April 2019

Click here to go to the Index of blog posts or simply scroll through

In September 2017, BDR (my darling husband) and I went off to New York, Italy, Spain and France for 3 months to celebrate my retirement. Soon after returning home, we heard a rumour that Wagner’s Ring Cycle was planned for Venice in 2019 – just the excuse we needed to go back to this much-loved destination. I kept a close eye on appropriate websites and while there was no mention at all of it being performed in Venice, I discovered that it was going to be on at The Met in New York.

BDR was reluctant because it all sounded very expensive (the Au$ was and still is not great against the US$) and he wasn’t happy about taking more leave from work. Not one to give in easily, I did some research around Emirates frequent flyer points and Amex travel points and was able to put up an excellent argument (if I must say so myself) for giving it a go – if we could get tickets – and the timing wasn’t so bad because BDR’s students would be away from the university campus on “prac” for at least part of the time. I maintained my “Friends of the Met” membership (taken out before our last trip to give access to advance bookings) and requested tickets for The Ring within minutes of the box office opening. After what seemed an age, I received a message saying that there were tickets for us if we wanted them – and there was also a good accommodation deal at the nearby Empire Hotel.

Emirates had a deal for people flying from Australia to the USA – we could stop-over in Europe at very little additional cost. So it was settled and by March 2018, we had opera tickets and accommodation in New York booked and paid for as well as bookings for a week in both Venice and Burgundy at our favourite apartment and cottage respectively. Over the following months, I booked and paid for flights with Emirates using all of our frequent flyer points, a hotel in Milan using all of our Amex points, train tickets to get from Milan to Venice, a flight with Air France to get from Venice to Lyon, a hire car deal through Air France, restaurants everywhere and tickets to shows and art exhibitions in New York and Venice. Done!

Wagner’s Ring Cycle: We’ve been to “The Ring” twice previously – both times in Adelaide – but to see it at the Met was a dream that I thought impossible to achieve. So what is this opera about? In summary, Wotan (king of the gods) and Erde (the earth goddess but not Wotan’s wife) have 9 daughters (called the Valkyries) one of whom is Brünnhilde. Wotan and his wife Fricka (goddess of youth – she keeps all of the gods alive forever) have twins who are separated at birth – Siegmund and Sieglinde. Erde has 3 other daughters, the Rheinmaidens, who are charged with guarding the gold of the Rhine. A horrible guy called Alberich steals the gold and casts it into a magic ring that provides its owner with overwhelming powers. Anyway the twins (she’s married) meet when they are adults, fall in love and have a son called Siegfried. Brünnhilde and her nephew Siegfried fall in love and their subsequent affair ultimately leads to the complete demise of the gods who lose their ability to live forever and become mere mortals. Siegfried is killed by Alberich’s son and Brünnhilde kills herself and her much loved horse by riding into a blazing inferno!

• 

And this blog:  I have written travel blogs for many years (inspired by our friend Michael) mainly to keep my parents aware  of our adventures – and they always loved it, jumping out of bed each day to discover what we’d been up to in the preceding 24 hours. Now sadly, there is only my mum to keep informed and she is as passionate as ever about the blog. I also use blogs as my diary – something I look back on from time to time to relive memories and answer those questions relating to places and dates, and as a bi-product, some other members of our family and some friends find the blogs of interest too, much to my amazement. I have made this blog public to provide easy access to those who follow it – particularly my mum – and to protect their privacy, have tried not to disclose the identify of people I mention.

Click here to go to the Index of blog posts or simply scroll through

Friday 3 May to Saturday 4 May

After 15 months of planning, we are finally on our way. Collected by Stan the Emirates driver at 7:30pm, a mere 36 hours before we will arrive at our NYC hotel.

I find getting through Perth airport a really pleasant experience. Customs and immigration people are delightful – even the bomb detector lady had us in fits of laughter as she prodded and poked through our luggage – but it could be our overwhelming sense of joy at setting out on another holiday that manifests rose-coloured lenses.

There were the standard pre-dinner snacks and champagne in the Emirates lounge, more champagne after boarding, then 11 hours of eating (excellent meze and other middle-eastern food), drinking (mostly French wines) and watching movies; interspersed with a bit of sleeping. Then a quick stop-off at Dubai before reboarding for another 14 hours of the same.

Best movies: Three Identical Strangers, The Green Book and Mr Smith Goes to Washington (made in 1939).

Lesson learned: Don’t ever fly straight from Perth to New York again – it’s toooo long. Next time we’ll have to stop-over in Rome, Paris or London en-route.

