Just Grand

There were two main items on the agenda for today - joining in bell ringing at Trinity Church Wall Street and the tour of Grand Central Terminal.  As I am writing this the principle ringer is resting before taking on the challenge of climbing 100 steps to the ringing chamber.  We're just back from Grand Central.

I did the tour once before, but even tho' for security reasons there are parts the tourists can no longer reach, this was by far the better tour.  Marty the tour guide knew his stuff and communicated his enthusiasm for the building and for New York's cultural heritage.  I have never enjoyed a tour more.

There is no way to do justice to the main concourse - 400 feet wide, 125 ft high and I forget exactly how deep, but about 120/130 feet.  It's huge.  Built in 1913 in the Beaux Arts style it is magnificent and very impressive.  What you see now is the result of a restoration that ended about 1996.  For the previous 30 years the building hadn't been maintained or cleaned.  It was designed to move 125,000 people a day.  Today what with rail commuters, subway users and other visitors about 800,000 people a day pass through with ease.  It's a design masterpiece.  After the restoration the architecture is a triumph, and the tour is something every visitor to the city should take.

Under the main concourse is the Dining Concourse, with several native NY restaurants (no chains) providing an assortment of foods that can only be marvelled at.  I've got to go back if only to sample the Chilli Shack's 7 varieties of chilli.  After the tour we tucked into the original New York Cheesecake.  Words fail me, and that doesn't happen often.  There are also several ritzy restaurants catering for the top end of the market.  The most famous eatery in the Terminal is the Oyster Bar which opened the same day the Terminal did in 1913 and is still highly popular.

And it doesn't stop there.  Grand Central Market, which has entrances both inside and outside the terminal building, is probably the finest food hall I've ever seen anywhere.  In my youth I worked in the food hall at Selfridges, so I would have claimed to have been at the very top end - but no longer.  It's basically a number of small outlets specialising in different culinary delights: meat, cheese, fish, greengrocery, everything you can imagine.  And the Selfridges Food Hall cannot compete, in my view. 

Naturally it is busy - I'd shop there if I could.  I was tempted by just about everything I saw.

Add to that book shops, shoe shines, shoe repairs, a shop specialising in varieties of olive oil... The place is a community all by itself if you didn't need to go somewhere else to sleep.

We did also manage to wander through the East Side at around 40th and a bit below, nice streets with trees and a very pleasant residential feel.  Bon thinks she's found where she wants to live.  The only downside is being a little far from my favourite district, the Upper West Side which we hope to see on Friday when we are going to a concert at the Lincoln Center.

It's two hours before we need to go out, down to Wall Street, for bell ringing, after which we plan to get an Italian meal in Little Italy.  There is just a chance that, when we get back to check-in, I'll be charged excess baggage for my stomach.