NEW YORK - AUGUST 1983

TRIP NUMBER FIVE, VIA MADRID

The return from Bangkok was a tricky and long night flight: we continued to fly BA and made Bangkok - New Deli (Very Boring Stop) - Bahrain (with a visit to the fantastic duty-free sometime in the middle of the night) - London (where we changed aircraft) and, finally, Lisbon...
In June, I went back to London and stayed for some days, but took no photos.
In August, we flew once again to New York for what would be the fifth visit. This time we flew Iberia, and that meant that we had one night in Madrid with dinner and accommodation for free... There were no Low Cost Airlines on those days, but competition was also soaring!

***

MADRID - PARQUE DEL RETIRO

We did not have much time in Madrid. Anyhow, we managed to visit the Retiro Park, created as a royal park for the Palace of the Real Sitio del Buen Retiro. The palace was built in 1632 by King Philips IV as a retreat for the Royal family (hence the name Retiro, which means Retreat). By then, the 130ha Park, which is now in midtown, was entirely outside the city walls. It was opened to the public in 1868.


"ESTANQUE DEL RETIRO - Near the northern entrance of the Parque, at Alcalá Gate, is an artificial lake, with a large monument, erected in 1922, including the equestrian statue of King Alfonso XII. One can rent a rowing boat to burn the calories taken at the Tapas bars"


"PALACIO DE CRISTAL is a beautiful glass building, located on a much smaller lake to the south. It was built in 1887 after the Crystal Palace in London, and was initially used to show some exotic plants brought over from the Philippines"

***

NEW YORK

Eight hours flight and we landed once again at JFK!


"5TH AVENUE"


"ROCKFELLER CENTRE - Promenade. There used to be a Teuscher shop with the famous chocolate truffles there. I used to visit the Geneva version of such a wonderful spot..."


"ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL - No wide angle..."


"THE PLAZA nicely mirrored on a 58th Street building!"


"CENTRAL PARK LAKE - Created originally from a large swamp the lake is another place where one can rent rowing boats... No, Thank You!"





"GUGGENHEIM - I adore the Guggenheim New York: building and collection. Actually I adore New York, and I'm definitely missing it a lot. I've already mentioned it on the post of my last - for the time being - visit to New York, actually the Sixtieth . Since 1990, it is the first time I did not visit it for two years in a row...
Anyhow, the Guggenheim is fantastic..."