Travelog for: Bob Beeker

On a cold but sunny Saturday morning we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.


Skyline of the financial district:




See the Statue of Liberty in the distance?





And the Empire State Building to the north?





Next to us: the Manhatten Bridge.


Lower Eastside

On Sunday we took  bus tours of the city in the open double decker bus.
Columbus Circle


Central Park


Lincoln Center






The Dakota


The American Museum of Natural History, don’t you like their holiday dinosaur?



Supposed to become the biggest cathedral in the world


There is a reason why you warent supposed to stand up while the bus is moving: there just  isn’t a lot of space to the street signs, stop lights, branches or ceilings of tunnels.


Welcome to Harlem!



South Street Sea Port: We took a cruise with the Zephyr (see in the back)


(more pictures of the cruise and the Statue of Liberty and Skyline to follow later)

What a nice light at this time of the day. We just got our cruise tickets.

Here we are getting o the boat:

There are water taxis here:


We drove over it, now we are crossing under it.



After a turn we are passing the south of Manhatten again.


There's the ferry to Liberty Island

We drove around the tip of Manhatten and up the Hudson river.


Can you see the docks and the Empire State Building?


Manhatten and New Jersey

A beautiful sunset

Jersey City


An old train station where immigrants coming from Ellis Island started their journey to a new home.

Ellis Island, the buildings are actually quite beautiful.


And finally I got a good look at Miss Liberty. She looks a bit grim but the colors are amazing.



One last picture and we're heading back to Manhatten.



It's getting dark quickly now and we need to go look for a place to have dinner.

Inside the central post office:


Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building


Looking up Wall Street to Trinity church


The New York Stock Exchange



South Street Sea Port

view on it from the bridge

The restored area of South Street Seaport, now a shopping area, I esp. recommend the MET shop.



The Brooklyn Bridge again, we are on our way to Brooklyn today.


Still on the Lower Eastside


Chinatown


Crossing the Manhatten Bridge, a lot like flying for me but nothing for people with a fear of heights, at least not at the edge of the open top deck of a double decker bus.


See the south of Manhatten and the Brooklyn Bridge.




We are in Brooklyn, basically a city of itself.


Parking has to be done like this:



a tennis court on the roof of a building:



The court house





That’s a job for me!




I'd rather stay in my seat. I'm just glad I'm not flying low, so many obstacles in the way, I don'T know how the local birds do it. 




The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory


See Manhatten over there?



Governor Island and Liberty Island



Some pretty row houses










Back to Manhatten

A little bit of Queens






Chinatown again


We drove over this bridge




Near Wall Street


Ground Zero

It was very windy when we had lunch here. Aerodynamics must also have changed with this big hole between sky-scrapers.






The Big Piano in FAO Schwarz on 5th Avenue

FAO


5th Ave



Apple Store


The same design as on the bags, is also on the store




At Cartier, little red boxes moved in and out to show one tresure at a time.


These are next to the windows:


SAKS 5th Avenue, the stars blink to the melody of Carol of the Bells regularly after dark.

The angel belongs to the decoration at Rockefeller Center.


a look at the angels and the tree at Rockefeller center


Rockefeller Center




Mounted police

and the police station at Times Square

The MET

And the view from its steps



The atrium (kind of a funny double edge effect in the first picture)


And hall of statues


That’s it for us, now we need to hurry back to get the luggage and then take the subway to JFK airport.

We are back in Essen. The Adventskranz is nearly fully lit by now. Just one more week to Christmas.

Look, we put up the Christmastree and decorated it. I was the one who put in the things at the top, because nobody else can reach there without a ladder or a chair to climb on. Can you find me in the picture?

We made a trip to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) today. It’s a city close to the border to the Netherlands and Belgium and we heard lot’s of tourists from those countries, but also from the UK there.

It’s an old city, that used to be the center of the Kaiserpfalz, the empire of Karl dem Großen (= Charlemagne).


