Annette, Louise, and I started the day off with coffee. I had arranged for a tour of Midtown in a vintage car at 1:00 p.m. Before that, however, we decided to walk around this area until then. The sun was out, and so it seemed like we should have felt a bit of warmth; nevertheless, the warmth of the sun was not enough to penetrate through the cold we were feeling.
We did, though, manage to get to the Raging Bull for pictures, and a souvenir shop, but our final stop would be at Starbucks to warm up. A leisurely hot chocolate and croissant later, we grabbed a taxi and went off to our next adventure.
As mentioned above, this NYC tour for the three of us was in a vintage car. We were not prepared for the very small 1928 “Model A.” I guess I imagined the cars back then were much bigger. I recall our family cars in the 1950s and 1960s were tanks. Not true for this gem. Just getting in and out of this car was quite an adventure. The other added surprise was that we had a driver AND a tour guide which meant three Basque butts squeezed in together in the backseat.
I ended up sitting in the middle on a tenth of my butt. My knee was jammed into the back seat of the passenger side, my kneecap pressing up against the metal of the seat. Uncomfortable? Without a doubt! How long? Two full hours. Why did I think we needed two hours?!?
The tour took us up and down the streets of Midtown, 3rd through 6th Avenues. Our tour guide attempted to make it sound as though it was 1931 as he pointed out different buildings en route, talking about when and why the buildings were built. I wish I could write in more detail about this tour, but honestly, all I could think about was how uncomfortable I was and how much my knee hurt. In fact, at one point I put my knee in between the driver’s and the passenger’s seats, but every time the tour guide moved (which was seemingly very often) I felt like my knee would be crushed between the seats. After about an hour and a half of this, I heard Louise ask the tour guide how much longer it would be… and that’s all I needed to hear. An hour and a half of this little adventure were more than enough. The top was glass so we were able to see some things, but I don’t believe Annette and Louise saw as much as I did. Of course, I was probably blocking their view. I explained to our guide that we were okay with what we saw.
One thing I do recall, however, is that Times Square was named after the New York Times and that the advertisement surrounding Times Square (in neon lights) is mandated by the City. I don’t know that our tour guide actually said why, but after reading more about it, I’m assuming it’s due to the extra revenue the City earns. Below is a photo of the Empire State Building from the roof of the car.
Once we rolled out of the car we were ready to find a place to sit down, have a drink, and have a good meal. A couple of blocks away we did just that at “Trattoria Deli’Artes,” on 7th Avenue. The restaurant is designed to look like an Italian artist’s studio and includes oversized sculptures. What we didn’t see, and wished we had, was the wall gallery of Italian noses. We would have had a lot more to talk about had we noticed! We probably would have compared them to Basque noses; whose nose in the Basque community could each one be compared to? We probably would have come up with a list of names from our community.
For the first time ALL day, we were truly comfortable. It was warm, we enjoyed a drink and then had a delicious meal. We were in no hurry, even though we started noticing that the people who were now arriving were being asked if they had a reservation.
That’s when it occurred to us: It was Christmas Eve! Not that that made us rush; after all, we were comfortable and that’s all that mattered to us!
The next morning, Christmas Day, we went to Our Lady of the Rosary Church, just around the corner from us. They loved the small, colonial-style church and the mass officiated by an Irish priest.
After mass, we were desperate to find any place open, but we quickly discovered very little is actually open on Christmas Day. We finally found a Starbucks that was open, and while it was very close, we still took a cab to go five blocks. It was that cold and that windy.
Before Louise and Annette’s arrival, I tried making a reservation for dinner on Christmas day by going to the restaurant at a nearby Doubletree Hotel, which I had passed many times on my walks. The host at the Italian restaurant there told me there was no need to make reservations since they were never busy on Christmas Day, so come on in!
Knowing we were set for dinner, we had a leisurely afternoon and walked over to Doubletree’s “Antinori’s Restaurant” around 4 p.m. We did get a table but by the time we left it was full; the restaurant is not that big. Another enjoyable, delicious dinner with the largest pepper grind we had ever seen.
