Madison, Brooklyn and Priscilla on Broadway!

I walk in the direction of Uptown through the very beautiful Madison Square Park, past the Flatiron Building. It’s a 22 story limestone and terracotta structure which is only six feet across at its narrowest point. On the corner of Broadway and 5th Avenue it looks as if it’s ready to sail up Broadway! I continue walking to Union Square where there is a Greenmarket on. Vegetables don’t look nearly as nice as what we have at home and fruit is unappealing.

The mission today is to walk across Brooklyn Bridge. What was I thinking …the temperature was approaching 90 degrees and no breeze….stifling hot. It didn’t stop me and many many others walking the bridge as the reward of the amazing views made it all worthwhile. A Brooklyn pizza place, Grimaldis, is legendary and the walk to the park to view the New York skyline and Manhattan takes me past this point and the queue to get in. It was just on lunchtime but those in the enormous queue would have been lucky to have been fed by dinner time!

I tube back to Canal Street and Chinatown and am able to buy a tub of peeled and sliced mango. Refreshing as it seems a whole pile hotter than before. There are so many knock off copies of everything here from Tiffany jewellery, Rolex watches, and sunglasses ….. any brand you like and handbags by the ton! They all have their price and it was fun to try and beat them down to see where the threshold was.

Back at the hotel to put my feet up for an hour before heading out to Time Square again via 34th Street ( shopping district). I am told you look on 5th Ave and you shop on 34th by a lady who was pushing her baby out for an evening stroll.

The line at the TKTS cheap tickets booth is huge …it is Saturday night and it is Broadway… just what did I expect? I walk straight to the box office and secure a reasonably priced ticket to see Priscilla at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. The man in the box office was really helpful and because it was just one ticket he was able to give me a great seat. I just loved it; the music was fantastic and the show quite risqué. All of the audience stood for the finale, clapping and singing and dancing ……yes me too! It didn’t matter, nobody knew me, I was in shorts and sleeveless top and had my running shoes on …I was on Broadway!

I was a bit worried about how I might get back to the hotel so late at night and thought a taxi would be the answer if I felt unsafe. Coming out of the theatre was like walking into daylight and if I thought the crowds were thick last night it was positively heaving with people. I felt very safe walking back to Grand Central. There were heaps of street performers out doing their thing so it was like continuous entertainment right down the street even into the subway at Grand Central. There were full bands playing in the subway walkway entertaining the throngs. Apart from the large numbers of people about the NYPD are literally everywhere …including horseback!