To the Two Buroughs

I started Wednesday morning with a visit to Queens.  Was looking for a Queens sign to get a good vanity shot for the folks back home, but alas, I couldn't find one.  Instead, I did find Flushing Meadows Corona Park, which was developed for the World's Fair in 1939-40.  Prior to that, it had been pretty much a wasteland, and the literary geek in me was thrilled to discover that this was the spot F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about in The Great Gatsby as 'a fantastic form where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke'.

 

On one side of the train tracks is Citifield, the home stadium of the NY Mets baseball team.  Outside the stadium is a big baseball, sttylised as a big apple, of course.

On the other side of the tracks is the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open and Arthur Ashe Stadium.  I can now say that I've visited two of the four grand slam venues (a trip to Roland Garros, anyone?)

I must say that I prefer our own Rod Laver Arena.  I don't know why, but New Yorkers just love their brown bricks.  Gimme clean white lines any day.  Outside in the garden is something of a hall of fame, where I took some photos of a few favourites (and of course, I was excited to see the Aussies were represented - Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver & Margaret Court).

Oh, and some bloke called Roger as well, looks like he must be pretty good.

Just down the road is the Unisphere, built to symbolise peace, understanding and goodwill to all (or something like that).  You've probably seen it before, it's this thing:

After lunch, I headed down to Coney Island, baby.  It's kind of a local show on steroids, very gaudy, good for kids, and I imagine headache-inducing for parents (or anyone with good taste).  Witness the invitation to attend 'The International Hot Dog Eating Contest'.

There is, however, a beach, so it was kind of cool to look at the Atlantic Ocean.

And this looked like an interesting shop.  I was tempted to go in and see if they made anything as good as the real Auntie Anne :)

After that, I finished up the afternoon in Brooklyn, mostly for the purpose of walking over the Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan.  I blame that walk for my horrendous sunburn, damn this European complexion.  As for the bridge itself?  Impressive, certainly, and offers great views of the skyline.  For my money though, our own Sydney Harbour Bridge is much more aesthetically pleasing.  Here are some shots of Manhattan taken from the Brooklyn side:

The tallest building (with the thin spire) that you can see on the right of the photo is One World Trade Center, the new building on the old WTC site, which is not yet complete.  And here's a photo looking uptown, towards the Manhattan bridge:

And downtown, to the Statue of Liberty (I'm hoping to go up her on Friday, so to speak):

Here's an obligatory artsy shot of the suspension cables on the bridge:

And here's some foolish tourist who's getting in the way of the nice view :)