Doing something new every week in 2017 #18: New York, New York
NYC — the stuff of legend, the inspiration behind so many famous movies and songs. Finally we met face to face.
Others have warned me about its decadent display of wealth, the huge city blocks, its big city smell and that you could be in NYC for a month and still not run out things to do. Seeing is believing though and unlike other ‘great cities’, New York City truly exceeded my wildest expectations.
Since one post is not nearly enough to talk about everything that we’ve experienced in NYC, I’ll only summarise some cool experiences here and go into detail about the key ones in later posts.
Time Square
Time Square is right in the centre of New York City. Thousands of people flow in and out of this place at all times of the day. Giant billboards adorn the walls of buildings surrounding the two intersections in the Broadway District and just like Las Vegas, the digital billboards in NYC were enormous and extremely glaring.
Central Park
Like everything else in NYC, Central Park was absolutely huge and seemed to stretch on forever. A huge decommissioned reservoir (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir) sits in the middle of the park and provided a much needed relief inside the concrete jungle. There were many bike, running and walking tracks all around the park. Central Park is so large and it even has its own zoo!
The Grand Central Terminal
During our stay in NYC, we spent a great deal of time navigating the subway. One of the busiest stops is the Grand Central Terminal — an American icon. It was funded by one of America’s richest men Cornelius Vanderbilt and rebuilt twice since its opening in 1871.
I had studied this building when I was an architectural student and remembered seeing a different interior than the one that I saw on this trip. Due to the surrounding (taller) buildings, it no longer received those beautiful church-like beams in the main concourse, however, it is still breathtakingly beautiful with colossal proportions.
September 11 Memorial & One World Trade Center
The September 11 Memorial is located in Lower Manhattan, on the original sites of the Twin Towers. Two huge voids (where the Twin Towers used to be) are somber reminders of the tragic event in 2001. Next to the voids is the National September 11 Memorial & Museum by famed architect Daniel Libeskind. Next to the museum is the landmark One World Trade Center by the same architect.
Statue of Liberty & the Hudson River
We took a harbour cruise around Manhattan island, which allowed us to get close up and personal with Lady Liberty as well as seeing the city (and its neighbour New Jersey) from new perspectives. One of the highlights for me was seeing New York By Gehry (8 Spurce Street) from the river.
Phew! This just about covered half of the sights that we’d seen while we were in New York. Needless to say, there is a lot to do and see in the Big Apple and usually not enough time to do it all!
Would I come back again? I’d absolutely love to!
Coming up next:
The Empire State Building
The Chrysler Building
The Met
#18 of 52 new ways to challenge yourself in 2017 | Last week: Maine