5 days in the city that never sleeps – one of my favorite cities ever!
18 May 2015
After strenuous customs with a long wait, we are finally sitting in the subway to our apartment near Union Square. Hopefully everything will work out now, we’re really tired and enough has gone wrong since landing.
At Keflavik airport, check-in was a bit complicated first but went smoothly. We got there early and had to wait a long time.
The flight then went quite well. The compartment was pretty empty, which is why we were able to lie across a row of seats to sleep or comfortably watch series. In between there was strong turbulence :/
Now we want to go to bed and hope that Connor lives cleaner than our Reykjavik hosts 😛
Good Night!
19 May 2015
After an American breakfast…
…we went to Times Square…
… from where our hop-on hop-off bus started (full tourist program).
We hopped out near the Brooklyn Bridge and walked onto the bridge. The weather was still quite cool, foggy and partly drizzled.
We then walked to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and to the One World Trade Center (editor note: unfortunately, the building was opened to the public on 29 May 2015 – 6 days after we left NY).
At the bottom of the museum there was a huge room from which you could basically enter the two original towers underground (bottom right image represents a corner of a “tower”). In each “tower” there was an exhibition in which unfortunately you were not allowed to take photos, but which was quite moving…
When we came out the weather was very, very niceeee!! Almost too hot 😀 We then hopped on a boat and drove around Manhattan.
Then it was back on the hop-on hop-off bus heading uptown (north).
We actually wanted to go to various museums, but they were all closed. So we went to Madame Tussauds…
At least act like we met celebrities 😉
So enough celebrities kissed… we got some pizza for 99 cents.
Shortly before eight we did a night bus tour… Over to Brooklyn and Manhattan.
So now we’re really tired. Just bought at Whole Foods for far too much money (couldn’t find anything else, let alone open).
GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK!!
20 May 2015
Early in the morning we drove to the Empire State Building.
Then we went to the Guggenheim Museum and took a quick look inside 😛 Unfortunately the spiral path was locked.
From an art lovers perspective, we surely walked much too fast through the MOMA museum afterwards.
The next stop was Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, we only got tickets for the Statue of Liberty, because after 2 p.m. you only have time for one of the two islands. Damn.
After a quick detour to an Avengers exhibition, we took a statue-by-night boat tour. With Complimentary Champaigne – Cheers! The view was incredibly beautiful.
After a detour to McDonalds we drove to Rockefeller Center to have a view from the top of it at night.
After it was just freezing cold today and we’ve been freezing all day – we’re super dead – let’s go to bed now and finally sleep in tomorrow!! The 2-day New York Pass expires here.
21 May 2015
After yesterday we got some rental bikes for today with our New York Pass (for free!), after a nice lie-in and a few complications: I missed getting off the subway and we had to find each others again all without cell phones. After I had been riding one time through the terminus of the station and back 😀 – luckily we found each other again).
We got the free ferry to Staten Island to the beach (not that it was anywhere near warm enough – only 15°C with an icy wind).
On the way back, we found a beautiful spot where we enjoyed the view of the skyline.
Arriving back in Manhattan we drove over the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn and over the Manhattan Bridge back to Manhattan. Getting through the anarchist traffic in Manhattan is not that easy! But there are surprisingly well-signposted cycle paths, some of which have even been newly built, and a great cycle city map on which all cycle paths are marked. So something is happening – even in New York.
Our Airbnb apartment is at Union Square – brilliant location, clean, outstanding price, nice host.
22 May 2015
Toay we first went to Wall Street.
Then we walked through Central Park. A really nice piece of green in the city. But there is still something going on everywhere – musicians, acrobats, dancers…
Since it’s Fleet Week, there are a lot of soldiers, marines and such in town. They anchor in the harbor with their large warships.
Later we went to China Town.
23 May 2015
Today we drove to Grand Central Station first thing in the morning.
From there we went by metro to Roosevelt Island and back by cable car.
Then we drove to the new Yankee’s Stadium in Brooklyn. It was just before a game so it was quite busy.
After a short walk through Brooklyn we drove to 5th Avenue. From there we went along Broadway to Madison Square Park.
As an introduction to Greenwich Village, we took a short break at Washington Square Park on a cool artificial grass pitch where we lay down in the sun.
In the evening, we went to China Town for dinner. After a short trip to Times Square, we packed up and went to bed. Tomorrow, we’ll continue our trip to Vancouver!
Leave a Reply