We visit the Grand Central area again, but this time explore some of the shops around Grand Central outside the terminal area.
One building Mardi points out is quite interesting. The Graybar Building. The Graybar Building, built in 1927, was designed to pay tribute to New York City’s position as a key transportation hub, with its trains (the building is right near Grand Central Terminal) and its seaport. The cables that connect the canopy in front of the exterior to the building itself are made to look like the mooring lines of a ship.
And as with real mooring lines, these mooring lines have rats climbing up them, attempting to get into the “ship” that is the Graybar Building. The rats are thwarted by conical structures called baffles near the top of the lines that stop the sculpted rodents from getting all the way to the building, as they would stop rats from entering ships.
I take some close up photos and they look great of the little rats looking for a way into the ship.
We continue along Park and Lexington Avenues using 42nd and 43rd Streets to get around. The magnificent Chrysler building sits on the corner of 42nd and Lexington. It is indeed a masterpiece.
We then venture down to Greenwich village and visit Bosie Tea Parlour again. We had a ball the other day and we were hoping to sit in the lounge area at the back. A we arrive Mardi spots a lounge free and we ask to be seated there, our host, Jessica, gladly obliges. She has a vague recollection of us and we chat to her, saying we were here a few days ago. She thanks us for our continued support and we then sit and enjoy a wonderful couple of hours of tea, sandwiches, macarons, and scones.
Its dark when we leave and Mardi is keen to try her hand at ice skating. In her youth she was an experienced skater: Bryant Park rink, here we come.
We arrive and the rink is pretty full, but it takes no time to get skates on and enter the rink. I don’t take to the ice. My eye and more importantly my complete lack of skill will mean I bash into someone or something and end up in hospital. Mardi takes to the ice like a duck to water, she hasn’t forgotten any of her skills and enjoys a number of full circuits of the rink.
She stops a couple of times to talk to me. She is enjoying herself and finding it quite easy to skate around. I take some photos as she passes me. After about 40 minutes of skating she leaves the ice and we head back to our room for the night.
