31 May 2014
On our second full day in the city we got the subway to Times Square and then walked to the meeting point for our Uptown TV & Movie Tour run by On Location Tours, which we were able to do through the New York Pass. The tour started at McGee's Pub, which was inspiration for MacLaren's in TV show
How I Met Your Mother. We got on the tour bus just as it had started to rain; we were fortunate to be doing something sheltered for the morning and although it meant I couldn't take photos out of the bus windows I was happy to be out of the rain and able to sit and enjoy the ride!
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| New York Police Dept., Times Square |
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| Spiderman, the Cookie Monster and the Statue of Liberty x 2 hanging out in Times Square |
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| The Inspiration for MacLaren's in How I Met Your Mother |
The tour was great as we saw lots of famous and iconic locations including Cafe Lalo which featured in
You've Got Mail. We were able to get off the bus there and take a look inside so I managed to get a couple of photos. We also saw locations for
Gossip Girl, the apartment building used in
Elf, the diner used in
Seinfeld, the building used as Chandler's office in
Friends and many others. Our tour guide was very good, an actor who had actually been in a couple of episodes of
One Tree Hill, he made the tour very funny and enjoyable. We were shown clips of the films and TV shows to put the locations into context, which made it very surreal to be in the place where so much film history has been made. The tour was also good for getting our bearings in Uptown Manhattan as we gained an idea of where everything was for the rest of the week!
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| Cafe Lalo featured in You've Got Mail |
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| Cafe Lalo Interior |
After the TV & Movie tour we walked to the Rockefeller Center to buy our tickets for a tour there later in the day. We also saw the famous LOVE piece by Robert Indiana, and St. Patrick's Cathedral, an 1879 structure, nestled between the skyscrapers, a contrast of old and new. Although the Cathedral was under restoration with scaffolding obstructing the exterior beauty of the building, the interior made up for it, a piece of history in a modern city.
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| LOVE, by Pop Artist Robert Indiana |
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| St. Patricks Cathedral (under restoration) |
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| Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral |
The Rockefeller Center tour showed us the history, art and architecture of the buildings. This was also included in our NYPass and was well worth doing as you actually begin to understand what you are seeing. Headsets are used on the walking tour so you don't miss a word your guide tells you as you walk around busy New York streets learning about the Rockefeller Center from its very beginnings.
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| 30 Rockefeller Plaza |
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| Radio City |
A project of the 1930s, the Rockefeller Center's architecture and art is of the Art Deco style. Its from an era of great interest in innovation, technology and looking to the future. The famous piece above the entrance to 30 Rockefeller Plaza,
Wisdom, depicts this theme together with the pieces on either side,
Sound and Light, which represent radio and film.
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| Wisdom. 1933. |
Inside 30 Rock is the mural
American Progress by Jose Maria Sert, a replacement to the original by Diego Rivera which was considered offensive as communist Lenin was featured in the piece.
American Progress is a much more positive depiction of the USA, as it shows what can be achieved in the development of the country using intelligence and hard work.
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| American Progress. 1937. by Jose Maria Sert in the Rockefeller Lobby |
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| Time. 1941. |
We were told by the tour guide about protests and issues between Rockefeller and the Church in the development of this
Atlas statue opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then also how it actually became favoured by the church as it looks from behind somewhat like Jesus on the Cross, and it is he who has the world on his shoulders. The Cathedral also appears to fill the globe, meaning that it can be interpreted as religion being of utmost importance to Earth.
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| Atlas. 1937. |
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