After a late night last night, sadly we needed to be up early for our deferred tour around lower Manhattan. Additionally we had a visit to the eye surgeon and a musical later Friday night. A busy day beckoned.
Apart from being a little cool the weather was beautiful. We made our way in to City Hall park and met the tour go up and headed off for a three hour tour, a three hour tour. The tour showcased the food of Chinatown, little Italy, the Jewish settlements and finally the German influence. The tour also included a history of the development of the various areas through the ages and how things have changed over time. From the original inhabitants of the island and how streets were named, Canal street where a canal ran to drain a river, Wall Street, where the wall was built separating the immigrants from the indigenous settlements. The Bowery, the first road and Broadway, following the original paths all the way up the island. We also heard about how over time different groups of people moved in and moved away, from the massive influx of the Dutch, Chinese, Jews, Irish, Italians and Germans.
During the tour we enjoyed a Stroopwaffle (Dutch biscuit), plate of pan fried pork dumplings, for a dollar. Prosciutto and freshly made mozzarella. Then it was onto Jewish, where we enjoyed some knish.
We finished at a German beer garden, but had to leave for the eye doctor, so missed out on pretzel. We planned to go back later to this place for lunch, it looked pretty good.
We made our way uptown after the tour to the eye surgeon. Something I wasn’t looking forward to. He had promised more laser surgery, but I was hoping my eye had healed enough not to need it.
After my eye was dilated Dr Nissen had a look and damn, more laser. I braced my self for the stinging pain of the laser again as he fired shot after shot into my eye to repair the tear in my eye. After what dot like an eternity he said he was done. I sat as my eye watered away, a purple haze in my blurred vision as I recovered from the beating. I breathed an expletive under my breath, Dr Nissen said, yes in deed. He chatted to Mardi for a while. Interestingly he loves music, is an accomplished pianist and is keen to finish a PhD in music theory. We chatted about Billy Joel and his classical training and how he’s made MSG his own.
We left the doctors and headed home. I had a wicked headache coming on so was keen for a rest. We got back home and I had a snooze as Mardi read. After a two hour snooze I was feeling better and my eye had settled down.
We had some dinner in before making the short walk to the musical we’d bought tickets to, Something Rotten. Getting in and out of the theatre was a lot easier than the concert. No security, just straight in ten minutes before the show, grab your seat and away you go.
The show was fantastic. A comedic musical romp during the Shakespeare era that followed a pair of brothers in the shadow of Shakespeare. The show was musically entertaining, lyrically intelligent and paid homage to Broadway in a brilliantly comedic way. Written by the same team the brought the Book of Mormon to Broadway, Something Rotten was a riot. After two and a half hours of entertaining music and belly aching laughter we left the theatre on a high and walked home.
A massive day, nothing planned tomorrow, a chance for a sleep in and lazy day.
