I’m baaaaack…well, sort of anyway. I’m gonna approach this a little bit differently than the others as I love history and am fascinated by the richness of NYC’s.

1.) If you have time before you go, either read Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante, or watch the 8-part Ric Burns documentary, American Experience: New York, which covers NYC history from the arrival of the Dutch to post 9/11 (free if you have Amazon Prime).

2.) Gargoyles of New York - Great blog, but it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years. NYC is chock full of interesting architecture. Google Images search results for gargoyles new york. Here are some others from the Skeptic Friends Network (not all in NYC, but still fascinating, IMO).

3.) Scouting New York - Blog belonging to a NYC movie location scout—lots of cool, unusual stuff.

4.) Medieval NYC:

Paul Halsall/Fordham University Fall 1996-Spring 1998 Classes Introduction to Medieval History

The city of New York is a great creation of modern American culture, but to the eyes of a medievalist the histories of the European, Byzantine, and Islamic Middle Ages are documented in its streets and buildings:

• In the museums of the city we find a wealth of artistic, manuscript and architectural objects from the middle ages.

• In New York’s buildings we can trace the history of medieval architecture.

• The ethnic and religious communities which make up the city have preserved, and in some cases developed, religious and cultural tradition which had their roots in medieval societies.

• The contrast between “medieval” and “modern” cannot be taken as absolute - elements of medieval technology survived until the Industrial Revolution [and later], and can be seen in the Colonial heritage of New York.

After reading through the contents of this site, you will have little doubt about just how deeply, and in how many different ways, the European middle ages permeate New York’s life. Far from being a matter of antiquarianism, without some knowledge of the middle ages, it is hardly possible to understand the city and its culture.

This website is the result of class project to which all students of Paul Halsall’s 1996-1998 introductory medieval history courses have contributed. It should serve as a fairly complete guide to Medieval New York. Each student [or groups of two or three] took a particular aspect of the middle ages in New York, researched it, visited it if appropriate, secured pictures, and wrote about it. Some pages are clearly better than others. Students were asked to secure permission for any images/texts they used, and the individual pages are copyright to the student creator(s) of the page.

More at Fordham University…

5.) One of my favorite places in NYC is a dock on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, not far from the Brooklyn Promenade, which has already been mentioned as a great place to take photos of Manhattan. There’s also a restaurant there called the River Cafe, however I’ve never eaten there and can’t vouch for it (it’s still closed thanks to hurricane Sandy damage anyway).

I hope some of that helps. Like Obdi, I’d love to meet you & the missus, even if just for a cuppa Joe. Unfortunately, while I’m happy to be back home and on the mend, I’m still kind of weak and probably wouldn’t be much fun to be around.

See? I already feel like I need a nap. :-)