New York City
We arrived in New York at 7 am on Friday. After checking into our hotel, we headed down to Times Square (8 blocks south), had breakfast at McDonald's, then headed downtown. We first decided to take the cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Unfortunately, the Statue isn't open to go inside, but it was still impressive to see. The museum at Ellis Island was really amazing. There are thousands of actual pictures of immigrants that passed through the building. And if anyone thinks a family member entered the US through Ellis Island they can look them up in their database. On our cruise we also got some wonderful views of the city, Brooklyn, New Jersey and the islands of the harbor.
Times Square on our first day
The New York Stock Exchange
Brooklyn Bridge facing NYC
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Following the trip to Liberty Island, we decided to walk through downtown. Erich wanted to see the Stock Exchange, we walked down Wall St, saw Trinity Church, the WTC site, and over to City Hall. As it started to rain, we headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked half way across and back. The shortness of the bridge aside, you can see how it was built by hand, both in design and the materials used. As is continued to rain, and Erich became more drenched (I had my umbrella), we finished the day by walking through the artsy Soho and by the NYU campus. |
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Day two, we took the subway down to around 14th St and started moving north. We started out in the Village where we saw many nice brownstones and tree lined streets. We decided to walk our way up 5th Avenue to see all the fashion stores. I wanted to make a point to see the Flatiron building and Erich wanted to see the Leona Hemsley building. As we headed up 5th Ave we passed by blocks of stores and saw sights such as Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Grand Central Station.
Me at the fountain in Union Square
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The day was foggy and cool, but it made our trip all the much better. We made our way over to Lex Ave, coming across Park Ave which, unknown to us, is named so because of the tree lined islands that stretch its length. In Midtown, we went to FAO Schwartz, saw Tiffany's, went to Rockefellar Center (which seems too small to skate in at winter!) and ended in Times Sq with a stop at Virgin and lunch at Applebee's. |
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This night we decided to take a boat tour of the harbor and it was a beautiful site. We went down the tip of Manhattan, I got a view of a building I loved being built in Jersey City, and we around circled the tip of the island. The downtown lights were really pretty and upon cruising by the Brooklyn Bridge, we got an amazing site of lights from a party happening in Brooklyn. We also got some nice views of the New York skyline. On our way back to the hotel we checkout the flashing billboards of Times Square. |
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Erich in front of the UN, no nations flags were up
On our last day we took things easy. We started off with a long walk through Central Park. The park was beautiful and was an interesting contrast to the dense buildings surrounding it. And in the park, the noise of the city was completely shut out. We walked through a few rich neighborhoods around the park and then headed back to Midtown to catch another glimpse of the Chrysler Building. We then walked over to the UN, earily vacant of activity, and then headed back to our hotel. After three days of walking Manhattan from Downtown to 89th St, our feet finally gave out. We pigged out on room service and ordered a few movies. A little rest for our vacation!
