I have written previously of places on our own East Coast. Now for the USA. Some Americans ‘do Europe’ in four weeks. I did East Coast America (well, four cities anyway) in two. This summer we visited New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston. I went somewhat reluctantly but have to confess I enjoyed the experience. What did I learn?
Everywhere in New York is tall and rather ‘in your face’, though the Empire State Building, once the tallest building in the world, is entered by a fairly nondescript entrance off a fairly nondescript street. Times Square is an exciting place to be, especially when viewed from an upper window of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant. Perhaps the most interesting, not your usual tourist, experience was our time at the Harlem YMCA hostel. This, the first hostel for black people in the USA now doubles as a community centre (perhaps it always did) to which local children come by the dozen to Summer School.
Most houses in the woods around Valley Forge, Philadelphia, where we stayed with an old friend, are large and have enormous workrooms beneath them and two cars out on the drive. More strikingly, most have flagpoles bearing quite large ‘Stars and Stripes’ out front. You wonder why they feel the need? They know, and we know, this is America. In England a house flying a large Cross of St George might be an enclave of the National Front, or worse.
In Washington police officers surrounding the White House wear uniforms and drive 4X4s and other vehicles, all of which bear the legend ‘Secret Service’. Not so very secret, as my wife observed. Presumably there is another tier who are even more secret! Nearby, the 500-foot-high Washington memorial (built in Victorian times) is most impressive, as is the recent Bush-inspired memorial to Americans lost in WW2.
In Boston, and perhaps elsewhere, the wagons associated with the Police Dog squad bear the logo ‘K9’. And the city is home not just to the site of that famous original Tea Party but also some other early drivers of the Revolution. Hence the home and burial place of Paul Revere, as its walking tour demonstrates. Ever since watching the film The Graduate I have wanted to travel by Greyhound bus, to go ‘to look for America’ as in the song. (What lover of National Express would not?) To this end I travelled from Boston to N.Y. by Greyhound. The air conditioning failed, making the trip almost unbearably hot and the driver, to avoid killing us all, stopped for two long breaks. These, added to unusually long traffic jams out in the country somewhere, turned a four hour trip into a seven hour one. Severe challenge to the (my) American Dream?
The other potential highspot, which in this case did not disappoint, was my visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. In the 1960s I was an avid follower of the Gemini and Apollo programmes … from a bungalow just outside York! In Washington I could see, and almost touch, real Command Modules, be dwarfed by the burners of Saturn 5, and reflect on the (lack of) size and capacity of the computer which navigated Apollo 11 to the moon and back.
We met some pleasant folk along the way. For our trip from the airport to the city we had a friendly N.Y. cab driver, with lots to say about the traffic and the sights. (I guess we went the long way but we had a good view across the Hudson River!) The guide for our Boston walking tour, dressed in authentic ordinary 18th century day wear, shabby by today’s standards, was a mine of information. At the Boston Tea Party Museum (where we threw the obligatory fake tea chests into the river) our hosts were delighted to find a party from the Old Country. And what a cheery waiter we met at the Bubba Gump restaurant! Almost a Bubba look-alike himself he charmed us with the quiz designed for fans of the film and throughout our meal.
I came home bearing gifts and souvenirs, but no campaign T-shirts, Clinton or Trump.