• 

• 

• 

Our NYC hotel is a bit ordinary but set in the most perfect location for us – about one-hundred metres from the Lincoln Centre and fifty metres from Broadway. It has a nice rooftop bar and just about everything we need. It’s very clean and comfortable, extra-big kingsize bed, good shower and very accommodating people; but the aircon is incredibly noisy and a shower cap would have been a nice touch!!

Sunday 5 May

Nothing like 12 hours of sleep to clear the cobwebs. Breakfast at our hotel bar was nothing out of the ordinary, but the views over Broadway and Columbus Ave in pouring rain were wonderful. And the rain lasted all day.

A quick visit to the Met Opera House to collect our tickets was very exciting – there was a real buzz in the air at both the Lincoln Center and our hotel, where we assume most, if not all of the guests are here for “The Ring”. The Met shop beckoned us for some excellent non-essential shopping and fortunately the drug store around the corner had good supplies of shower caps and ear plugs!

Arrangements were then made to catch up with our gorgeous NYC friends (we met last time when I stole their seats at Carnegie Hall and arrogantly lectured them about seating plans – it’s a long story…) just around the corner at a bar in Columbus Circle shopping mall, followed by a bit of shopping. We were amazed to see an older guy with 7 Yorkshire Terriers on the 3rd floor of the mall and an enormous pram which we assumed was for the dogs when they weren’t using him as their Maypole.

Then dinner at the funky Flora Bar in the basement of the Met Breuer building. Our expectations were high given the rave reviews we’ve seen, and unfortunately we left feeling a little disappointed. The Sunday Roast chicken tasted wonderful – really succulent and delicious – but the meat close to the bone was almost completely raw and quite off-putting. The mash was delicious but we thought the peas and salad were overdressed and too acidic. The starter of devilled eggs on ice and brioche-style roll was delicious, though we thought the baby beans accompanying them were overcooked and too acidic. So overall, a lovely experience – great venue, good ambiance, good service, mostly delicious food with a few disappointments!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Then back “home” to bed – both feeling tired and jet-lagged (read grumpy), and I’m pleased to advise that the ear-plugs worked a treat.

Monday 6 May

What a difference a day makes! We woke to blue skies and warm weather and couldn’t resist a quick visit to Central Park, just a couple of blocks down the road. Then down to Park Avenue to buy wine for Friday night’s dinner, Madison Avenue to find an Aussie coffee shop (they are everywhere) and finally the Rockefellar Center to buy a pair of jeans for BDR (he says they’re the most comfortable he’s ever owned).

An afternoon nap was essential in order that we remain conscious throughout the opera, before glamming-up (by our standards anyway) and heading across the road to Bar Boulud for dinner at 5:30pm! The shared charcuterie platter (fabulous) was more than enough but we did book a table for 10:30pm to continue the feast post-opera.

Our seats at the Met are great – row K in what is called “the orchestra” section (stalls) and the opera was completely, overwhelmingly fabulous. The most exquisite voices and a minimalist set based on 24 huge poles that bend and move in all sorts of directions and then onto which images are projected to form waterfalls, mountains, bridges and anything else you can imagine – it’s ingenious. Critics have made disparaging remarks about it because it sometimes creaks and groans, but that didn’t detract one bit for us, nor it would seem, for any of the people sitting around us. The standing ovation was deafening – bit like an AFL grand final. What a thrill to have been there.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So back to Bar Boulud for the most delicious supper of Duck Confit (me) and Salad Nicoise (BDR) with a fabulous Chablis, and then to our hotel feeling a bit like a teenage girl after the school ball – what a dream of an evening.

Tuesday 7 May

I received a fabulous gift some time ago from @ultimate_foodie and mister_foodie – a signed Russell Norman book called “Spuntino” subtitled “Comfort Food (New York Style)”. Included in the book are 4 walking tours, and this morning we jumped into a cab for the longish trip downtown to undertake the “Lower East Side, Chinatown & TriBeCa” tour.

First real stop was for brunch at that famous institution called Katz’s Deli. What a hoot! The place to go when too much meat is never enough. I chose the hot Reuben Sandwich (don’t think I’ll ever be able to face corned beef again) and BDR had the cold Tongue Sandwich – both delicious but sooo rich and each sandwich big enough to feed a family of six!

Then a leisurely stroll passing various buildings of note to the old Essex Street Market. Unfortunately it was closed in preparation for a move to flash new premises just down the road which won’t open until the 13th May – such bad timing. Next destination was Chinatown – seems to be more Chinese (hardly heard any English being spoken at all) and bigger than Chinatown in Singapore. We passed a stall where fresh durian was being sliced for a small tour group (strong smell of dirty drains) and shops selling all manner of dried seafood (I think).

