Today, we had a tour at 10:00, way downtown, toward the bottom end of Manhattan. So we hopped on the 2 train down to Fulton St. You know you’re very downtown if you get to the bit where the streets don’t have numbers yet. I guess Manhattan is bigger than it looks, it kinda felt like the train should have already careered off past the bottom of the island while we were still going along, but no, everything and everyone was where they needed to be.

We had time for breakfast and was happy to wander into Zuckers Bagles & Smoked Fish for … a bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, a few other things – delish!! I also popped in to a Krispy Kreme kiosk just to get an iced coffee and met a very strange phenomenon – they’re not allowed to accept tips, weird! I hope they get paid a bit better as a result.

The little tour we were on was called the NYC Underground Subway Walking Tour. It was headed up by this (and I say this in the most extremely positive way) subway nerd who was very keen on the subway, and knew probably everything there is to know about it. He was great, very enthusiastic, New York born and bred, He had us going up to this station, down to that station, regaling us which a bunch of history all of which I had no hope of remembering (maybe that’s a good thing as I would probably have written it all down here!) and even showed us done disused platforms and even some stations that have closed but are still visible as the train goes past.

One of the closed stations we went through was the original, very grand, Grand Central subway station. A station so curved, that once they start putting doors in the middle of subway train carriages, the gap was far too massive for trains to stop there so they ended up shutting it down completely. If you’re lucky you can visit the actual platform, only open 4 days a year I think, we had to be content with a train going past the closed and dark station. The other close station was Worth St. years ago when they made the trains longer to fit more people, they had to make the platforms longer as well of course. One of Worth St’s neighbours expanded southward, the other northward, which made Worth St so close to the others, it no longer lived up to is name and become, well, worthless. But it’s all still there and trains still go by, all you need is a train nerd with a good torch and you can still see it.

The tour lasted about two hours, I really enjoyed it, fair to say the two people on who tour who just talked over everything all the time, maybe didn’t, There’s some in every crowd though, right? Here’s a bunch of train/station pictures.

There was a cool (disclaimer, if you are a nerd, and yes I am a nerd) thing at 14th st, a platform which has a bit of a curve. But they also have a bit of a solution. London just says ‘Mind the Gap’ a lot. New York spent a bunch of money on …. this:

How nifty!

As soon as that tour ended where we started at Fulton St, we were straight back on the train, up to the ‘proper’ Grand Central station further uptown. One little fact about the Subway network – you pay to get in, and then you can go what you like pretty much, with no time limit. So we visited a bunch of stations on the tour, then went up to Grand Central, all for the one $2.90 fee, which is pretty darn good.

Grand Central is as pretty and busy as ever.

We headed up there for our next event, which wasn’t called ‘queue for ages for every little thing’, but perhaps it should have been. It was The Summit Experience, at One Vanderbilt. A chance to get up 93 floors about street level and see the city from a new perspective. We bought our ticket for our time slot, then spent a bit over 30 minutes in a queue in a lovely brightly lit space, to get our tickets checked, get through rather rigorous security, get the obligatory photo taken, get covers to put over our shoes – by this point I was starting to think “well they can get …”, but then we got past that…into something vastly and wildly different – a queue in a dimly lit space, waiting for the lift. TO paraphrase some of their marketing, this amazing experience spans three seperate art concepts. It wasn’t floor 91, 92, 93. It was Air, it was Levitate, it was an immersive art experience that awakens the senses. It challenges. It inspires. It thrills! It clearly had a copywriter with a good budget! Never mind me being cynical, go read all the stuff on the website: https://summitov.com/experience/

There was a floor and ceiling full of mirrors, I’m sorry, there was Air: Transendence 1 which was fun, but everyone’s there for the view out the windows. Fortunately they do give plenty of advance warning to everyone that the floor is mirrored, so they strongly recommend against wearing skirts. I think they even had emergency trousers at the ground floor just in case, which is kind. I guess this is also a long-winded way of saying “I bet this mirror room was designed by a man who probably didn’t think of such things”.

The main bit though, the views. Fantastic. They say you can see for 80 miles and I’d believe it. Being able to look out over New York from every angle is pretty darn cool. Moving on a bit there was an art installation from Yayoi Kusama, but despite that it still felt like a bit of an odd use of the space.

We ventured into the next experience – Air: Affinity 2 – in other words the next floor of mirrors, with some holes so you can see down to the level below.

Having transcended, clearly it was time for Air: Affinity – it was silly, but fun, and all the kids on the room were having a ball. Or many many balls. The room was full of silver balls and powerful fans continually moving them around, because… affinity, y’know? And you could see the incredible views out the windows. It’s relatively close to both the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, so it was great to see those two lovely old ladies of the skyline.

Next up was Air – Queueing Again, er, I mean Levitation – a little glass shelf that juts out over the side of the building, so there’s you, your feet, a slab of glass, and then 90-off floors of nothing between you and the ground. Fortunately for anyone scared of heights this bit was completely optional – and even if you opt in, you only had 30 seconds to take all the photos you could before you were shooed away to let the next person in the queue have a go. But that’s ok, it helped keep the queueing time down.

By this time, according to the blurb on the wall, Summit had denormalized my senses and awakened my primal mind, whereas it felt more like stand in a line, and try to charge $9 for a bottle of water. Our final stop was Apres, and the surprisingly normally named Terrace… which was indeed a Terrace, open to the elements, which ran around the edge of the 93rd floor. We opted not to pay a bunch more to experience Ascent – ie a glass-bottom lift then went up another few floors. But I did choose to experience bathroom – i.e. I went to the loo, where disconcertingly the floor to ceiling windows are still there, open to the world – certainly a loo with a view!

At the exit-through-the-gift-shop stage, we checked the mandatory photos, chose not to cough up $40 for them, and we were on our way…

…to another queue, for the exit lifts to get back down to ground. And another gift shop. I know I’ve been kinda mean about this all, but the long wait times, and the utter silliness with all the descriptions and stuff, it just seemed so unnecessary – the views themselves would be enough, and all the added frippery not needed. And those views really are outstanding – but sorry, I don’t know that I’d recommend this one when you’re next in town. Clearly I am just getting extra cynical in my old age.

After returning to the real world, we caught one of the few trains that goes across Manhattan rather than up and down, the S train that runs along, well under, 42nd street between Broadway and 7th avenue. A short trip, and almost no seats, I guess to move as many people as possible.

Then other exciting things happened – we retrieved the laundry we put in yesterday to get done.

Tonight’s show was The Next Five Years, with Adrienne Warren and a Jonas brother (Nick), at The Hudson Theatre.

We spent a little time in their Ambassador Lounge for a drink, which was a lovely space.

After a delicious lemony gin cocktail, it was time for the show. Here’s my full complete and comprehensive review.

It was boring.

This isn’t just me being in a mood from the the visit to Summit earlier, Perry had the same opinion. Can’t win ‘em all I guess.

Tomorrow, it’s our final day in New York for this trip. Might see a show or two. Surprise! 🙂