New York is such a fabulous place, it is hard to sit down and wriite about it rather than being out there experiencing it. You have to have been here to really know what I mean. But we promised a bit of a travelogue so we’ll start with our homebase and neighbourhood.

Manhatten has so many neighbourhoods it is hard to keep track of where one ends and another begins. We chose Chelsea which is generally located west of 5th Ave between 14th (downtown) and 39th (uptown) Streets. On the east side of Chelsea are the mostly commercial and retail streets of 5th, 6th and 7th Avenues. Beyond that is the Flat Iron District and Grammercy. West of 7th to the Hudson River is mostly residential – 19th and early 20th century 4 – 6 storey walk ups and townhouses. Many of these were upgraded as Chelsea came more into favour with New Yorkers in the 1980s and 90s. There are beautiful brick clad buildings with classic facades, arched doorways with beautiful solid wood or wood and glass oak doors, wrought iron handrails on the front stoops and fire escapes hanging off the window ledges. Most are on beautiful tree lined streets.

Chelsea’s history since the Dutch and English landed here was as open farmland, however by the 1830s it had begun to turn into a suburb (hard to believe today) of the growing New York to the south. By the 1870s it had become a commercial centre. Fashion Row, music halls and theatres lined 23 street and many of these buildings are still standing today. When Macy’s arrived at Herald Square – just 12 short blocks north of where we live – retailing and garment districts grew around it. The northwest corner of Chelsea is still referred to as the Garment District and there is a fashion walk of fame up 7th Avenue with”stars” in the sidewalks immortalizing many of famous designers. Chelsea’s residential areas were rediscovered and the warehousing areas east of 9th and 10th Avenue became the home of art galleries and antique shops.

Chelsea is also the home of the increasingly famous HighLine Park which was built on an old elevated railway that ran through the warehouse district, west of 10th Ave from 34th street down to about 10th Street. (More on that in a future post). Close to the southern end – at 16th Street – is Chelsea Market, a full block of buildings from the early 1900s. The National Biscuit Company – Nabisco – made the first Oreo here in 1911. The block has been converted to high tech office space upstairs and a quaint and bustling market, food and retail area below. If you wander a couple of blocks further south you are in the West Village and Meat Packing District now full of trendy restaurants – anyone remember Pastis from the opening scene in Annie Hall? – and the new home of high fashion in New York.

And of course there are restaurants and bars everywhere. If you drew a 500 foot circle around our apartment I bet you would find 100 places to drink and eat. There are lots of Italian places – Chelsea has the best Italian with menus and wine lists to match. If you talk to locals, there are favourites but all are good. There are more American places like Barbarosa and HighPoint up 7th, as well as Japanese, Indian . . . too many to choose from. Deli’s and small markets are on every corner. If you go over to 8th Ave, the scene is repeated, and again on 9th and 10th. These places open for lunch, but get really busy about 7:30 with New Yorkers catching dinner before heading home. We have been into a few bars – La Veloce, Jake’s Saloon, the Guilty Goose – and there are a huge number more to explore. You may have seen our “check ins” on Facebook.

Our neighbourhood is full of good shopping and there is a lot more if we take the 5 minute walk to 5th Ave. Whole Foods is 3 blocks up in the Mercantile Building (Katie Holmes and Siri live upstairs), Trader Joes at the end of our block on 6th. Starbucks is over on 6th and three blocks up on 7th. On 23rd you can find large and small retail, Best Buy and even an Home Depot. And the largest department store in the world – well that may be an exaggeration but it seems it – is Macy’s just one subway stop uptown at 34th. All of these store are housed in 80 to 120 year old 10 storey buildings. We don’t have to go far to get anything.

Our apartment is called Casa and is just a 100 feet off 7th Ave on 21st Street . Like those immediately around us, the street is strickly commercial with 10 – 15 storey buildings on both sides. There is a new condo building going up next door, part of a major building and renovation boom that seems to go on all over New York. On the other side, are a couple of 4 storey brick buildings likely from the early 1900s and with little upgrading. If you lie still in bed in the morning, you can feel the 1 Train hustling uptown and down on 7th Ave. We face away from the street and there are apartments in old and new buildings just 60 or 70 feet away from us. When you open the windows you can hear the bustle of 7th Ave and the heat pumps and air units from adjacent buildings. And a 10 o’clock every morning the doggy day care behind us lets the dogs out to run in a small gravel fenced area. We will try to post some pictures soon.

We are definitely settling in. We have a few things in the fridge but like many New Yorkers we have been eating out quite a bit. And if we don’t feel like cooking or eating out there is ready made food at any of the local deli’s and grocery stores.

This our “Casa” New York