Escape from New York

We are now on our winter vacation , have  left  the frozen Apple for the warmer climes of the South first stop New Orleans , we stayed in the French Quarter , lovely old brightly painted wooden buildings lots of pretty streets to wander round , a tourists delight , then there's the live music everywhere , the bustling CBD , the Garden district with it's Antebellum mansions , The suburb of Treme originally a Creole suburb where the wealthy plantation owners set up part time homes with their Afo American mistresses , having second families and educating these children in Europe, interesting , must read up on the story, we also saw some of the remains of the 9th Ward after Katrina , wow what a devastating Hurricane

New Orleans a great place , can only imaging how much fun it is during Mardi gras , who knows we may have to revisit in April.
 

First night in New Orleans there was a Luna Eclipse

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Luna Eclipse

Jazz club 'The spotted Cat'

Candle Light Lounge Bar in Treme , where the Treme Brass Band were playing, great venue

Uncle Lionel Batista - a legend in these parts.

Christmas with Cushla

lead singer of the 'Western Caravan'

First Snow

Madison Square

Flat Iron Building - 5th Avenue and 23rd street

Hot dog stand 5th Avenue

Central Park

Furs are the big thing in Brighton Beach

Our first guest from the home country , fortunately Cushla arrived  equipped with many layers of Merino, as the temperatures have plummeted, hovering happily a degree or two above zero and many degrees below.
How ever with lots of rugging up we traipsed the streets of NY showing her our favorite spots.
We had a great night at a raucus country bar , when the show was over we made our way home with a sky full of snow flurries, slipping and sliding along the pavements, feeezing but fun and really beautiful, We stopped off in Madison Square Park for some serious foot printing , took in the sights of the Flat iron building illuminated in the snowy street lights, magic.

Now there an idea