Summer in the City

At this time of the year, New York warms up and transforms into a city with a tropical climate. It's hard to believe that it can be extremely cold and snowing in this city that is now hot and humid, with a regular shower or thunderstorm at the end of the day. That's why a lot of NY-ers try to escape the City during the weekends to enjoy a refreshing breeze at one of the beautiful beachy areas within a 2 - 4 hours driving reach. They will go to the Hamptons, the Jersey shore or go up north, all the way to Cape Cod.

For the ones who decide to stay, however, there is plenty of (free) stuff to do. Especially in Central Park where I saw the NY Philharmonic Orchestra perform Mozart and Beethoven during a 2 hour long concert at the Great Lawn. The crowds amazed me, according to an NYPD estimate almost 75,000 people joined this free event! There they were, sitting on their picnic blankets, some of them with balloons as a sign for their friends where to find them, accompanied by coolers with food and drinks for everybody!

And these days, every 'cool' city has a city beach. So does NYC, at Pier 17, which is located down town close to the Brooklyn Bridge overlooking the East River and Brooklyn. With real sand and fake palm trees, no possibility to swim equipped with a bar it's the typical city beach. Here's where the usual flirting and drinking takes place in the open air instead of one of the trendy places you would normally go to...that's about summer in the City...

Friends in the City

My last visitors of a great spring - summer period full of friends and family - were Ewout & Julie, longstanding friends who made their way across the Atlantic. Although their visit wasn't that full of great weather, June was a lousy month in that sense, it was full of fantastic and memorable moments. Almost immediately after their arrival I took them to the Netherlands club of NY where we joined the celebration of the newly arrived herring. Immediately, Julie & Ewout became part of the Dutch community here in NY. The next day was for discovering Downtown Manhattan with Battery Park, Ground Zero, Financial District, China town and Little Italy, before having a well deserved cold beer in 5 Ninth, a great spot in Meatpacking. We had our first nice moment of seriously catching up and sharing our stories from the last 6 months that we didn't see each other. The diner in Italian restaurant Nero D'Avola with real pure Italian dishes made it an evening to remember.
The next day while I was working, Ewout & Julie enjoyed breakfast at Wholefoods and planned to visit the Güggenheim museum...to their disappointment the museum appeared to be closed every Thursday...I will never forget to tell my future visitors..! Joining the happy couple in the evening, we were off to Spice Market, as you know one of my favorites in town, where we enjoyed the decor, atmosphere and good food while chatting along. To finish the evening in style we sipped some cocktails on the roof of Gansevoort Hotel on the other side of the street.

What would be better than to see a Broadway show in NYC? On Friday evening we saw 'In the Heights', about life in Washington Heights, a lively neighborhood in the upper west part of Manhattan, after a relaxing Friday afternoon at Pier 17 overlooking the East River and Brooklyn Bridge.
And what is a visit to the City without a visit to a club? So that's what we did Saturday night as we went to the Pink Elephant where we danced on the latest hits, beats and grooves until the early morning hours...
On Sunday afternoon, after recovering from the wild Saturday night and as a final NY experience for Julie & Ewout, we went to a NY Mets baseball game at CitiField in Flushing, Queens.
Raapjes, we had a wonderful time together, thanks for crossing the Atlantic to spend some time here with me as friends in the City!