Mercury/Tesco – Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris New York Competition
21st June: We arrived at Manchester Airport in good time and join the queue to check in our luggage. After queuing and going through the luggage checks we found that that there were delays because of faults on both the baggage handling conveyor belt and the computer systems. Eventually we got our boarding passes, preceded through security and looked around the shops.
Our plane was a strange looking plane as the wing ends were turned up. We had a joke about them being in that condition because the women drivers can’t park them in the hangers.
The flight was very pleasant with clear skies for most of the way, so we had good views of the ground below. Ireland looked particularly pleasant with its patchwork of fields.
After crossing the Atlantic we arrived at the coast of Canada. The skies here were also clear so we had good views of the Canadian coastline and the coast of New England. There seemed to be so many miles of unspoilt virgin countryside. It was very noticeable that where there was development how many of the houses had their own swimming pools. It was also noticeable how many baseball diamonds could be seen from the air.
Our pilot informed us that we would be following the Hudson River towards New York. Our luck held out and the skies remained clear and before long we could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance. Before long we could begin to pick out famous landmarks like the Empire State Building and the green Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.
We landed safely, reclaimed our bags and progressed through US customs who were as friendly as ever (not). In the arrivals lounge our pin strip suited driver was waiting for us holding up the ‘DAGGER’ name board. He took us to our limo, a Lincoln Town Car Elite.
The car was lovely with roomy seats, air-conditioning and darkened windows. The driver provided us with bottles of cooled water which was very welcome after our wait in the warm airport arrivals lounge. The friendly driver took us to our hotel, pointing out the sights along the way.
Our hotel was the Comfort Inn Central Park West. The hotel did not look that promising, a modern building with scaffolding on the outside. The area however was really nice. 71st Street was a tree lined avenue with what New Yorkers call ‘Brownstone Houses’. 50 yards at the end of the street was Central Park. One block away on Central Park West was the Dakota Building outside of which John Lennon was shot. The next block contained apartments owned by Dustin Hoffman, Madonna, Michael Douglas, Donald Southerland and many other big name stars, so we were in good company.The hotel inside also had an air of having seen better days. We had a room on the 11th floor. The room like those in many city hotels was very small. It actually had a queen sized bed and a single bed so was intended for three people, considering the difficulty Dale and I had both doing things at the same time it would have been really cramped for three. The bathroom was also very small, it was impossible to bend over at the washbasin however you could wash your face whilst sat on the loo. The view out our window was of the buildings opposite. Despite being small the room was clean, with air conditioning, safe and for our purpose adequate.
We showered and dressed and set off to find something to eat. It was a warm, very humid New York night. We walked down Central Park West to Lincoln Circle. We peeped in the Time Warner building and before long we found ourselves on Broadway.
We were tired and hungry after our long day so we did not really do much sightseeing. After looking at a number of places we finally decided on an Italian Restaurant down a cellar just off Broadway.
We had a lovely meal. We both had grilled shrimp on a bed of polenta. I had swordfish for my main course. Dale ordered beef but when it arrived she had been given pork. As Dale then had to wait for her meal to be cooked we ate our main courses separately. My meal was washed down by a couple of pints of Sam Adams. We both had coffee and sweets to finish off the meal.
Our watches were telling us it was going up for 10.00pm but because of the time difference our body clocks were telling us it was 3.00am, so we returned to our hotel for a good nights sleep ready for an early start the next day.
22nd June: We awoke early and set off to enjoy our first full day in New York. After a good breakfast on Broadway/Time Square, pancakes and bacon for me, something healthier for Dale, we set off to explore the city. Even at this early hour we were amazed at how busy the city was.
We had decided that the morning would be spent taking a three hour cruise aound Manhattan on the Circle Line boat. However as it was still early we decided to take in some of the sights that we had planned for later in the day to fill the time before our sail.
We walked through time square and on to 42nd Street. We ambled down 42nd Street and enjoyed looking at the tall buildings all around. The first notable building we came to was the New York Public Library, which we remembered from its role in the film ‘Ghostbusters’.
