Day 2 - Come as a Traveler, go as a New Yorker

Appointment today with Patrick van Rosendaal at the Rockefeller Center. Patrick is Belgian (and now also American) and for the past 10 years city guide in New York. He is passionate about the city and that makes him a unique guide of the Big Apple and a welcome guest in television and travel programs. He is, in my opinion, the best kept secret of New York. You need not to expect any encyclopaedic talk from him or ruminated general information. No, he keeps it at 'insider information'. Fun facts and background information. He also tries to convey his passion for the city to Belgian tourists. At the end of the trip you think of yourself as a New Yorker. And that is also the intention. He has already written two books about it. With his walk 'Come as a Traveler, go as a New Yorker', we walk around in the center of Manhattan - Midtown. A first time he stops us at Times Square where the big billboards are flashing away. 

As everyone knows, Times Square is the beating heart of the city that never sleeps and the center of the New Year's activities. At midnight, this is the place where the 'time ball' drops that marks the new year. Already at 6 o'clock in the morning the first party-goers arrive  to secure a good place at Times Square. Going to the bathroom while waiting for hours is no option, because 'leaving your place, means losing your place'. That is why the square is full of people wearing ... diapers. If you do not like all that stuff, you can also reserve a seat in the only restaurant with an unobstructed view of the time ball. Moreover, you stay warm and dry, but it comes with a price. Cost price: USD 25,000. But there is also another way. After the drop of the time ball, which lasts only a few seconds, a confetti rain is spread over the spectators by gigantic confetti cannons set up around Times Square. These confetti's carry New Year's wishes. In the run-up to New Year, there is a counter at Times Square where everyone can write a message or New Year's wish on such a confetti. This can be a personal message for the person who picks up the confetti, or a general message for the world. In this way you are part of the big festivities at the start of the new year without having to be present yourself. Celebrating New Year on Times Square is also on my bucket list, so this is the ideal way to be there without having to put too much effort into it.

I write a wish for the world on one of the confetti's and put it in the box. Wondering if someone will read my wish on January 1st.

At Bryant Park we take the subway to Central Park West to the Dakota Building. It is December 8th and exactly 37 years ago that John Lennon was killed in front of his door of the Dakota Building. Yoko Ono still lives in the building, for John Lennon a memorial was erected in the opposite Central Park in the form of a memorial plaque. Yoko Ono absolutely did not want a statue. She hated the idea that John Lennon would be buried under the droppings of pigeons. And I can’t blame her. It is busy at the 'Strawberry Fields Memorial'. Over-aged hippies, pensioners, young people, children, people in their forties, etc ... come together to commemorate John Lennon. 

There are pictures on the memorial plaque, there are flowers and music. Someone start singing  a song and everyone follows. Imagine is number one. A band provides musical accompaniment. Goosebumps.

We walk through Central Park, the lungs of the city and the garden of every New Yorker, to the Bethesda Terrace. 

From here you have a beautiful view of the surrounding buildings around the park and the lake. On the other side of the lake is the Boathouse, the iconic restaurant of Central Park. Here I made reservations for the birthday of my traveling companion. A surprise for her. I asked for a table next to the window and we get that too. This time of the year there are obviously no boats on the lake but the view is always there. 

From here it is only a short walk to the Guggenheim Museum. I have always admired  more the architecture of the building, which in itself is a work of art, than the works in the museum itself. Frank Lloyd Wright  designed the museum that was conceived as a spiral slope along which the artworks were placed. In addition to the permanent works by, among others, Picasso, Cézanne, Monet and Manet, there is a special exhibition on Chinese art and in particular Chinese avant-garde art and conceptual art. As a world traveler I do have an open mind, but here I have some difficulty with the concept of 'art'. I did not understand it, still not. But for everything there is a public and undoubtedly the exhibition is praised by the critics and people who know more about it than I do.

A subway ride takes us to one of the largest and most well-known department stores in New York: Bloomingdale's. Also the starting point of my favorite Christmas film Serendipity. And in that movie the evening ends with a dessert in the neighboring restaurant Serendipity 3. The sundae with hot fudge is  there waiting for us too, but we had to wait 2 hours before a table became available for us. Serendipity 3 was also the favorite place of, among others, Andy Warhol. One of his best-known statements is 'Everyone needs a fantasy'. Even better is when that dream comes true, like today.