Some windows have moving dolls in them:



Aachen is well-known for special Christmas/winter cookies, called Printen. Here they have many special shops only for those in all variations.






Aachen has an old cathedral, from the early 9th century. It was first founded as a a court chapel in the form of an octagon that was finished in 805.



In 1414, on the 600. anniversary of Karl’s death the gothic choir hall was finished.


As St. Mary’s church, there were sme baroque changes in the early 19th century. In 1884 the high tower was built and the baroque inside was replaced by mosaic.



In this side-chapel the bishops of Aachen since 1931 have been buried. The skull and bishop’s insignia on the ground are quite descriptive.


This arm relic  was ordered by King Louis XI. It’s gilded silver, with a mountaincristal window that shows the right radius und ulna of Karl dem Großen. Gross, if you ask me.


This is an idealized bust of Charlemagne, probably ordered by Karl IV in 1349. In side is, in the anatomically right place, a part of the skull of Karl dem Großen.
The crown is the one Karl IV wore for his coronation and presented to the Aachener Stiftskapelle afterward. The real crown of the empire was with the heirs of the Bavarian king.

In gold on the chest there is the eagle as symbol of the Holy Roman Empire, on the base the French lily. That combination was interpreted as coat of arms of Karl dem Großen.


This pretty little crown belonged to Margaret of York.


The padlocks aren't all very old, some are dated 1921, or even 1951. But they are all pretty. The mirror below allows visitors to see them from both sides.

There are more bigger and 3 smaller relics in this church. The smaller ones are supposedly the belts of Maria and Jesus and the Geißelstrick of Jesus, visible in here.


Here’s a coronation cloak.


In cellars, a huge nativity scene is built with French-style figures. Christ of course isn’t visible, yet.


my ticket



The Christmas market is mostly located around the city hall. It’s the old building with the towers.



An old pub is built seemingly leaning into it.

We had some last-minute Christmas shopping to do today, just like lots of other people if the parking is any indication.  We went to the Ruhr Park mall.

After that we went to the parrot park in Bochum. The have lots of different kinds of parrots and exotic birds, for sale, for exhibit or for care while their families are on holidays. Some big aras are free in the main room. This one seemed very interested in being where I am: on my mentor’s arm, so he wouldn’t hold still to take a photo.

In Germany, Christmas is celebrated mainly on the 24th of Dezember: Heiligabend (holy evening). It's not an official holidays, but most shops only open until midday.
All our presents were wrapped and we packed them up for the trip to grandma's house.

She has an old nativity scene. The light above it burns all the time it is set up, even at night.


In the evening, everybody goes into the den to open presents. These are all mine!

We used the nice weather on this holiday to go for a long walk in the Schellenberger Wald (forest Schellenberg). I was fascinated by the mossy trees and the miniature waterfalls.

I hung out with the cats today.


Antigone is already a mature lady. She wasn't bothered by the little bell around her ear.

Little Penelope wanted to play with me.

Because of the cold days, we started using the oven in the living room. One has to heat it up with a fire in the evenings and the stones warm up and slowly warm the room over the days.
When the air-vent is open, the fire roars.


When the air is heated and the big wood pieces are alight, the vent in closed and the fire just smolders for a long time.

Shortly before midnight we got ready. The fireworks were already unpacked and ready for transport outside.

After first well wished and sips of prosecco, we started the fireworks in the garden...

...and watched other people's displays.

Tonight we went to see a movie called 'The Women'. It wasn't bad and I found it amazing that they managed not to show any men (not even the husbands) in the movie. Those were only redeemed slightly by the baby-boy born at the end of the movie.
We took no pictures in the movie theatre, because it's not really allowed. But here I am in the subway station: the escalators to and from the platform.

the ticket machine

Here's the place in front of the Grillo theatre.

The lights of the Christmas decorations were already turned off when we got back from the movies.

These old-fashioned street-lights are only in this area. Elsewhere in the city the lights are higher up and uglier.