Goodbye

And so on Sunday afternoon the tour joined with others for a stroll along Brooklyn promenade.

The Blog reflected, not something he is generally inclined to do, on a busy few weeks of good food, baseball and Brooklyn beer and wondered when he would next return to the hood.

There is always one

Followers will know that every tour has a wedding.

Brooklyn Heights is a perfect spot for that type of thing isn't it?

The Dog

Prompted by the Blog the whole tour pulled in a final baseball game. There was nothing remarkable or even particularly interesting to report.

However it was good to see this friendly dog dressed in his Mets kit and for some reason a pipe. He is always there and wags his tail if you give him a quarter. There is never any sign of his owner.

The Blog needs to point out that the pipe remains unlit and without tobacco in it,  just in case any anti cruelty to animals activists are reading this.
 

Shoes again

Some of the tour were feeling somewhat knackered (the Blog actually) and so the others kindly agreed that the tour would stay local and, because they hadn't done it yet, would visit Brooklyn Museum actually one of NYC's best museums.

Today there was an exhibition called 'Killer Heals' that was showing the history of high heels and demonstrating what an exciting invention they were.

On a less positive note. The exhibit below is a coffin.

Shoes

In Brooklyn they always find creative ways of using discarded items.

The Diamond

The tour were all astounded when, perusing Tiffany's 2014 collection, they came across what was apparently the priceless most beautiful and most precious diamond ever.

The problem was that no one on the tour had any knowledge or experience when it came to big diamonds or any other very expensive stones or even cheaper ones and so were not able to conclude one way or another whether in fact it was as described the most precious diamond ever.    

It did look very big and expensive and yellow so it was agreed to accept that it was indeed the most precious diamond ever.

The Square

Times Square is called the world's cross-roads. Well as cross-roads go it is pretty much a mess.
There are on-going roads works and building works. On day it may all be finished by which time somewhere in China or Dubai or somewhere will be the world's cross-roads.

When the Blog first came to Times Square, in the 80's when the Blog was not yet the Blog and in fact the word blog had not even been invented, it was an intimidating place. The sort of place not to hang about in. Now it is just a spot for selfies.

 

And no Enabler would ever consider walking out like this

Is it true?

The Blog was just ambling along looking at the sights and thinking about stuff when he saw this blackboard outside a shop. It caused him to stop and read the very thought provoking message written for everyone's attention.

Is this true the Blog wondered and then wondered some more before deciding he needed a beer.

Coffee

Walking around Soho and Greenwich (the New York one's) the tour really fancied a coffee and the Blog knew just the place to go with friends.

Were you watching Nottingham ?

The Blog can't let this go without a mention.

On Sunday morning the Blog turned up at Woodwork, a Brooklyn bar, at 8am.
A little too early for a Brooklyn beer followers are rightly thinking.

The thing is Woodwork will show all the footy matches if asked and on this occasion, Alexandra the tour guide, had asked her Woodwork buddy to open up at 8am for the Blog.

No-one in Woodwork expected things to turn out like they did. Not even the Blog and certainly not the Manchester supporters in the bar (drinking beer it has to be pointed out).

The Blog is sure people all over Nottingham were tuned in and that the result was no surprise to them as they had seen the Leicester team play the year before.

Ruth

The Blog is not a Yankee's fan but likes the Mets, as followers know.  But it is good to know that a short fat man with drinking and womanizing tendencies can become one of the greatest sports stars in history.

Babe Ruth misguidedly played for the Yankees and although no-one following this blog will have ever seen him play or perhaps even heard of him he is still a legend as so called legends go.

Shoe shine

Now as reported the Blog was dismayed when he saw one man cleaning another man's shoes. So followers will understand how the Blog felt when he saw this distressing scene at the Rockefeller Center.

JayZ and Chess

The Blog was pleased to see that the youth at Jay Z's Barclay Centre in Brooklyn were creating a new generation of cool chess players.

They may have 99 problems but chess isn't one.

China town

The Chinese bucked the chess trend by sticking to the traditional games of cards in Columbus Park. And it looked all very serious.

And others played music which the Blog thought sounded sort of relaxing but was mystified by the instruments they were playing. 

Italy

You can take the Blog out of Italy but you can never take Italy out of the Blog. And so the Blog led the tour to the Festival of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, which was happening on Mulberry Street this very week.

Lots of good Italian food was available as well as the Peroni. Not that the Blog was interested in this singular Italian pils but he did feel very much at home even if the rest of the tour were wondering why they were here when they were supposed to be seeing New York.

And here is the man in question. San Gennaro himself, or at least a good likeness. 

He looks rather a young man for a saint. Don't you think.

The Blog was surprised to see the dollars pinned to his robe but its a tradition apparently and the dollars are for charity.

But oh dear. The next day the New York Daily News cast doubts on the festival saying the money does not go to charity and that there are links with the Mafia! Surely not.

It all looked good fun anyway.

Coney Island

Followers will remember all about Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs and also the annual hot dog eating competition. The Blog is sure they will be interested to know that this year Joey Chestnut raised the record to 69.

Followers will also know all about the famous Fun Fair. Unfortunately for the tour and fortunately for the Blog this was closed by the time the tour arrived and looked a sorry sight all locked up and empty.

It was quiet along the boardwalk as the season was over but it was still pleasing to take in the sea air and the smell of Nathan's hot dogs.

The local fireman were out for a beer or two at Ruby's and must have decided there would be no fires that afternoon.

9/11 again

As it was 9/11 (in Blog time) the tour decided to get out of town.
And where better to go than the sea-side and better still Russia-on-sea (Brighton Beach).
Everyone speaks Russian so the Blog wondered what they were saying on this 9/11 day as they went about their shopping.

The Blog loves how the subway runs above ground instead of underground here. The Russians have their own way with things don't they?

Chess

Union Square, which doesn't seem to have anything to do with Scotland or even unions, always has stuff going on. Right now Chess seems to be the new big thing and everyone joins in. Everyone except the Blog of course. This Chess game requires too much thinking, patience and forward planning to interest the Blog.

Eataly

Followers of last year's Italian tour extraordinaire may remember the Blog promoting the ethical and culinary excellence of the 'slow cooking' movement and how it was sweeping the world, well some small pockets of it anyway. Those followers may also remember how Eataly was the sort of standard bearer of the slow cooking movement and how much the Blog had enjoyed his visits to the Eataly branches in Torino and Genova.

Well here, to further promote this innocent yet almost successful, idea is the NYC branch of Eataly. A giant of a store in Union Square. 

Shoe shine

The Blog wondered who would get someone else to clean their shoes for them. Also who cleans the shoe cleaners shoes?

Empire State

It had to be done. It always has to be done. Wednesday morning the Blog went up the Empire State Building to he could look over Manhattan and beyond. It is always a great sight and thank goodness they have an elevator.

Mets

Tuesday night the Blog took himself off to see the great Mets. Nobody else wanted to go and it seemed not may New Yorkers could be bothered either as a small crowd, of Forest size proportions, watched two struggling teams play out a game of little meaning.

For any blogger who follow baseball, the Mets beat the Colorado Rockies 2-0.