Friday 14 December - NYC

Plans for today entailed a trip on the subway to Washington Heights to enjoy a visit to the Cloisters which is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We found ourselves in a very Hispanic neighbourhood when we exited the subway and headed off on foot to the Cloisters. The building itself is set on a high ridge in a park on the banks of the Hudson River.

View towards the Cloisters Park

On our walk up Alison's eagle eyes spotted a bright coloured bird in one of the leafless trees and we were able to capture a photo of a Red Cardinal.

The path up to the Cloisters was quite steep and as a result Philip has a bit of tendonitis now!

Once we reached the actual building and looked at the time and entry fee we decided that we did not have the time to justify the expense as we needed to be back for the 1pm show at Radio City. We did take a short walk to the back of the building and captured some lovely vistas across the Hudson River.

AP and JP with the Hudson in the background

Then we took our first bus ride (after two attempts to board buses which were not picking up passengers). We also saw a school excursion group arrive in a Yellow School Bus and we were all surprised at the dress of the main teacher in charge - black tights and a tight top with no bra and (to put it politely) a large frame had our jaws on the ground! Took the bus to 190St Subway station as if we had stayed on the bus to get to our destination it would have taken 2.5 hours!!!

Reached the Radio City Theatre after a stop for some expensive cheesecake and coffee at a nearby cafe and all thoroughly enjoyed the show. Philip and Alison for the second time.

Radio City Foyer

Headed back to the hotel to change and leave cameras behind then back to the bottom end of Manhattan for dinner at Fraunces Tavern. The oldest tavern in the town and George Washington frequented it. It was flooded as a result of Sandy but has just re-opened some of its bars. We enjoyed our meal and very large beers in the case of Philip and Alison.

The beers were 1 litre and Philip was particularly worried of the impact that might happen sometime during the performance of Evita that we were heading to after dinner. Thank heavens for the rest rooms at the Rockefeller Plaza near the theatre district! Side note Alison stopped and bought a bargain pair of ankle boots on the way back to the theatre.

Enjoyed Evita. We had been worried by some reviews of the lady playing Evita but Jessica and Philip thought she fitted the role well but all agreed that at times the words of the songs were hard to understand because of her accent. The role of Peron was played by an understudy and he did a marvellous job. Can't believe that people applaud singers who come on stage just because they are a big name - in this case Ricky Martin.