17th April 2019

Today was born from a book that I bought Andrew for Christmas “The 500 Hidden Secrets of New York”.

After reading it, Andrew had painstakingly planned a walking tour taking in parts of Manhattan we had not seen or had only glanced upon before. Today was the day for the tour. We had a coffee and took the F line from Penn to Broadway-Lafayette. We walked through what seemed a more residential area, with lots of trees and familiar brownstone homes. We passed some great traditional shops and eateries, and some made to look older.

This area is called NoLita - North of Little Italy.

Our first stop was a tiny pink cafe - Pietro Nolita.

We went inside and was met by a rather snooty, slight man who thought he could fit us in. There were only three other people there! The setting far outweighed the rather frosty welcome. Pink, pink, pink. So cute.

We ordered a cocktail each (it’s 11am, but they were pink, so we had to) I had

A SNEAK PINK - Gin, Cappelletti, rosemary, grapefruit, lemon, orange blossom, soda and Andrew had NOLITARITA - Tequila, Mezcal, hibiscus red chili, lime, spiced salt rim, orange twist. We ordered chicken sandwiches and absorbed the general pinkness while we waited.

The sandwiches arrived, and they were delicious. So we ate them up and waved goodbye to Mr Frosty. A really cute place that could work on its attitude but is as pink as they come.

Our next stop was the Supreme Store. This only makes sense to anyone who knows a teenager or a rapper. The Supreme clothing is big amongst the rich and famous, and so are the price tags. The store was in a huge building that looked as though it had once been a grand bank. Tiled floors and an ornate ceiling. Around the edges were racks with not very many of items of clothing on. The prices were out of reach for us, but there were lots of Japanese people buying things.

For our next venue, we walked for 15-20 minutes south, leaving Nolita, and entering SoHo (South of Houston Street). We walked through an area that was so dominated by Chinese people bustling around and by Chinese shops that we were by far the minority. Two blocks later and we were in an entirely Italian area, with shops selling canoli and ice cream. We stopped for a cone - delicious.

We soon arrived at Canal Street - a little run down and dirty, and hugely busy with lots of beggars. We entered a beautiful old building which was divided into two. Food one side, selling the most gorgeous smelling Asian food, and vendors the other side, selling their own art, jewellery and homewares. We bought a small light and a phone case.

To try to appeal to everyone in our family of three, we stopped next at the Adidas Store. This is Adidas’ flagship store in Manhattan. It was nice. Just some socks purchased.

We now started walking north on the way to Greenwich Village. We were visiting a cafe called The Uncommons. The Uncommons has a very unique selling point. It is a place to play boardgames. It costs 5 dollars per person per hour, and you can order drinks and snacks too.

They have 100s of games - most of which we have never heard of.

We started with a game called ‘Dad Jokes’ where you have terrible jokes on a card and you have to tell them to your opponent. The first to laugh loses and the other gets a point. It didn’t last long as all of the jokes were terrible.

Then we played a more strategic game called Blokus. A game where you place set pieces made of squares adjacent to your own but at the same time try to stop your opponents placing their pieces on the board. The person with the most pieces on the board when nobody else can go is the winner. Andrew won (naturally). We also played Boggle. Soon, our hour was up and we set on our way, past the famous Magnolia Bakery, heading up Bleecker Street.

Keeping with the pizza theme, Bleecker Street does have a famous (at least in the world of pizza) pizza place selling by the slice. We stopped for a little refreshment - it was delicious.

We headed out of Greenwich Village - which is so stunning and seems a very exclusive place to live, and made our way towards the river to pick up the start of the High Line. It is a converted viaduct from a now disused rail line. It runs from 14th Street (where we started) to 34tth Street (where we got off). It is mainly just a walkway with trees and plants, but it is nice to walk above the traffic and not have to negotiate crossing the road.

We took a break from it to visit Chelsea Market, which is an indoor market selling food and gifts. We bought a few small souvenirs and then back on the High Line.

We managed to walk the full length until we arrived at Hudson Yards - a brand new development at 34th Street for artists. It is not yet open, but the area around has some extremely luxurious flats and buildings, so am not sure how well young penniless artists will feel they fit in.

It was now almost 7pm, and we were tiring. So a subway back to the hotel, a rest and then a quick dinner and we are off to bed.

It’s our last day tomorrow, and we feel that we have seen lots of Manhattan. Not all majorly touristy, but a good mix.

Night xxx