The uptown loop in New York

The other attraction in New York is the saga of celebrities. On the uptown loop, these are pointed out to the tourists, with colourful anecdotes to make the point - the various Trump acquisitions and bankruptcy, the former apartment homes of Jackie Kennedy, Katherine Hepburn at Park Avenue, and others like John Lennon’s Dakota Apartment that inspired his writing of Strawberry Fields.

There are several parks on the island; among them the Central dominates. It stretches in a sprawling oblong of several hundred acres at the centre. The downtown loop shows you one side of it. On the uptown loop the bus travels all around it, east, north, west and south. The Park houses a couple of zoos. It also has conservatory gardens and the museums about the city’s history.

The areas around the Park also have very many museums, and to really explore their contents takes at least the whole day. These include the Smithsonian, Jewish Museum, Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan, the Frick collection, and others besides.

Between Central Park and the Hudson River is Harlem. We’ve heard about the neighbourhood before and its symbolizing ‘black’ power. Harlem, we understand, had Dutch and Spanish/Italian settlers (Al Pachino grew up here).

Around 1904, the ‘great migration’ caused the demographic dominance of African-Americans. In the 1920’s, the Harlem Renaissance led to the development of artistic black culture. As they moved in, many of the ‘white’ populations gradually left.

Harlem is the source of many protest movements as it becomes the ‘capital’ of black America in the ’30s and ’40s. We reminded of the rousing speeches of Martin Luther King, the music of Sammy Davis, the wit of Chevy Chase and many others besides.

But later we understand, the culture of the region began to slip and slide. Harlem became associated with poverty, slums and crime.

There is the Madame Alexander doll factory, which manufactures an abundance of toys. And the Apollo Theatre. We then head back towards Times Square along the southern border of Central Park. We notice again the Park Central Hotel and the Winter Garden Theatre. Walking back to the Pork Authority Terminus to catch our bus back to New Jersey, we see Madame Tussad’s Waxworks and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Cont'd...