Gaulle airport proved to be no better going out than coming in, with only misleading signs pointing the way to incorrect queues for security and immigration checks. Snooty officials then tell you where to go. However, the American Airlines flight from Paris to New York JFK was, despite Mike's poor expectations, excellent, with a new aircraft, comfortable seats, good food, and best of all, very friendly cabin crew. The flight was over an hour late however due to (that classic unacceptable excuse), "late arrival of the incoming aircraft". The simplest way into New York City from JFK is on a shuttle bus which dropped us at Grand Central Terminal (only 100m from our hotel) along pretty terrible roads and freeways. This only cost $30 for the two of us. It's a comment on the state of the US Dollar, that this far amounts to less than half the fare for the same trip between Paris and the airport, the latter being maybe half the distance.

We spent a night in NYC before picking up our car, surprisingly exactly what we had booked, a Subaru (Legacy) and heading south as quickly as possible. We exited NYC via the Lincoln Tunnel and I95 south, and it's truly amazing how bad these very old roads are. They must be amongst the earliest "freeways" built under Eisenhower's post war plan, and they haven't been updated an iota ever since. It's a shame that America's premier city has such poor road infrastructure on its boundaries.

We left NY via New Jersey, without stopping as most of it was industrial, and soon reached the next state, Delaware. Rehoboth Beach, where we spent the night, was a delightful seaside town, and was very quiet at this time of year. We could tell by the myriads of beach houses, restaurants, and tourist facilities, that in the summer this place bursts at the seams. At Outback Steakhouse where we had dinner, we looked with interest at the other diners, including the young man who was eating his big steak absolutely raw! The next morning we headed off into Maryland and the town of Ocean City, much high rise here, and we do mean high rise, blocks and blocks of it like the Gold Coast. Obviously a very popular place to spend the summer, many people from Washington DC come here for a vacation. The interesting thing were the many canals on the west (non-ocean) side of the road, a huge inland waterway. Houses here all have a bit of water at their back yard.

Afternoon saw us arrive in Virginia, and the interesting town of Chincoteague. The whole area on this Atlantic Coast, has magnificent beaches and lots of low lying marshy areas, filled with bird life and deer. We noted with interest the sign outside the motel, "Hunters Welcome", and thought no more of it until we saw several pickup truck loads of them with lots of "dead things" in bags. Apparently it is hunting season here now, even in the State Park where we spent the afternoon, a little nervously, and saw some birds and lovely white-tailed dear. The coastline here is magnificent, and although it was not too cold, the weather pattern is still very mild for the time of year, it was windy, so a lovely salt mist spread along the coast. A highlight of this area is the Assateague Lighthouse which shines out over the Atlantic Ocean - we can see this lighthouse flashing from our motel in Chincoteague.