Not literally, of course. No, todays morning adventure was down to see The High Line. The High Line is an old elevated freight railway line that started in the 1930s, built due to too many people being mowed down when freight trains used to just run down the streets with regular traffic and pedestrians. (Since the last 1800s)

By the 1960s freight traffic was waning and by the 1983 the last of the elevated train lines was abandoned. Parts of it had already been demolished and plans were in place to get rid of the rest. But there were people who saw its potential, and though the wheels turned very slowly over the years, it eventually re-opened as a park in 2009.

Take a look at https://www.thehighline.org/history/ for much more detail, including photos of trains running down the streets.

Anyway I’m getting ahead of myself. We left the hotel this morning – it was shorts and t-shirt weather today, up to 26 degrees, unlike yesterday’s high of about 14. Heading to 42nd St Station, we took the A train down to 14th St, into Chelsea. They’ve zhuzhed the trains a bit since we were last here – and made the whole subway much easier to access thanks to ‘OMNY’ – where you can just use your phone or a contactless card as payment. It sure beats buying Metrocards with the magnetic stripe and having that ‘did that swipe work or not’ moment, every single time you used it.

Immediately after stepping out of the train, you’re in another world compared to mid-town. it’s open, it’s airy, it’s quieter, it’s still no wonder why people like Chelsea.

We headed straight for Chelsea Market for second breakfast / early lunch. I had a delicious bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese and onion and capers…all the good stuff, and a cup of regret masquerading as a cappuccino. (Sorry!)

It wasn’t long before we found a way up on the to High Line, where we walked around and I took a bunch of photos:

It was interesting to see just how much has changed since our first visit – so many of these buildings just weren’t there back in 2013 when it was much more of a warehouse-y vibe. Some of the new buildings sure are interesting though.

The High Line has also expanded a bit since our last visit, so from entering it somewhere near 14th st, we exited at the other end near 34th. As luck would have it there was a subway station on the 7 line – first stop, 42nd street near the hotel. Bingo! The trip down to the concourse level is quite pretty.

Some of the tile work in 42nd Street’s underground concourse was nice too. The five flights of stairs to get out … much less nice.

OK, that’s enough of Manhattan. Now let’s take Berlin.

And what better way to visit Berlin than to walk up to 52nd st, to the August Wilson theatre, currently masquerading as the Kit Kat Club, for a production of Cabaret.

We saw the same production in 2023 in London, so I don’t need to go through the whole show again, the review I wrote then pretty much fits the same as tonight’s performance. Scroll down toward the bottom of this 2023 blog entry if you’re keen to read about the show when we saw it in London.

For this 2025 version, the Emcee was played by Orville Peck. I didn’t know anything about his until he did a song with our Kylie (Midnight Ride – catchy tune), but apparently he’s more of a country artists (explains why I’d not heard of him!) who never shows his face and lives behind a mask. Well, until Cabaret came along. I guess it’s a safe space where nobody can take photos, but I can happily reveal that Orville Peck looks … completely normal. There we go, no big revelation. Maybe he just doesn’t like being bugged when he goes to the shops, so he wears a mask.

The role of Sally Bowles was played by Eva Noblezada – another person who I’ll admit I’d never heard of (maybe this is more a young people thing). For an American actor her English accent was almost completely spot on, quite impressive! And boy can she sing – both her and Orville gave really impressive performances.

And being right up the front at the dining tables again, it’s kind of odd – like, Orville Peck is right there, I could just reach out and … get thrown out of the theatre. Also you could feel every move as the dancers danced on stage, and the floor trembled beneath. It made for a pretty immersive experience. Drinks and food were exactly the same as at London. A whole bottle of Moët (thanks very much, and how on earth did we finish it and still walk home), and a tiffin filled with hummus (served with a warm pretzel), a selection of charcuterie, and an assortment of cheeses with crackers. More filling than it looks. A giant Neenish tart was served at intermission. As was a rather special phone call … for the ‘dining’ tables around the stage, each is equipped with a telephone. According to the show (and maybe real life, I haven’t googled it) you could phone table-to-table in the clubs to say lovely things to people you may fancy when you see them across the room. Our phone rang, and it was, I’m sure, one of the cast having a bit of fun, saying “you’re beard is lovely and you and your friend are dressed so well” – followed by “did you know … the champagne your drinking, is just a bucket of warm piss?” Hilarious, in contexts at least. Otherwise, probably horrifying! I wonder how people get awfully offended when their phone rings? Anyway after a few minutes of banter intermission was over and it was on with the show.

As before, actually I think even more so now, it was just horrifying when a Nazi armband suddenly appears. In these times, this show is now perhaps part entertainment, and part education, and we can only hope people get the message.

Of course just like London, as soon you enter the venue you get a stick put over your phone, so no photos of the staging, the food, etc. Here’s an article about it if you’re keen: https://playbill.com/article/see-how-cabaret-renovated-the-august-wilson-theatre

It was interesting seeing two shows by Kander & Ebb in two days (they also wrote Chicago). Some of the key themes of the performances similar – both shows are very sparing when it comes to scenery and props, and both have that Masterchef conundrum of “if you only have a few ingredients, they all have to be perfect”. (Is that even a conundrum? I’m too tired to look it up) In this case, Cabaret completely pulls that off with every element perfectly baked (where Chicago perhaps had some parts slightly under-done). Cabaret is funny, it’s clever, at times also sad and quite chilling, but all executed perfectly. Just like in 2023, I loved every minute.

In the blink of an eye Berlin was soon gone ,and we were back on the streets of Manhattan, our next destination being back to the hotel to write it all up and now, yay, time for some sleep. See you tomorrow.