Day 13. Wednesday 6th May 2009 Our First Day in New York

Day 13 Wednesday 6th May 2009. Our first day in New York.
And the air temperature is freezing. The coldest we have experience this trip. Last night we were cold in bed. There were no more blankets in the cupboard and the heater did not work. Just as well I brought my bed warmer along; we snuggled up together and survived the night. Come 7am we were off to find food. We thought we would go to the Penn Station which is just across the road and underground. We found a shop, but what a performance to buy some food. They were baffled by our accent! I had to talk very slowly. The only good food I could find was fruit. As we walked back to the street I saw a very interesting shop. It was a shoe shine shop; there were ten men sitting all in a row getting their shoes polished. When each had finished they walked further into the shop where a little old grey haired granny was waiting to relieve them of four dollars. On the way out they would carefully slip the shiner a tip. Fay was delighted as she was able to get her shoe fixed. It took ten minutes and cost $10. As we came towards the surface via escalator a strange sound could be heard. Fay said it sounded like a lot of sheep baaing. It was paperboys (actually they were young men of differing ages and vocal chords) communicating with the hoards of commuters to sell and give away newspapers To me it sounded like they were shouting “erp” having shifted the”p” (in paper) to the end and leaving the “a” out. I bought a free paper! At the morning briefing with John we all decided to get on the hop-on hop-off Double Decker for a city two hour tour. We all rushed to the open top deck to find all the seats wet. We opened the provided ponchos, placed them on the seats and sat down. The air was around 10°c. After about 10 minutes as Fay and I were both recovering from colds we gave up and moved to the lower enclosed deck. My watch records my wrist temperature; normally it reads between 28° and 32°; on top of the bus it got down to 23.8°. We did not complete the tour and returned to the hotel. We did not stay long; it was sooo cold; walking in the street would warm us. We went to the largest store, Macys. There were some beautiful, coloured tee shirts, but very expensive. I was now getting too hot in the store so we went onto the street started walking again. Fay spotted an art shop; we went in and Fay found her art and I found a barber, both in the same shop; the barber said he was a Russian; he certainly knew how to cut hair. For an excellent cut I paid $NZ40. After more wandering we found a Chinese shop with our type of food. All sorts of veges, meats and fruits. We ate well and paid $6.99 per pound.
Mamma Mia! It is 7pm and we are all assembled in the lobby ready to walk 16 blocks along 7th Avenue and Broadway to the Winter Garden to experience the smash hit show “MAMMA MIA” I was excited and had great expectations. I was not to be disappointed. First the lights and advertisements on the buildings kept my camera very busy; the panorama of bright light was difficult to capture in one frame. Earlier in the day the tour bus guide told us that one building received all its revenue from advertising on its walls; all of $5m annually; there were no tenants. After 35 minutes we reached the theatre and joined the crowds entering the theatre. We were seated on the mezzanine circle and had a good view of the stage; the theatre was “cosy”; not quite as big as our Aotea. With the theatre filled to capacity the show commenced with an opening rendition of Mamma Mia. Just below the centre stage was a lady seated at an electronic piano; she was both the conductor and leading instrumentalist. Her energetic playing exuded excitement; she and her head and shoulders bounced up and down and swayed from side to side with the rhythm of the music; she was obviously enjoying herself and I found myself also getting caught up with her excitement. The music slowed and calmed; the curtains withdrew and the opening scene commenced. The lady at the piano had hands lifted from the keyboard and raised in front of her quietly conducting the singers. Below the stage were other instrumentalists. The show was humorous; the singing was great and I could hear every word. After the play had finished the cast returned and treated us with additional ABBA music. The performance was of three hours duration. For me Mamma Mia has been the highlight of our trip in North America. We retired happy but weary at midnight and were up at 6am in order to catch the early train to Lancaster; the Amish Country.