Next was Grand Central Station, this was a beautiful building from the outside but became more special once inside. It was very spectacular from every angle and even though it was approaching rush hour it still seemed very spacious. The clock made famous as a meeting point in so many films was just as we’d imagined.
Even though I’ve wanted to see the Chrysler for so long there was no sense of anticlimax, it truly is beautiful. The building is used for office work and you cannot go up it on a pleasure trip unlike some other New York Buildings.
We went into the lobby and the inside is as stunning as the outside. Every little detail oozes quality and seems to be in just the right proportion. The walls were beautiful marble, there were painted murals on the ceiling and even the lift doors were beautifully inlaid.
We reluctantly left the Chrysler Building and made our way to the Western End of 42nd Street to catch our boat. The walk was slightly longer than we had anticipated and we made it with just seconds to spare. As soon as we sat down the boat moved away from its pier and made its way down the Hudson River.
The morning that had been so hot and humid felt much cooler and looked slightly hazy from the water. Many of Manhattan’s sights are easily seen from the water as it is quite a narrow island.
We saw many of New York’s other boroughs on our trip including New Jersey, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Harlem, but the focus was usually on Manhattan and its distinctive skyline.
On our trip we also sailed under some of New York’s famous bridges including the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.
We saw the pier at which Titanic was due to dock had the iceberg not got in the way. We also saw the gap left in the skyline where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre used to be.
We saw Ellis Island where all the immigrants into America passed through for many years and which is now preserved as a museum.
We had our photos taken with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop the boat then turned and made its way up the East River
We got great views of many of the famous buildings including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler.
We passed the Yankee Stadium and sailed on through Harlem. It was surprising that the North end of the Manhattan Island is quite hilly and wooded. We also sailed passed the bay where Captain Hudson landed all those years ago.
We returned to dry land and decided we would go to the Guggenheim Museum. We walked up the Avenue of Americas as this was where our concert was being held that night, so it gave us an idea of how long it would take us to get there from our hotel.
By now the heat and humidity were at their fiercest so we decided we would walk through Central Park, under the trees to try and keep cool. After wandering in the park for a while we decided that our visit to the Guggenheim would be too rushed if we tried to cram it in now, so we decided we would explore the park a little more and then stroll back to our hotel leisurely.
After showering and dressing we set off early for our special evening. The heat was so intense that after a few moments outdoors you felt that you had never had that shower. We dined at a small pizza place close to the theatre so that we would not be late.
We arrived at Radio City Music Hall and picked up our tickets and ‘meet and greet’ passes and proceeded to the stage door as instructed. The security guard just inside the door made a telephone call and someone was sent to pick us up. Moments later we were in the lift being taken to meet the stars of the show. It was explained to us that they were not doing a formal meet and greet on this occasion but were having an informal get together on the fifth floor.
When we arrived at the room we were introduced to the tour manager who took us in. Mark Knopfler and his band were having a jam session in this small room with Emmylou Harris watching from the other side of the room. We and a small handful of other people were the only ones there to witness some stunning musicianship
When it was time for them to finish their session and go and get ready for the show Mark’s tour manager stepped forward and said “Geoff and Dale Dagger have come all the way from England to meet you can you spare them a couple of minutes”? We were then introduced to them, got an album signed and got our tickets signed. They left and we were taken back down to the stage door to go take our seats at the concert.We entered the lovely art deco theatre lobby which was amazing. I purchased a programme and t-shirt whilst Dale went and bought some drinks. Dale came back raving about the ladies restroom, saying they were the most spectacular she had ever seen.
We took our seats in the beautiful theatre. Super seats, fairly central about thirteen rows back. There was no support and the band and both artists took to the stage shortly after 8.00pm.The excellent concert lasted for just under two hours and featured numbers from their recent duet album ‘All the Road Running’ and hits from both their back catalogues. Standout numbers were for me Mark Knopfler’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Emmylou’s ‘Boulder to Birmingham’ and the duets on ‘I dug up a diamond’ and ‘My Shangri-La’.
After the encores we returned to the street and the warm summer night and decided that what would finish the night off well would be a lovely cooling ice-cream. Within 200 yards of the theatre we found our ice-cream shop. We strolled by the side of Central Park back to our hotel enjoying our ice-creams and our memories.
