Touring OLD NEW YORK

Last Saturday, we took a very interesting trip back in time to old New York.

The New York Transit Museum organizes a tour every so often of the old, long closed, City Hall subway station. With the intrepid kiddo strapped to my chest, the 3 of us rode the Lexington Avenue Express #5 train to Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station. We then checked in with the tour-guides and then boarded a #6 Local train which took us approximately 600 feet down the track to the old station.

This was the original terminal of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) line that ran north from City Hall to Grand Central, across 42nd Street and then up Broadway to 145th Street. The station was opened in 1904 and only stayed open for 41 years when it was closed due to low traffic. The Express trains to Brooklyn eventually stopped only 600 feet up the street at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station and many found it more convenient to simply make the trip north for more options.

The station has been designated both a New York City landmark and a National Landmark and really is a site to see. Now days, it is just a loop on the 6 train where the downtown trains pass through on their way back uptown.

Here are some photos.

The Hoser Hut

What's a Canadian in the Big Apple to do during the Olympic Hockey tournament?

Find the Hoser Hut of course! Well, unfortunately the Hoser Hut does not really exist. If you have no idea what I am talking about that means you probably don't watch the CBS show "How I Met Your Mother." In an episode of the show, Robin (the show's Canadian character) finds a home away from home at the Hoser Hut. The fictitious "Canadian Bar" in New York City is a bit of a satire on the many bars around the city that have become a home away from home for the many college teams from far away places across the US. A recent article in New York Magazine listed bars in New York that have been adopted by various College and University sports fans from around the country. This followed a similar article in the same magazine in 2007. With the size of the city, it seems that no matter where you're from, there is a bar catering to your sport or your team(s).

So, as the Olympics approached I was commiserating with my fellow Canadian ex-pats to see if we could find the fictitious "Hoser Hut" in order to properly watch Team Canada's run to the hockey gold.

It turned out that the Canadian Association of New York had teamed up with an Australian themed bar to present each Olympic Hockey game featuring Team Canada, with full sound, with Molson Canadian and Labatt Blue on special! He Shoots he SCORES!!!

So, I have to admit there is nothing like watching the Canadian team score 4 goals in the first period against Russia along with 300 screaming and yelling fellow Canadians. I was able to catch the Slovakia semi-final game as well. Sadly, I had to work on Sunday and was forced to watch the game on the computer. Very pleased with the result of course.

A friend did get to catch the game and here is a little video of the scene at Van Diemen's/the Hoser Hut.



RW