The perfect way to end our walk was by sitting in a little Aussie coffee shop called Two Hands, where the coffee was good and the young lady who served us had difficulties understanding our Aussie accents. When I told her we had been on our feet since leaving Katz’s, she thought I said we had been on our feet since leaving Texas. No wonder she looked somewhat incredulous.

With tonight’s opera, Die Walküre, commencing at 6pm and finishing after 11pm, we had a booking at the Grand Tier restaurant in The Met for 4:15pm. Such a ridiculous time to have a three-course dinner, but we did it. I had a salad with pear and gorgonzola to start followed by seared scallops and black rice for mains and BDR had smoked salmon to start and seared Atlantic salmon for mains. And for dessert, I had half of a tiny Bomb Alaska and BDR had fresh berries. The food and half bottle of Montrachet was all very good and we were in our seats within minutes of leaving the restaurant.

And the opera… sensational! The performers were amazing, the sets spectacular and the applause deafening. It was wonderful to see “our” Australian star Stuart Skelton (I love him) in a leading role and hearing the audience go absolutely crazy when he took his bows. And I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house at the end. We all know the ending but we still cry every time.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was approaching midnight by the time we got back to our hotel and there were hundreds of people waiting for lifts. Our solution was to take another lift just outside the lobby to the roof-top bar where we were able to debrief over an aperol spritz (for me) and beer (for him). I could get used to this life.

Wednesday 8 May

These long operas take their toll and a sleep-in with the “DND” sign on the door was required before setting out for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First stop was the cafeteria for brunch (nothing to write home about) during which we selected 8 exhibitions to see.

1. We stumbled upon the Robert Lehman collection of impressionist paintings (wonderful).
2. “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” – lots of famous instruments, video clips and loud music. Couldn’t help but sing along, sway and jiggle as we made our way around. Such fun.
3. A quick unplanned walk through the “Arms and Armor” exhibition proved to be more interesting than expected.
4. Celebrating the Year of the Pig – ancient Chinese works in pristine condition – was interesting.
5. “The Tale of Genji – a Japanese Classic Illuminated” was fabulous – traditional Japanese story depicted in paintings, silk clothing etc.
6. An unplanned visit to the recently renovated and very large “Musical Instruments” gallery was spectacular – all types of instruments from all over the world with film footage of them being played.
7. Finally the all-important visit to the Met Store to buy, among other things, an illustrated book about the “The Tale of Genji”.

We left feeling completely exhausted, having seen just 5 of the 8 exhibitions we’d chosen. The museum is so enormous, and while our tickets are valid for 3 days, neither of us has the energy to go back.

I have read rave reviews of a restaurant called “Burger Joint” located in the foyer of the Parker Meridian hotel and that is where we went for a latish dinner. We had to join a long queue and after 45 minutes finally made it to the counter. I’d been practicing what I had to order and sent BDR off to grab a table. Our beer and white wine were handed to me in plastic cups and I had to go to the counter to collect our burgers (wrapped in kitchen paper) and fries in paper bags when my name was called. It was soon after that when I realised I’d stuffed up the order – I forgot to say “with the lot”! So while the burgers were delicious, they were quite bland and not all that nutritious – and there was no way I was going to get back on the end of that queue to order again.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This place is crazy. It’s tiny, extremely rustic, the walls are completely covered in graffiti (they have a cup of pens at the counter for customer use), the kitchen looks chaotic but seems to work, there is no service at all – take your own rubbish to the bin before you leave – and it is unbelievably busy. When we left just after 11pm, there were only about 10 people in the queue – probably when we’ll go next time to order a double serve of “with the lot”.

Thursday 9 May

A long taxi ride this morning to follow another Spuntino/Russell Norman walk – this time “West Village, Greenwich Village, Meatpacking District” commencing at a café called Buvette for brunch. What a fabulous place. We just could not fault it in any way – great food, great service, lovely people, great coffee (barista has previously worked in Melbourne), delightful new friends at the next table, and all in the most beautiful setting – both inside and out.

We veered off course after brunch to find (with some difficulty) a bookshop I had heard great reports of – Three Lives & Company. We were greeted at the door by Troy who could not have been more helpful. He spent ages helping me find books on sourdough bread and cookbooks signed by their authors. Finally choices were made and we left with 4 fabulous (quite heavy) purchases.

We haven’t previously been to this part of New York, and what a wonderful area it is – so quiet and elegant. Hardly any cars on the road and friendly local people walking babies in prams and dogs on leashes. We absolutely loved it.

