We visited Dr Nissen again today for a check up. He is happy with my progress. My retina is stable and I can start to look straight ahead again. We celebrate this good news with breakfast at EJs on 73rd Street, just near the doctor’s office.
After breakfast we head down town to the Museum of the Skyscraper.
We get off the Subway at Bleecker Street and walk towards the museum, passing the New Museum on our way. This oddly shaped building looks like a series of white blocks placed on top of each other in a haphazard manner. There is also a boat attached to one of the levels, a full sized yacht!
We pop into Mariebelle on our way and pick up some more chocolates. They are yum.
We wander down the Bowery and into lower Manhattan, past City Hall Park and onto the Museum. We spend a couple of hours learning all about the city built on the idea of the skyscraper. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre are featured, as well as a host of other buildings. Its great learning more about some of the building we love: Chrysler, Rockefeller, Empire State, Flatiron etc. Its good fun exploring, learning about building techniques, cost pressures, the depression era battles and buildings of that time. We also explore the new concept of Skyscraper, the pencil thin buildings starting to dot the streets of Manhattan, especially along 59th, 58th and 57th Streets.
After the visit to the museum we are getting pretty tired and hungry so are keen for a stop, rest and some food. In 2011 we wanted to enjoy a high tea somewhere, we tried getting into the Plaza Hotel, but were refused. I suspect we looked a bit hot and dressed too casually for their liking. I’d researched some places for high tea this trip and discovered a place called Bosie Tea Parlour. We checked our maps and we weren’t too far away. We decided to give it a go.
We catch a subway back to Bleeker Street and start searching. On the way we pass a cat living on the street, with a person! The cat house is quite large and the cat looks healthy and happy. We stop for a chat and give a donation. We continue our journey.
The streets in the area run at weird angles to each other and it is easy to get lost. Bosie was located in Morton Street, which we eventually find.
We enter and are taken back in time. The tiny café has about six tables, a bar and a lounge down the back. The wall on the right is lined with tea canisters. The ceiling is beaten tin, the furniture is old, the wall hangings are from an long ago time and there is a definite French influence.
We are greeted by a server and shown to a table, we squeeze into the tiny space and start to explore the menu. They have exactly what we’ve been looking for. What they call a full tea service. Tea, scones, sandwiches, macarons. Wow it looks great.
We order, sit back and relax and I start to take in the ambience and feel of the place. Soft afternoon jazz is playing, the staff buzz around serving tea and assorted desserts and light meals. Mardi notices the nice lounge area at the rear and we say maybe we will come back one day and sit there.
Our service arrives. The tea is perfect. Served in gorgeous tea pots with cups that are perfectly sized. Our three tier afternoon tea arrives. It looks delicious. And the taste matches the look. We lose ourselves for the next couple of hours as we sit and chat and have more tea. With each cup we fall more in love with this little place. It is certainly a place we will come back to if we ever get back to New York.
After a couple of hours we drag ourselves away and head home. It’s been a busy day with a lot of walking: we head for the subway and make the short trip home.
