LES - The Lower East Side

My daughter Lauren is fortunate enough to work for a company that believes in "summer Fridays". Simply put, they get to leave at 1pm on Fridays, all summer long. So we have tried to make it a habit of taking advantage of it.

I leave work at noon and catch the 12:29pm bus to the city and we meet up for an afternoon of culture, food and whatever else happens our way.

I had not been into the city since March. I still find that hard to believe, that is how fast time gets away from us. We had begun to explore the Lower East Side by taking a tour at The Tenement Museum. We had enjoyed it so much that this particular Friday our destination was once again the Lower East Side and doing another tour offered by The Tenement Museum.

Our tour wasn't until 3:15 so I had a few things I had wanted to see beforehand. Our first stop was Kossar's Bialys at 367 Grand St. I had never had a bialy and Lauren didn't even know what one was so it seemed like a good thing to try. Kossar's is the oldest bialy bakery in the United States and a landmark on the Lower East Side. What exactly is a bialy?  I call it a bagel without a hole. Chewy, doughy and a bit of onion in the middle.

Our next stop was Economy Candy on Rivington Street. If you have a sweet tooth, this is the place for you. If you have had a yearning for Bonomo Turkish Taffy, candy cigarettes or a Sky Bar, this is the place for you. Floor to ceiling candy of all types. A kid's dream...

On to The Tenement Museum. It is located at 103 Orchard Street. Its mission is to tell the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants. They faced challenges we understand today: making a new life, working for a better future, starting a family with limited means. In recognizing the importance of this seemingly ordinary building, the Tenement Museum has re-imagined the role that museums can play in our lives.

They offer a variety of tours in an actual tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. The tour we were doing was "Sweatshop Workers". It recreated the lives of the Levin and Rosenthal families and their roles in the garment industry.

Things to know before you go, the tours are about an hour long and the building is obviously not air conditioned. Don't pick a sweltering hot day to visit. Also, get your tickets ahead of time. If you just show up and expect to get tickets to a tour, you may be disappointed.

By now we were hungry, so our next stop was dinner. We were going to the famous Katz's Deli. The Katz's Deli of "When Harry Met Sally" fame. They actually have the table marked where this famous scene took place and you can sit at it.

When you walk into Katz’s Deli the atmosphere is that of an old time deli. The deli counter is on the right, tables on the left and a myriad of photos on the wall of famous people who have entered the doors over the years.
 
Everyone who enters is handed a ticket. This ticket is gold. You can’t leave without your ticket whether you order or not, so do not lose it. The ordering process was relatively easy, but kind of a pain. We had to order our roast beef sandwich at one counter, get the potato knish from another counter and pick up a drink at yet another counter. The sandwich was not quite as large as I was expecting for $15.95, but it was delicious.

Satiated by the roast beef sandwich, we were ready to begin the journey home.

We had a few more things to see on the list for today.

We walked up to Bowery Street to see this building.

All I will say is google “190 Bowery Street”. You will be amazed by the story of this building.

We then walked past the “Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral”. Yes, there was one before the famous one on 5^th Avenue.

We found a Blick Art supply store. This was a find for me. I had been ordering from them for years and never knew there was a store right in NYC.

We ended our day at The Strand Bookstore. This has become a favorite bookstore to visit.

A quick subway ride back uptown and Lauren and I parted ways, I headed to Port Authority to catch a bus home and she headed to the PATH train. It was another fine day in the city.

What did you find...

most interesting? What was your favorite thing? What was the thing that surprised you the most?

These are a few of the questions I was asked when we got back from the trip.

I will begin with what surprised me the most.

The weather. I am a weather stalker when it comes to vacation. I start about a month ahead of time "stalking" it. Hoping of course for nice weather. Both London and Paris were going to be in the 50s and 60s. London, how can I put this nicely, the sky there was just mostly "doom and gloom" gray.  We had no rain. It was just gloomy most of the time. The sun did peak out occasionally. And it was a cold 50s, not a warm 50s. I thought being May, the weather would be better.

The panhandlers. Paris was full of them. On the subways there would be a group of musicians playing, quite well I might add, and at the end they would pass around a cup to put money in. When they were done with one car they would move onto the next car. There were people also playing instruments in the subway stations.

The Parisian people. I am not sure this goes under what "surprised me the most", more like "what everyone said". We really had no language barrier there. And they are not mean and nasty. We didn't have one unpleasant encounter.

A few oddities we saw.

In Paris we saw an elderly, chinese couple. They were both going into the subway station. Each one was on either side of the stairs, gripping the handrail and going down backwards, one step at a time.

On the Eiffel Tower, while waiting for the elevator to go down, there was a large Indian family also waiting. The odd thing was they each had a full-size rolling suitcase with them. Who goes to the Eiffel Tower with their luggage? Even if they were leaving the city that day they should have been able to store it somewhere for pickup later.

We heard a variety of languages being spoken in the 2 countries, German, French, Italian. But not once did we hear any Spanish. Considering where I live, it was very odd.

We did/saw 32 different things in 10 days.  While I would like to put everything on the list, here are my top ten things from the trip.

Number 10: The Eiffel Tower, Paris. I know this should be higher up on the list. The weather was a big factor as to why it is at the bottom.

Number 9: Our walk through Notting Hill area, London

Number 8: St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Number 7: Sacre-Coeur, Paris

Number 6: Seeing Les Miserables, London

Number 5: The Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Number 4: Riding the London Eye, London

Number 3: Monet’s home in Giverney, France

Number 2: The Globe Theater, London

And my Number 1 favorite thing: The Orsay Museum, Paris

And that ends our trip. I would love to here any comments or feedback!