We arrived back at the hotel after a long and exciting day tired but exhilarated. Another such day lay ahead of us and we fell asleep quickly.
June 23rd: We had breakfast at the Café Mozart, banana pancakes with fruit salad for me and waffle and fruit salad for Dale. Across the street from the Café Mozart was a strange building with all sorts of Egyptian ornamentation on the outside. It is known as the Pythian Temple, it was the home of a secret society who based their society on the Delphic Oracle. More fascinating is it was the place where ‘Bill Haley & The Comets’ recorded ‘Rock Around the Clock’ and Buddy Holly recorded "True Love Ways / Raining In My Heart / It Doesn't Matter Anymore".
Following breakfast we picked up on the walk we postponed yesterday and made our way through the park to the Guggenheim museum. It was slightly disappointing when we arrived that one of the world’s most innovatively designed buildings was covered in scaffolding and wrapping. We went inside and looked at paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso and many other greats from the world of modern art. The building was very interesting from a design point of view but we felt that too much floor space was given over to one artist who’s work was very repetitive, it would have been far more interesting to have given a greater number of artists a chance to show their work. The building itself was the best work of art on show.We had a snack in the museum café and when we came out it was raining heavily. We had planned to go on a themed walk with an organisation called ‘The Big Onion’. We decided to go ahead with our plans despite the weather and jumped in a yellow cab to take us to City Hall where the walk as to begin.
After a taxi journey, that cost more than anticipated, we arrived at City Hall. It was still raining at this point so we decided to purchase some rain ponchos. We then looked around some of the shops including the one under City Hall where Dale bought a crocodile in the sewer t-shirt. We also found a path that led across Brooklyn Bridge. We decided to walk as far as the bridge and the go back to the start of the walk.The walk was just beginning when we arrived. The sun also came out and the heat began to build again. The walk we were going on dealt with immigration into America. We were told how many of the neighbourhoods evolved including the ‘Five Points’ were the film ‘Gangs of New York’ was set and ‘The Bowery’. We were shown the African Graveyard and were told about where the Irish, the Italians, the Jews and Chinese had settled in the area. We were then taken through Chinatown with all its many sights. The walk ended in an area we were not too confident with so we jumped into another yellow cab and made our way back to the hotel.
After showering and changing we were undecided about what we wanted to do so we decided we would make our way to the Lincoln Centre reasoning that this being a cultural and theatre centre there would be lots of places to eat in the area. When we got there we found there was to be a free jazz and swing concert that evening in the square as part of their ‘Midsummer Swing’ season. We resolved to return once we had eaten.
We dined at a place called ‘The City Diner’ which was typical American fare. I had coconut shrimp followed by meatloaf and Dale had Mozzarella sticks followed by fried chicken.We retuned to the Lincoln Centre and enjoyed an evening watching the dancing and listening to the music. By the end of the evening both Dale and I had blisters on our sore feet but that wasn’t going to stop us exploring again tomorrow.
An interesting fact about the Lincoln Centre is that the tenements that were pulled down to make way for the centre were the place that the film ‘West Side Story’ was filmed.
24th June: We again breakfasted at the excellent Café Mozart and set off to enjoy a walk we had planned in Greenwich Village. We had our first trip on the New York tube system and with just a little confusion caused by altered weekend service we eventually reached our destination of Christopher Street. A light drizzle was falling when we commenced our walk but after the heat of the past two days it felt quite nice.
The walk started where the Stonewall riots kicked off, which was the beginning of the Gay Right movement. The atmosphere in Greenwich Village felt a world apart from Manhattan.
We visited the Washington Monument and stopped for coffee and cookies in a nearby café.The find of the day was a well preserved speakeasy which had been kept much as it had been since the days of the prohibition. The establishment over the years had attracted a large number of prominent literary figures. The bar owner had allowed published authors to exchange one of their book covers for a free drink, these covers now covered parts of the wall. The rest of the walls were covered with photographs of celebrities who had drunk there (or should that be had been drunk there). There were also a number of autographs on the walls which included people like Earnest Hemmingway, John Steinbeck, Henry Miller etc. This together with other items of memorabilia made for a very special atmosphere.
