Nicole schreibt...

New York & Philadelphia 2019

One thing I've never understood with some musical lovers is how they can keep travelling to the same place and cram a dozen shows into a week without venturing beyond the confines of the city in question. After my last trip to New York was spent pretty much exclusively in Manhattan and leafy Mamaroneck beyond, I knew that I would want to use the next trip across the pond to see something else again. Which proved to be a blessing in disguise now. The big plan to catch the US-Tour of Bat out of Hell left me with a choice of Boston or Philadelphia, so I opted for the latter, both because the timing was better and because it seemed the better place for just a few days as Boston would require more time to explore. Then of course the tour was cancelled, but I was stuck with a non-refundable or exchangeable plane ticket out of Philadelphia airport and so I was glad I was interested in the city itself. That said, my trip began in the pouring rain of New York City with quite a surprise: After all my lamenting about JFK Immigration being the seventh circle of hell and bracing myself for a two hours' wait, there were no queues whatsoever in the arrival hall. In fact they had by now set up the same machines I had already encountered in Houston, where you answer questions, scan your finger prints and get a printed slip of paper you have to hand to a human being, who'll stamp your passport. Baggage arrived quickly too and I was the first one out (garnering me some extra attention by a customs busybody). Needless to say that my stroke of luck didn't last as I then had to wait a good hour for the coach to Grand Central to turn up, pick up passengers and leave JFK behind. Oh well. At least I arrived in Mamaroneck in a better shape than last time with enough energy for dinner and the latest adventures in the merry land of Westeros.

On our first outing into Manhattan we went for a long walk south to the Strand Bookstore and I did enjoy seeing New York's little green parks in gorgeous spring bloom such as Madison Square Park (above) and Union Square, where some hipster open air market was in full swing. After poking around the Strand for a while (and stocking up on cheap books) we moved on to our final destination in the East Village. I had jokingly said to my friend that we wouldn't be able to repeat our "themed dinners" ahead of the Broadway shows we were seeing like last time (a Persian restaurant ahead of Aladdin and a historical tavern ahead of Hamilton), so naturally he went "challenge accepted" - and found us the Halloween-themed crazy Beetle House ahead of Beetlejuice now (And they even gave us 20% off the bill for having tickets to the show!). Between the lovely weather, the funky restaurant and a great show, the start into the trip couldn't have been better.

Next day I went ahead into Manhattan on my own to queue for a matinee ticket at TKTS and go for a wander that led me past the New York City Center (reasons!) to Central Park, where I enjoyed a little lunch in the sunshine before returning to the madness of Times Square and the Nederlander Theatre. Afterwards I walked back up to Lincoln Center to meet up with my friend and see La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera. The massive and fairly modern building an experience in itself with little exhibitions in the lobby and a smart set-up for subtitles in various languages built into the backrests of seats. Needless to say that the opera itself was amazing, too! I was glad for a final quiet day in New York though, heading only briefly into Manhattan for a matinee before dinner in Mamaroneck and a much-needed early night in. And after two days of lovely sunny spring weather the abysmal rain that had greeted me on Monday returned on Thursday evening, lasting through a very soggy Friday.

I have a weakness for seeing the "normal" America beyond the big touristy cities and with not as much time needed in Philadelphia as planned, we decided on a detour to New Jersey, which included a very wet walk through Manhattan from Grand Central to Penn Station (another circle of American transport hell) and a train ride to a place called Summit. The main street lined with yoga clothes shops, dog groomers and day spas told you all you needed to know about the area and it came with a rather decent hotel. After checking in and chilling for a while, we moved on to Millburn, a similarly pretty little town next-door, famous for the Paper Mill Playhouse that often hosts pre-Broadway tryouts and other big musicals. A hot Vietnamese Pho soup was found and just the thing for this rainy cold evening ahead of a very pleasant performance. After the night in Summit it was time to move on to the final destination, America's City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, which has been dealing with a fairly grim reputation ever since Rocky came out. The fact that most of my knowledge comes from It's always sunny in Philadelphia probably doesn't help either and so I was in for quite a few pleasant surprises.

