from ramshakle Greenwhich to elegant Upper East Side

my new breakfastplace

you can`t imagine a bigger contrast-I met Thomas aunt at the Harvard club-total vornehm-kam mir vor wie in England 18.Jahrhundert-um die Ecke fivth avenue- and she invited me to her home .
So I am the poor relative in a georgious home at CarlSchurzpark overlooking the Eastriver-many ships-and the bridge-breathtaking-fotos will follow- so to calm my friends who did not feel comfortable seeing me in a strange home
A coincidence:When Stephan was here we wanted to go in a museum Upper EAstside at a beautiful day-we walked and walked admired the houses there and the park and forgot the museum-a few weeks later I am in one of these wonderfull houses.....
The town gets more and more crazy about Christmas-yesterday enlightening in Bryant park das wird mein Lieblingspark gerade-um die Ecke die Library-ein netter Eislaufplatz und viele Marktstände mit schönen Sachen-Ihr könnt Euch aber nicht vorstellen,was hier los ist-ich glaube sie geben bald Eintrittskarten für ganz New York aus.
TY teams everywhere and crowds of people
Today enlightening of the big Tree at Rockefeller mit Barrikaden

back in NYC

In spite thanksgiving my plane was in time on sunday morning at la Guardia and a sunny New York welcomed me---Trish and Gary were waiting at my new place Murray Spaceshoe 130 West 10th street -a ramshakled house was anounced-so first the keys were not there then at least found and we went in-Gary and Trish were surprised that I did not immediatly refuse to put my foot into my new room- I was sort of fascinated of the history this house has-Pete Seeger and-as I learned-more important Woodie Guthrie-played and wrote many important Country and Protest songs in the 5oies exactly in "my room"- and Gary knew the mother of the inventor Murray Spaceshoes-she was his dancing teacher-small world
so jetzt muss ich doch aufs Deutsche gehen-ich dachte also,die beiden sind halt Amis,Sauberkeitsfanatiker, und fügte mich ihrem Wunsch,mit Ihnen zu kommen in das Haus von Trish`s Stiefsohn in der gleichen strasse-wie von Schöner Wohnen eingerichtet-erste Nacht also dort-viele schöne Gespräche mit den beiden und gutes Essen-Frühstück natürlich ausserhalb- dann wieder zurück in mein Haus wie in den Zeiten von thomas 10 Leute WG 1968 in der Klingenteichstrasse-aber beim zweiten Blick war es noch viel schlimmer als in der Klingenteichstrasse-seit den Zeiten von Pete Seeger ist nicht mehr geputzt worden-
aber ich habe mir in den Kopf gesetzt,dass ich es eine Nacht aushalte....
I cannot proof the dirt because my camera...yes-at least the cabels I forgot----in St.Louis..

what else to do in STL during Thanksgiving

First to mention
we saw -honoring our own history-the new movie about Bob Dylan in the Tivolitheater-an oldfashioned house in University city-

-I am not there-

Bob Dylan is played by 6 different actors-Kate Blanchet among them and we are convinced they will nominate her for an oscar-she is extraordinary good-a lot do discuss after the show......

and we went up the Arch-192 Meter hoch-Symbol of STL Gateway to the West
I was very scarred in the gondola but the view made the journey worthwhile

hiked in the fall woods

visited Cahokia Mounds a World Heritage Site-between 1050 and 1300 the largest Indian community north of Mexico with a population of 20 000 people and artificial mounds
see web site here

watching the project´s progress

enjoying the fireplace- it got cold

Hannibal

hinter diesem martialischen Namen verbirgt sich ein kleines Städtchen 150 km nördlich am Missisippi gelegen,bekannt durch
oder auch Samuel Langhorn , der hier seine Jugend verbracht hat und seine Streiche und Erlebnisse in Hannibal alias St.Petersburg später in Huckleberry Finn und Abenteuer des Tom Sawyer niedergeschrieben hat
We visited das Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Various museums about his later work and places in these books and got to know almost everything about Mark Twain-the most impressive sentence for me was :"Human nature cannot be studied in cities...a village is the place.There you can get to know your man inside and out-in a city you but know his crust-and his crust is usually a lie"
What does it mean for New York? Naja ,vielleicht sollte ich es doch nicht so ernst nehmen...
Jedenfalls ist hier der Mississippi so,wie ich ihn mir bei der Lektüre von Tom Sawyers Abenteuer immer vorgestellt habe

und sogar einen Leuchtturm haben sie

no thanksgiving without family and turkey

here it-she-he-?-is....perfectly cooked by Bill´s Mom

Wie ich gelernt habe,ist Thanksgiving das eigentliche
Familienfest-mehr noch als Weihnachten-für alle Amerikaner,da es alle Religionen umfasst und das Charakteritische daran besteht,dass alle, auch die, die weit weg arbeiten oder zum College gehen,versuchen, nachhause zu kommen um im Kreise der Familie zu feiern.Es beruft sich auf den Geist der Abtrünnigen, der Pilgerväter, die von den Indianern lernten wie man Mais anbaut und einen amerikanischen Vogel-siehe oben-brät......und ein Festmahl zusammen feiert,um Gott/Great Spirit für die Ernte zu danken

Bill proofes the turkey

and taught us Black Jack-

my enjoyment of playing cards is second only to a good meal

Rest of Day I passed practising Mozart-ein bissle verbissen,weil ich die D-moll Fantasie immer noch nicht kann....