After sheltering from a torrential downpour we completed our walk. We had spotted a number of likely spots for buying clothes to bring back for Michelle, so we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We returned by tube to the 72nd Street tube station and then back to our hotel.
It was drizzling when we left our hotel for an evening out. We decided we would dine at the Café Mozart as we’d been impressed by the quality at breakfast time, also we thought the rain might stop and it would give us chance to plan our evening.
We were shown to out table by a very camp but efficient waiter and had a lovely meal accompanied by some very pleasant jazz piano playing.
When we came out the rain had almost stopped. We decided that it would be nice to see Time Square at night so made our way to there. By the time we arrived night had set in and the bustling crowds 
swarmed under the neon lights. The place was full of atmosphere and cheap souvenir shops. We meandered around and bought a tie and t-shirt.
I wanted to get a picture of Radio City Music Hall at night as in my excitement I had forgot to take one when the show was over the other night. After I had taken my photo Dale reminded me that I had wanted to do the ‘Top of the Rock’ experience. Dale persuaded me that I might not get the chance again, not needing too much encouragement we picked up a discount voucher outside and in we went.The ‘Top of the Rock’ experience is a trip to the top of the Rockefeller Centre. The observation deck is on the top of this 70 Floor building. At the base is a presentation showing old pictures and films, information as to how the building was constructed and a photo opportunity where you feel as though you are standing on a girder high above the ground on the partly constructed building.
As it was quiet there were no queues so we did not pay to much attention to the displays and made our way to the lift. The guide outside the lift said “we have a special surprise for you, when the lift doors close look up”.
The lift doors closed, the lights went out and it became apparent that the lift had a glass ceiling. The lift shaft was lit with blue lights all the way up to the 70th floor. The lift goes at such an incredible speed that the first 65 floors are done in 34 seconds. I guess it needs to slow down after that to stop at the 70th.
You exit the lift onto an internal landing. An escalator then takes you out onto the lower observation deck. As it was dark it appeared that the escalator almost took you out to nowhere. Around the deck the walls were made of Perspex so the views were almost unobstructed. There was one further small escalator up to the top deck. What a view!
There was broken cloud around and some of the buildings being so high dragged the occasional cloud – truly skyscrapers.
There were a million New York lights shining brightly in the sky. The Empire State Building looked back at us and you could see a dark patch with no lights which was Central Park. You could identify the Hudson and East Rivers only by the lights on the bridges. The one disappointment was that the beautiful Chrysler Building was partially obscured behind a rather ugly modern office block.
We made our way back down via escalator and lift. Following a quick visit to the souvenir shop we found ourselves in the bowels of a shopping centre below the Rockefeller Centre. We eventually extricated ourselves and found ourselves back on the streets outside the Rockefeller Centre.
25th June: Breakfast at Café Mozart again followed by a trip into the Centre again for some last minute shopping. We came across Carnegie Hall on our way back, which is a very unimpressive building. In fact we almost walked passed without noticing it.
We returned to our hotel room to complete our packing as we had to vacate our room for 1.00pm. We checked out of our hotel, I nearly had heart failure as the receptionist tried to charge me for the full bill. I do hope the competition promoter remembered to pay the bill (it eventually turned out they hadn’t).
We left our luggage at the hotel and went for a walk in Central Park as it was a while before our Limo was due to pick us up. We went down to the area where there is a large fountain as we knew we could find a drink there. We then walked through the area called ‘The Ramble’. This is named as one of America’s top bird watching sites. It is on a main migration route and being surrounded by so much development the birds use it as a resting point. Unfortunately we were there at a time when migration wasn’t taking place. We did manage to see downy woodpecker, blue jay, American robin, cowbird, night heron and egret.
We returned to the hotel to find our chauffeur had arrived early. We were quickly returned to Newark Airport.
Newark Airport had a system of self service check in, which evidently was intended to speed up the process. It did however seem to have the opposite effect. We eventually managed to get through customs and after some confusion gave our finger prints and retinal scans which meant we were ready to leave the country. An uneventful flight signalled the end of our latest American adventure.
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