Then back on tour to walk down Bleecker Street – a vibrant and fascinating shopping area. There was the traditional old butcher shop with wooden floors – Ottomanelli & Sons (great looking produce but dirty windows), John’s Pizzeria doing a roaring trade, Matt Uvanov’s Guitar Shop (closed for renovations) and an Italian delicatessen/grocery shop called Murray’s Cheese (small version of the Re store in Northbridge) where we stopped to share a fabulous prosciutto and cheese panini. By now it was close to 3pm and we had to grab a taxi to prepare for the opera and another ridiculously early dinner.

We had a booking for the Grand Tier restaurant at the Met and had 2 entrees and a glass of chablis each. All very pleasant but just a tad boring and we made the decision to cancel our booking for Saturday.

And the opera “Siegfried” had us on the edge of our seats – just so incredibly beautiful. During the first intermission, we came back to our hotel for a quick change of jackets (I was freezing) and during the second intermission, we went to our favourite bar at the Met and enjoyed Louis Roederer champagne (albeit in plastic flutes) under the enormous Chagall painting “The Triumph of Music” (9 metres x 11 metres).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There were more tears and another standing ovation at the end – they seem to get louder every night (we both cheered involuntarily too) and that final piece of music as the curtain fell was ringing in my head for hours – and I was unable to hum along without bursting into tears! Now that’s what you call a good night out.

Friday 10 May

Our hotel is on West 63rd Street, between Columbus Avenue and Broadway, and in the next block, between Broadway and Central Park West, West 63rd Street is now officially called Sesame Street. This all happened 3 days before we arrived as part of Sesame Street’s 50th anniversary with the opening ceremony officiated by Big Bird and the NYC Mayor.

So breakfast this morning was at an up-market Italian cafe on the corner of Broadway and Sesame Street, just across the road from our hotel. Hundreds of celebrities have frequented this place and their permanent reserve signs are displayed at their preferred tables. We were next to Alan Alda’s table and Luciano Pavarotti’s was close by. It was all a bit stuffy really. I had an egg-white omelette with mushrooms and buratta which was delicious and BDR had an artichoke frittata which he also enjoyed, however our dishes must have contained 5 or 6 eggs each – way too much for us and probably most other humans.

Our lovely NYC friends had arranged for the four of us to go on a private tour, as their guests, with an art expert named Shehbaz, originally from India but NY resident for the past 30 years. He is the most elegant, charming man who could have stepped straight out of a PG Wodehouse novel – tweed jacket, bow tie, small leather briefcase, elegant moustache, kissed my hand when we were introduced and spoke in the most eloquent and somewhat oldie-worldie English. We met on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 79th Street at 11 o’clock, and for the next 2 hours walked to several small galleries and former private homes/mansions in the area. Our tour was just wonderful and included visits to an exhibition of Lucien Freud nudes (bit too explicit for my liking) in the most exquisite mansion; another home with a classic Italian marble entrance and a Versailles-style mirror room as well as a gorgeous art bookshop; a Picasso exhibition and an Australian Desert Paintings exhibition. We absolutely loved it.

In the afternoon we walked around the corner to Columbus Circle to visit a shop called “Dog & Co” in search of a yarmulka for @rebuswatterscooks – completely unsuccessful – and to buy flowers. And dinner tonight was at the beautiful apartment of our NYC friends to meet their gorgeous daughters. So fabulous.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We love travel so much, and the very best thing about travel for us is the people we meet and the friendships we make. Today was all about the best of both.

Saturday 11 May

With Perth being 12 hours ahead of New York, there were a couple of important Sunday events that needed attention today – Mother’s Day and the birthday of @rebuswatterscooks who has recently taken on the alias of #sarahchangperth (it’s a long story that began with champagne and cocktails – seemed funny at the time) after which several of us agreed to don T-Shirts bearing the newly acquired hashtag as a surprise for the birthday girl.

The weather was glorious and we decided to go to the lower east side for brunch after a quick photo opportunity outside the Met. Having plenty of time to spare, and also having spent an absolute fortune on taxis, we thought it might be a good idea to use the subway. Unfortunately, the only good thing about using the subway today was that we stumbled upon a wonderful Farmers’ Market on the way to the station. It was all downhill from there. Several stations (including ours) were closed on the downtown line side meaning that we had to head uptown to catch a downtown train, make several train changes because I got a bit mixed-up, climb up and down millions of stairs, ended up on the wrong side of town and had to catch a taxi which cost a fortune anyway!

