In Search of Giocondas's Smile

This rather obscure reference to Το Χαμόγελο της Τζοκόντας is to the classic album of 20th century music in Greece composed by "Never on Sunday" fame Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis.

In the notes to the Album (recorded in New York in 1965, directed by Quincy Jones), Manos states that the inspiration of the album came from

"...a little woman walking all alone with a desperate indifference to what was happening around her; nobody noticed her, she noticed nobody; she was desolately alone in the unknown crowd shoving her, passing her by, heedless and hostile, leaving her to drown in the deep flood of the Avenue (5th), inside that sea she was following, inside the wind beginning to blow."

And so it came to pass Mrs Nikos and me arrived in New York during a heatwave to search out Rizzoli's bookshop where Manos spotted an art book with a painting of the Mona Lisa on its cover.

Tomkins does not like being on his own so he is stopping me packing.

At Manchester waiting around 1 hour on the ground for engine start, Continental Airline institute a New York climatic familirisation programme as the APU/air conditioning has packed up and a ground air cart must be found to start the mighty Rolls-Royce RB211s

The pilot eventually finds track 4 from his checklist and we are on our way!

We arrived at Newark liberty Airport and caught a bargain shuttle bus to PTA - here we are near the Lincoln tunnel - our first of two encounters with this clogged artery during our trip.

We are deposited at 40something street and need to find our hotel on 77th street - no taxi says Mrs Nikos as she drags her luggage and me in the interminable heat and humidity past many Pizza shops.

...like this one.

An original Fiat Cinquecento!  Smaller than a Manhattan bollard!

We pass the spot outside the Dakota Buildings where John Lennon was struck down - now commemorated by a M72 Bus stop

We find the hotel, check in, and the go looking for houmous.

The next morning, we decide to walk through central park in search of a Belgium sounding cafe chain selling healthy breakfast.

Here is Mrs Nikos waiting for a healthy breakfast somewhere in Central Park.

Cryptic food labelling - how can this be 100% pure orange juice when it contains ingredients not found in regular orange juice?

Mistaken for a rest room, I entered the club room of the Central Park model yachting club.

The heat and humidity has become too intense and a sky scarper is starting to wilt.

Before I had managed to negotiate the purchase of complete stock of these potential Christmas presents to relations, Mrs Nikos had secured  bargain tickets for multiple open top city bus tours - at least now we would have a cooling breeze.

Here we are on the down town tour.

Impossible to entirely photograph!

His and her fire escapes?

At Battery Park we  transfered  to the Brooklyn Tour.

We stop in Brooklyn Heights to hydrate as naturally as possible.

Fine views of Manhattan from Brooklyn.

We then took the tour that I booked - a return trip on the Staten Island ferry.

Believe in Zeus.

Believe in vegetables.

To be concluded - in Part 2 Nikos performs an artistic and unauthorised (and largely unnoticed) protest experiment in the Gugenheim and Mrs Nikos tries to eat a proper American breakfast.