38 million people......

including me
are on the road in America for thanksgiving-
I had several invitations for this important holiday but of course my first choice was Saint Louis-so I am here again

warmly welcomed and feeling at home

sitting outside for breakfast and dinner-78 Fahrenheit-very nice after heavy rain in New York




looking forward to Turkey and Granberries and sweet potatoes and.....

The journey is the reward

I was often asked for tips or brandnew places to go to in NYC-I found out the only right answer is-see upon-after making every single day of my stay in NYC a plan what to do which museum-store-walkingtour-guided tour what ever and realizing at the end of this very day I did none of my plans but discovered beautiful things so I skipped doing a plan( Like BRECHT IN THE 3 PENNY OPERY JA MACH NUR EINEN PLAN-SEI NUR EIN GROSSES LICHT UND MACH AUCH EINEN ZWEITEN PLANGEHEN TUN SIE BEIDE NICHT)and followed the idea
Der Weg ist das Ziel
so I discovered for example the beauty of the subways

listened to unexspected music

whatched chessplayers

wondered where the sellers of these abondand stands could be.....

then realized they had to face Mecca for a prayer

at least went to a museum I would never have planned to go-they showed first American flages-some knitted- and with 13 stars....

whatched soccer

lost time and space in a wonderfull bookstore-Rizzoli-57.street

learnt about protest against the war at Unionsquare
and never forgot: I am in America

more family and friends from Germany

wie es sich gehört- Mike kommt mit dem Taxi-my brother in law arrived at broadway

we met at Dean at Deluca

thank God the anual Surgeon congres takes place in NYC so I was able to pass a very pleasant time with Henning and Jutta from Munich
das typische Selbstauslöserfoto wollte ich doch nicht vorenthalten
wir starteten mit Drinks in meinem luxuriösen Appartment

und obwohl Henning am nächsten Tag einen Vortrag hatte , haben wir einen sehr lustigen Abend verbracht. Ich habe es sehr genossen , Deutsch zu reden und vor allem : Zeit zu haben - mit Amis hört der Abend immer dann auf,wenn ich gerade warm geworden bin und für mich der gemütliche Teil beginnen könnte-ich hoffe, die beiden haben es nicht bereut,die Nacht durchgemacht zu haben...( nach deutscher Zeit )- wir sind schon vor zwölf aus dem netten Restaurant in Greenwhich gegangen -ich war dann noch lange auf "meinem"Pier draussen gesessen-viele Liebespaare um mich herumg und sehr nette Polizisten

Piers

My goal was to walk all the (50?) piers around manhattan - the ones on Hudsonriver as well as on Eastriver-which is not a river but ocean

beginning with the most famous
One-at the Batteriepark-Downtown Manhattan

this is on Eastriver

some piers are just rotten woods

some playgrounds
basketball,soccer and even golf

some well made

some abondend

some in use as piers should be
including ferry to New Jersey or Brooklyn
at 5 pm long rows of wallstreetpeople

this is the one with best view on my favourite bridge
many piers are used as parkinglots

I could go on and but I am afraid it would be boring...
I like most the ones on Hudson -wider views-a real river-in general westside of New York pleases me more-East side for me is a bit boring-inspite East village is said to be a good place but I found not so many interesting places there-at least up to now-some time is left to discover more....

Weekend at Long Island

I went out to Northport-Long Island to meet Gretchen Haynes

at her house-built even some years before our house in Heidelberg-1860-
very strong memories-
we passed 5 weeks in 1997 there -9 People-5 our family plus 4 friends of the kids-Thomas already very ill with fever attacks-
I did not exspect the sharp pictures in my inner eyes from these times and the smells and the feelings.....

nevertheless I enjoyed the long walk at the beach with Gretchen-our shades before sunset

and the views from the big porch we spent all time eating,gambling-Siedler!-talking-drinking

and the calm and view out of my bedroom

and INDIAN SUMMER all over the island
Monday Gretchen and I went back to town recovering her first livingplace here at 10thstreet in the 1950thies as a student
learning a bit about the Indians in US at the museum and in the evening
listening to a show at Joe´s Pub at Lafayette about Bertolt Brecht-
performer was Mike Daisy- did it very funny but not very profound-so as Bertolt Brecht is our favourite-Polly is the Polly Peachum from 3 penny opera-I did not learn new things about about Brecht but about the American way of looking at Brecht

What else to do alone in big bad city?

discovering the big apple by byc out of my appartment
a lot of fun
but exhausting

besides I enjoy very much my snuggly appartment and pass lot of time there in bed
drinking my tea,
being again on the phone with Bill,
reading,hearing music and-
every morning and every evening I cross my street to the Hudsonpier to great Miss Lisserty
and the Empire State Building on the way back
enjoy the changing light , sunsets
and the changing river-Hudson follows tide from the ocean

what else?

SHOPPING SHOPPING SHOPPING

unbelievable how many things I desire to buy

Ground Zero on one of my bictours
I am eager how it looks like when I come next time to NYC
I sort like Libermans plans

After 6 weeks being in town I get to know quiet places-
they exist-yeah-for example NYC sailing school

Rockefeller Center is less quiet

yesterday they put on the big Tree for Xmas you can barely see under the Gerüst-ich bin gespannt wie sich das noch entwickelt-die Stadt wird immer weihnachtlicher und aufgeregter-ich berichte weiter....
Wir Ihr seht,bin ich immer unter Leuten,bekomme schon morgens Besuch,bin ganz integriert und komme null zum Nachdenken
zum Lachen,dass ich nach NYC zum Alleinsein gekommen bin