First stop was Russ & Daughters Cafe which looked fabulous but was completely full of people waiting to be served and there were dozens more spilling out onto the pavement waiting for their take-out orders. We could only just squeeze through the front door and decided that it was all just too difficult. Wish I’d reserved a table.

So down the road we went to Yonah Schimmel’s Knish Bakery which has been in the same family since 1890 – and the press clippings posted all over the wall look like they’ve been there since then too. This place is a real hoot. While there was a large crowd gathered both outside and in, very few people were interested in taking a table. It all looks like it could do with a bit of a clean and there was only one waiter (not quite the young, slick, charming and efficient waiter with which we’ve become accustomed – in fact quite the opposite in every way). We ordered a potato knish with coleslaw and pickles, latke with sour cream, kugel and a bottle of water to share – total price $19.19, the cheapest brunch we’ve had by far. And the verdict:

1. Nothing was quite as good as what BDR’s grandmother and mother made – especially the kugel which was sweet and included apples and sultanas.
2. The pickles were the best part!

Then off to find a bookstore recommended to me by Troy from Three Lives & Company – Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks “out of print and antiquarian”. What a treasure this place is. A bright and spotlessly clean little shop, with perfectly categorised bookshelves and scatterings of kitchen bits and pieces, customers who are enthusiastic about cooking and Bonnie herself who is completely charming and very knowledgeable. We absolutely loved it. Didn’t buy anything but made some new friends and came across some really interesting stuff.

We went back to our hotel on the subway (heading uptown was a comparative breeze). Just time for a quick beer at the rooftop bar before getting ready for another early dinner, this time at a nice Italian restaurant next-door, and the final Ring Cycle opera – Götterdämmerung.

There is a strange tradition among Ring Cycle diehards of dressing up in costume and/or wearing hats of any kind to the four operas. We have seen quite a few Brünnhilde helmets and heaps of hats, from Ring Cycle souvenir peak caps to Ascot Races’ style picture hats and top-hats and they were out in force this evening. Tonight’s opera was great, but nowhere near as interesting or enjoyable for us as the previous three. There just wasn’t the same life and enthusiasm, no huge standing ovations after each act – maybe everyone was sad because the cycle was coming to an end. However the ovation at the final curtain call when the whole orchestra, chorus and production crew (hundreds of them) came on stage, easily made up for it. And that was when I phoned my beautiful mum to wish her a happy mother’s day and to let her hear the deafening roar. Just wish she could have been with us.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So overall we were both a bit disappointed with tonight’s opera. At the end of the last Adelaide Ring Cycle, people around us (as well as us to be honest) were sobbing uncontrollably when Brünnhilde ended it all by riding her horse into the roaring flames. Didn’t happen tonight and fortunately (or unfortunately) my mascara remained perfectly intact.

Sunday 12 May

Breakfast at The Smith cafe across the road from our hotel was fabulous. We had to wait 20 minutes and were escorted through the restaurant and then part of the kitchen right out the back to our cosy table for two. This cafe is about three-times as big as it appears from the street – seats hundreds.

After seeing Wagner’s Ring Cycle – 4 operas spread over a total of 17 hours – going to 2 Harry Potter plays spread over a total of 5 hours 15 minutes seemed like a doddle, and that is what we did, both to celebrate Mother’s Day and to keep out of the non-stop pouring rain.

When the taxi dropped us off outside the Lyric Theater, it was absolutely bucketing down and we took shelter under an awning to sort out our tickets before joining the mile-long queue. Then without warning, a door flew open behind us, almost knocking BDR over and causing me to drop the tickets (printed at home) along with a band-aid of all things. The young man who had opened the door was very apologetic (spoke with an English accent), bent over to help me collect my bits and pieces and made sure that BDR was ok before he took off down the street. It was only after he’d gone that we saw it was the stage door we were leaning against and then much later saw him on stage as none other than Harry Potter himself!

Our seats were fabulous and we loved the first show. On leaving the theatre, everyone was given a badge “keep the secrets” and that is what we will have to do. Suffice to say the the play was wonderful and we were so glad that we had taken the time to watch the first six Harry Potter movies – probably wouldn’t have made sense to us otherwise. Then off to a pizza bar (not great) via Times Square for dinner before stumbling across Smith’s bar (fabulous) just around the corner from the Lyric Theater for campari spritz (for me) and beer (for him).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The second play was equally as good as the first and when we came out, the rain had finally stopped and we were able to flag down a taxi within seconds. So we’ve seen two marathon shows on this visit to NYC, both involving magic, goodies and baddies and gob-smacking special effects. We wouldn’t have missed either of them for the world. And I’m taking my badge home to give to my beautiful niece Lauren who is a Harry Potter tragic.