Travel hazards 1: losing it

Lost and Found (to date)

1 x Katmandu waterproof hat: somewhere in Chicago

1 x Katmandu waterproof hat: somewhere in New York with sunglasses, see below

1 x Pair of sunglasses, possibly lost on a number 3 bus uptown New York, or somewhere on 5^th Avenue

1 x Moleskin red notebook, of type used by Bruce Chatwin, very precious, since it contains Colin’s field notes; possibly lost in 16/196 Elizabeth St., Manhattan* apartment or in a taxi on the way to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal 12 on Sunday 12th September, the day of the Brooklyn Book Festival, between 10.15 and 10.45 am

1 x Pair of red multi-focal spectacles red with bronze arms brand unrecalled, in red case, faux alligator skin case, on QM2 belonging to Claire

1 x Pearson and Mason hairbrush on QM2; lost but now found.

x¹⁶¹ x Irreplaceable memories, somewhere and most of the time!

Nothing else found to date.

*Reward of $US100 offered for return of red notebook

QM2

Queen Mary 2: a destination in itself? 20th September:

While we treated the Queen Mary 2 as a means to cross the Atlantic from New York to Southampton, many of our fellow passengers treated it as a destination in itself, and what a destination. It was one that celebrated excess in most of its guises, but particularly the epicurean. It was possible, should you be that way inclined, to eat yourself 24/7, to euphoria and oblivion, providing that is you were willing to obey the dress code and which requires formal attire, meaning a dinner suit for men, ball gowns for women. After 6pm jeans, shorts and t-shirts are prohibited in public areas, infra-dig. Presumably, you starved if you forgot your bow tie or Chanel bag! This is the passengers’ part in upholding White Star Service—and which the QM2 and the other members of the Cunard family of liners which, it was stressed, are not the inferior species of cruise ships—exemplify.

For seven days we have been players in Queen Mary 2’s theatre of luxury, bit players, perhaps even extras. The scenery was art deco, the costume formal and the action, when not set in restaurants, took place in the Royal Court Theatre (with apologies to the one in Sloan Square) where the Julliard Jazz Quartet gave masterly concerts and the Illuminations where, as part of the liner’s enrichment programme, we attended a brilliant series of lectures (would that we had heard more of them) on American politics presented by Nigel Bowles (Oxford University) and another series by Thom Gorst on the last one hundred fifty years of modern architecture, and which upset the forty three Australians on-board because he failed to include the Opera House from his list of the twenty most significant buildings. Number one—by popular voter applause—was New York’s Grand Central Station!

Eating then was not the most pleasurable thing on our transatlantic trip. It was the intellectual not the gustatory stimulation that proved the more rewarding for us. However we both agree what we most enjoyed was the voyage itself (especially as the Atlantic proved more pacific than our Pacific crossing), sitting out on the beautiful wide decks and watching the ocean in all its myriad nuances. And what would be a voyage without the thrill of departure and arrival. We left the United States from Brooklyn terminal, past the Statue of Liberty late on a drizzly Sunday night and arrived in Southampton Water early enough on the following Sunday to see a clear starlit sky make way for a dawn welcome to the United Kingdom.

Re; New York

Re: New York, 8th September

New York is only city that we know where having a perspective on things is a literal truth. If you look uptown or downtown you immediately see the effects of foreshortening. New

York also puts every other city on the planet into perspective. There can be no other city like it for sheer plenitude. It is also a very young city, and for that reason, seems to be very sexy and prurient. The torrid temperatures seemed to have induced an undress sense. There might be more people in other cities, but New York seems to have more of everything else: more beautiful paintings, more beautiful objects, galleries and museums, libraries, apartment blocks, more famous people, and just so much to see and do. Two weeks is simply not long enough to ‘do’ New York. You need a lifetime; and if you had a lifetime here you’d be tempted to stay here; why go anywhere else when the city has the best of everything, is the best of all possible metropolitan worlds. The only thing it does not seem to have is classical CD shops, which like bookshops have been decimated by downloading, Amazon, chains like Borders, and high rents. It also seems to be a city in which, save Harlem and some of lower Eastside, gentrification is endemic. It has certainly infected SoHo where our micro-apartment (micro because it is actually smaller than the cabin we occupied on the Utrillo and whose paintings are remarkably thin on the ground in US galleries) is located. The area is filled with boutiques, boutique bars and restaurants, antique shops, galleries, markets and it pulsates with life 24/7. It is refreshing to go to coffee shops other than the ubiquitous Starbucks. We feel quite old staying here because its demographic is by and large between twenty and twenty-five and a quarter. The GFC certainly seems to have by-passed this area.

When the whole of New York is one big highlight it is hard to pinpoint our special highlights. On emerging from the cavernous Penn Station, Colin was overwhelmed by the pace and frenetic pace, which after Chicago and Boston was up two or three notches. How could people possibly remain sane in such a maelstrom of humanity and traffic. Well, they’d probably go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and spend the rest of their lives in front of a Degas ballet painting or take a spin around the Guggenheim or sit in the sculpture courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and bask in the sun beside the Maillol sculpture or, best of all, go the Neue Galerie and have a coffee in the Café Sabarsky after enjoying the Egon Schiele portraits. Alternatively, after having done the Magnificent Mile of Museums one could go to Central Park, and sit beside one of the lakes and watch, as we did, men who would be boys sail radio-controlled yachts. And while on nature, one of the unexpected pleasures is the High Line, which is a kilometre of ‘greened’ and naturalised freight line, in the heart of the Meatpackers’ District.

We have also been on a ferry trip around Manhattan and to Brooklyn, which affords magnificent views of Manhattan and offers something of a refuge from Manhattan close-up. Not surprisingly it was attracted to writers such as O’Henry, Arthur Miller, and, at one stage, W. H. Auden whose apartment we managed to discover. We also had a quiet afternoon and evening with friends Fran and Charlie on Long Island where their charming home is situated amid dense greenery and is the quietest neighbourhood we’ve been in thus far. How nice to be spoiled with real home cooking for the first time in ten weeks (not our apartment version).

Lastly, Governors Island, just a few minutes by ferry ride from Downtown, offers yet another perspective on New York. It provides a respite from the madness of Manhattan. In many respects it is an island version of Central Park. It is a top spot for those wearied by the internal combustion engine that is NY. Best of all, it is a cycle friendly island.

We are going to be sad to move on from here especially as our next adventure has us embarking on our second voyage—this time on the Queen Mary 2 between here and Southampton.

Our New York Top Five

Colin’s: Governors Island; Pierre Bonnard’s “Basket with Bananas” (MET); the Chrysler Building; the fire escapes draping the Brown Stones; Mulberry Street, SoHo.

Claire’s top five: Brooklyn Heights; High Line; MoMA sculpture garden; view of water towers from the Circle Line Ferry; Central Park (“The Ramble”)