A few months ago, I had heard that one of my favourite UK actresses, Nicola Walker, was coming to Broadway (along with her fellow theatre cast & crew) to reprise her role in Arthur Miller’s “A View From The Bridge”. I had seen it done via the National Theatre Live performances that our local cinema ran and I was duly impressed, so when the opportunity presented itself, I contacted some friends to see if they were interested in joining me. (More about that post about meeting Nicola Walker over here). Thus began the planning for my fall road trip. I’d bought a new car back in the summer (a red 2015 Hyundai Tucson) and I was itching to really give it a good road trip so this was the start. I kept record of the distances travelled, more for curiosity sake than anything else.

My first part of the journey took me down to Newington, CT to visit my friend, Anna – as she and I were heading to New York together. Across an international border and through four States. A mostly uneventful drive, though was held up in traffic in a couple of spots but got there safe and sound. A lovely meal followed by relaxing evening (and a bit of a late night) getting caught up on two of Nicola’s shows that were currently airing in the UK – “River” and “Unforgotten”. Early morning came and we were getting everything ready to head into New York City by train.

New York was a lot of fun – as it usually is when I visit. We got into Penn Station then went about getting an MTA card for Anna for the subways (the one I had from my February trip was still valid), then we headed down to our hostel, which thankfully was all ready for us, albeit on the top floor of a 3 story walk-up. And NYC was strangely very warm for early November. We met up with another friend (Bettie) and grabbed some lunch at an English fish & chip shop called A Salt and Battery – very yummy! Followed by a nip into the Tea & Sympathy shop next door.

Bettie treated us to a NYC walk through Chelsea through the Meatpacking District where we stopped at the Gansevoort Market for a walkthrough. The photo on the left is of an English deli in the back right of the market, called ‘Myers of Keswick’. Along side the wall as we were leaving I found the corrugated metal wall very interesting so I took a shot.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015

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Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Following that stop, we headed up to The Highline. If you haven’t yet heard of this, The Highline is a 1.45 mile park that was built upon an abandoned elevated train line that runs from Gansevoort Street and Washington Street up around the rail yards finishing at 34th Street and 11th Avenue. This was my second time on The Highline, the first time was a few summers ago with some friends. The park is a great use of the old train line, with shops, artisans, musicians blending in with the trees and plants. There’s lots to see and check out. When we finished on the Highline, we took the subway (from the new Hudson Yards station, at the start of the 7-line) to get to the next stage of our evening.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015.

We’d gone to Junior’s for supper then off to the theatre to see Nicola Walker in “A View from the Bridge”. If you have a chance to go see it, do so! It runs until 21st February 2016. After the show, I had the chance to meet some of the cast, including Nicola Walker, which was utterly fantastic!

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 6th November 2015

After another stop at Junior’s for cheesecake, we concluded our night back at our hostel, still on a high from the show and the meeting. On Saturday, the 7th November, we had a bit more of a relaxing day, meeting up with friends for a fabulous lunch up at Spring Natural Kitchen (474 Columbus Ave & 83rd Street), then a meander through the American Museum of Natural History. I wanted to see their Butterfly Conservatory, the dinosaur skeleton, and the Hayden Planetarium.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 7th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 7th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 7th November 2015.

Photo © J. Lynn Stapleton, 7th November 2015.

After a rigamarole of trying to get to our hostel via subway via a roundabout run – weekend underground construction work meant some of the trains were only going uptown first then down on another line express. Which meant we had a very quick pitstop down to the hostel to pick up our bags from the lockers, then quickly get Penn Station for our train back to Connecticut.

More on my travel journey in my next posts.