After a couple of brief trips to the Lower East Side we arranged to meet up with Bob and Cathy. This is their Neighbourhood and we were keen to see skittle more of the area and them.
We headed out at about 10am on a chilly Sunday morning.
The sun was shining, but the cold has started to settle in. We arrived at Delancey street and walked to the Tenement museum, where we were meeting Bob. We looked through the shop and when Bob arrived we watched the historic film about this area.
As we walked with Bob he told us about the history and development of the area. From the tenement beginnings where migrant families lived in cramped conditions to today where new hotels, boutiques and trendy restaurants are popping up everywhere.
We walked through the Essex Street market, a historic market developed to removed the street cart trade from the area 100 years ago.
We visited Economy Candy, a massive candy store offering candy from today and the last 50 years. It was cool to see sport collector cards in the wax wrapping with bubble gum, original fizz wizz, hubba bubba gum and a host of others.
We walked past Katz’s the world famous pastrami sandwich shop.
We eventually made it to the Bowery and Rivington street where we caught up with Cathy for lunch at Loreli’s a German beef garden. We’d made a booking for 12 but by about twenty past the doors were still locked. We decided to find somewhere different and Bob scouted a place down a little alley, Freidman, across from where we were standing.
He returned a few minutes later with good news, it looked good, they had a table and they knew the hostess. So we wandered down an alley into a Tennent building that time forgot into this quaint little restaurant. But it wasn’t little, we went upstairs, past a large private dining room to another space and sat at a corner table in a comfy lounge suite. It was like stepping back in time. The service and food though were outstanding.
W enjoyed hot chocolates, burgers, eggs and a delicious coffee cake, courtesy of Bob and Cathy’s neighbour Olivia. Thank you.
Olivia also looked after us beautifully and we had a delightful time chatting with Bob and Cathy, real good friends now who we very much enjoy spending time with.
After lunch Bob went off and went to work, he had a tour group at the Woolworth building. Mardi, Cathy and I caught the bus shortly after to City Hall.
We said good-bye to Cathy and wandered the area for a bit. We contemplated a hot chocolate. I’d bad two at once, so we decided not to. We thought about visiting the winter garden shopping complex, but decided to do that another day. It was icy cold and we needed to get some packing started. It’s a short subway ride from us, so we might get to the winter garden tomorrow or Tuesday.
We headed up town and gave in to the urge for a hot chocolate, although I resisted, but Mardi had one. We picked up some milk and headed home shortly afterwards.
We got a start on our packing and lost ourselves sorting through things and before we knew it it was dinner time. How time flies when your packing! We had dinner in and stuck to our task. We’ve got three days left and are keen to still do a few more things before heading home.