30th Street Station, Philly's main train station, greeted up with a huge and rather splendid Art Deco hall and from there we walked through the posh Rittenhouse Square area to our hotel in Walnut Street. It was handily near Philly's very much oversized City Hall, an amazingly good orientation mark and at one point in history even the tallest habitable building in the world. Perching on top is Philly's (and Pennsylvania's) founder William Penn, who still holds the distinction of being the highest statue on a building worldwide. At the corner of City Hall sits Love Park, named for (one of the numerous copies of) Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture. It also marks the start of Philadelphia's Museum Mile, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, leading past several museums, the Franklin Institute and the catholic cathedral to what may well be Philly's most famous building now: The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Not so much for the Art, mind you (although it does have some amazing collections) but for the fact that one of Rocky's iconic scenes took place here with Sylvester Stallone running up and down the massive staircase in a training montage. Needless to say there was both a long queue of people wanting to pose with his statue and a bunch of people running (or huffing and puffing) up the stairs. Cheesy it may have been, but I was still pleased to see the young folks knowing such an "old" movie - as this young lady was keen on proving:

After a quiet evening consisting of dinner at Applebee's and watching my beloved Bats if not live on stage then at least on TV, the next morning was reserved for the tourist biggie in Philadelphia: Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Said bell once hung in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House and was rung, not on 4 July 1776 as folklore would like to believe, but at least on 8 July when the Declaration of Independence was read. After a thin crack was "repaired" into a big crack, the bell would toll no more, but was soon adopted as a symbolic Liberty Bell first by abolitionists, later by suffragettes and still played a part in the 60's anti-war protests. Now it has its own building along with an exhibition about its long history. To get into Independence Hall, slots for a (free) tour had to be booked, giving us ample time for a wander around the area before our slot came up.

So here's the block of housing where Benjamin Franklin lived for a while and a replica of the printing press on which the declaration of independence was printed (and you can buy your own copy if you feel so inclined), as well as the sober memorial for the many dead of the Revolutionary War that were buried in what's now Washington Park and the Magnolia Garden (although the magnolias were clearly rhododendrons, they were gorgeous in full bloom all the same).

Finally it was time to circle back to actual Independence Hall which began life as the Pennsylvania State House in 1753. From 1775 onwards the Second Continental Congress with some of today's favourite rappers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, came together here to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States as shown here by our guide through the house. This is the actual Assembly Room where the boys sat together to discuss and write and to the right the room of the Surpreme Court just across the lobby. Further rooms upstairs were off-limits, but there was the Congress Hall building next door to see and a fairly interesting little exhibition about old map making.

With that done and my capacity for sightseeing drained for the day, we moved on to South Street, Philadelphia's cool hipster/bohemian area full of rather interesting funky shops and also one of the places to get the (supposedly) best Philly Cheesesteak. After that much deserved break I spent the rest of the afternoon poking around the shops in the City Center's main shopping streets Chestnut Street and Walnut Street (yes, the smartypants who founded Philly named all the parallel running streets between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers after trees) before an quiet early night in.

After a last breakfast at the hotel and another trip to Westeros in the hotel room, we returned to South Street next morning for the last item on the tourist agenda: The Magic Garden by local artist Isaiah Zagar. It's an impossible to describe piece of three-dimensional art, all colourful fantastic murals and mosaics to walk through and be baffled. Zagar uses a lot of little mirrors, colorful bottles, Mexican folk art and many more besides. While not really big, it's just something that needs to be seen to be believed and since the intricate work can't be done justice with normal-sized photos, here are a few bigger ones:

Frankly, it was just about the perfect end to this surprisingly entertaining and interesting trip. I said goodbye to my friend at 30th Street Station and went on my own way to Philadelphia Airport, where I got lucky with an half-empty Lufthansa plane that allowed me to occupy two seats and have some space for sleeping. While my main reason for going to Philadelphia no longer existed, I really enjoyed seeing this town that's way less grim and far more charming than its reputation suggests and it proves to me once more how much sense it makes to combine theatre travelling with visiting new places I am actually keen on seeing. So who knows where my Bats will lead me next...