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Tree in Washington Park
This tree we found in Washington Park on Manhattan. Shopping and sightseeing and more in New York City
Easter Holiday this year we wanted to go to the Caribbean. Many years ago we visited two islands in the Caribbean,
Guadeloupe and
Dominica (that is
Dominica, not the Dominican Republic). This was before we started this blog so you won’t find any entry from that trip here. We liked it very much in the Caribbean and we thought it could be nice to return to that part of the world and see another island. It turned out that flight tickets from Europe to pretty much any destination in that region are expensive. But then Emma came up with the idea that we could first fly from Europe to New York City because flying to New York is quite cheap. From there we could get another flight to some destination in the Caribbean. The price for this kind of trip came out almost the same as a direct flight from Europe would have been. Since both of us like New York very much we didn’t exactly mind to spend a few days there too.
This entry on the blog will be about
New York City and what we did and saw there.
Young woman in Queens
This young woman enjoys this early spring day in Flushing Meadows - Corona Park The next blog will be about what we did in the days we spent in the Caribbean.
Activity #1: Sightseeing Two years ago we were in New York for a few days. You can read about what we did then if
you follow this link.
We saw quite a few of the must-see-things on our visit in 2008 so this time we decided to take on two lesser known sights namely
The High Line and
Flushing Meadows - Corona Park.
The High Line was an elevated train line that was used for freight traffic to the Meatpacking District on Manhattan. It was built in the 1930-ies but was after a few decades disused and closed down. After the High Line was taken out of business there were plans to dismantle it but that never happened. For many years the High Line was abandoned and during these years plants and flowers started to grow there. About 10 years ago a society called Friends of the High Line was formed and they argued that the High Line should be preserved. The local authorities found the idea appealing and last year the High Line was declared a city park and parts of it was opened to the
The Unisphere
The Unisphere was constructed for the World Fair in 1964. After the fair was over it was left there and is today a symbol of Flushing Meadows Corona Park public.
A path has been constructed along the railroad other than that they have tried to keep the area as close as possible to what the High Line looked like after it had been abandoned for close to 30 years.
Walking along the High Line is an interesting experience since you are walking 10 meters up in the air. That gives you a slightly different view of things than what you usually get.
The other sightseeing we did was to visit Flushing Meadows - Corona Park in Queens. First we’d like to put down something we found on Wikipedia’s article on Flushing Meadows only because it is so funny.
“Flushing Meadows is referenced in the 9th-season episode of The Simpsons entitled 'The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson'. Homer Simpson, badly needing to go to the restroom, sees a bus headed toward Flushing Meadows and imagines himself running through a green meadow filled with many toilets.” There are toilets in Flushing Meadows but they are for obvious reasons not the main reason we went there for a visit.
To sports fanatics Flushing Meadows means US Open in tennis. There is a tennis arena
Skyscraper
This is how tourists see Manhattan. There is much more to New York than the skyscrapers. But you have to admit that a photo of this view is cool there and US Open is played in Flushing Meadows but none of that is interesting to us.
To the people living in Queens Flushing Meadows is a nice park where you can play baseball, ride your bicycle or just lie in the grass and sunbathe. It is a nice park but that still wasn’t the reason we went there.
Instead we went there to walk in the footsteps of our hero
Mac Taylor.
We admit that we are a bit pathetic but we absolutely love the TV-show
CSI: NY. In the episode entitled “Manhattanhenge” Mac Taylor chases the Compass Killer through Flushing Meadows and in the process enters an area with old derelict constructions that once were part of the New York World Fair in 1964.
In 1964 the World Fair was held in New York and the place for the venue was Flushing Meadows. The deal the organisers struck with the city of New York was that everything that was erected in the park during the World Fair was to be dismantled and removed afterwards. The problem was that they went bankrupt so there were no money left to remove the last of the installations. They have
Rocket Thrower
The name of this statue in Flushing Meadows is Rocket Thrower been standing there since and are slowly rusting and falling apart. It was these buildings we wanted to see. If you take a look at the photos you will hopefully understand why we wanted to see this. They look really cool. Honest, the thing about CSI: NY, it was just a joke. We love the show, but we are not fanatic enough to visit places only because they were seen on TV.
The two most well known sites in Flushing Meadows are the
Unisphere and the
New York State Pavilion. We also found a statue named
Rocket Thrower that we liked very much. This statue reminds us of statues made by the Swedish sculptor
Carl Milles. You can see four of the works by Carl Milles on this
blog entry. If you have a look you can see for yourself if there is a resemblance or not.
Activity #2: Running We share a passion for running and we have found out that it is an activity that goes well in combination with travelling. While we are running we sometimes also able to do some sightseeing. New York is a very good place for running because most of Manhattan is flat and there
Rocket Thrower
Close-up of the same statue. It reminds us of the statues the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. are interesting places to visit just about everywhere. All you have to do is to take a map and choose a route for your run and you are sure to have a great time.
We ran twice when in the days we were in New York. The first day we ran a route from 9th Street onto
Brooklyn Bridge and back. A day later we ran a route from 9th Street to
Central Park and back.
Activity #3: Shopping One thing you can do a lot in New York in general and on Manhattan in particular is to shop. The value of the US dollar compared to the Swedish currency is favourable at the moment so prices are acceptable. But the real advantage with shopping on Manhattan instead of back home is the number of shops and the size of them.
We read a lot and if you wish to buy English language books in Sweden you have a selection of maybe one hundred books to choose from. In Barnes and Nobles bookstore on Union Square they have five floors of books. But the real treasure grove when it comes to books in New York is
Strand Bookstore Tree in Flushing Meadows
Spring is a wonderful time of the year. Everywhere there are trees in bloom just south of Union Square. Supposedly they have a total of 18 miles or 29 kilometres of books. For two bookworms like us browsing through those bookstores is like coming to heaven.
Other things we went shopping for when we were in New York was shoes, clothes and make up. Well Ake wants to point out here that he did not buy any make up. Ake would not wear make up even on a Kiss concert.
Activity #4: Meeting Ivan and Carrie We have a friend named Ivan who lives on Manhattan. Ivan is kind enough to let us use his flat when we are in town. The last night we were in New York we went on a restaurant with Ivan and his girlfriend Carrie. If you look at the photo we took of all four of us that night you can see for yourself what a good time we had.
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