A Meal With a View, But at a Price

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We kept the curtains open overnight as it is not very often that the view whilst you are laying in your bed is of something as dramatic and iconic as the Empire State Building. Even with the windows shut, there is still all the car horns, sirens and general Manhattan noises to content with.

I made a second attempt to get to Brooklyn and all went well. After the trauma of yesterday the right train arrived almost immediately and went straight to where I wanted to do, so I was there in under half an hour. There seemed to be more people sleeping on the train than actually traveling on it, but I suppose going round-and-round on the train overnight is better than the streets. Shocking, but I guess I can’t entirely blame Donald Trump for that.

There was some low level cloud, but it was a very pleasant morning, with the views across to lower Manhattan, the boats going up and down the river and occasional train going over the Manhattan Bridge, although they did break the serenity slightly as the whole bridge seemed to resonate the noise.

It was my wife's birthday so she was in charge. She really loved the High Line, so that was first on the agenda, particularly given that we didn't enjoy it last time we were in New York due to the fact that it was -19 and there was a bitter wind coming over from the Hudson River.

The High Line is an old, disused, elevated railway line, which has now been converted into a pathway. It goes for about a mile and a half along the west side of lower Manhattan. It is definitely being developed over time as it is getting longer, is much more landscaped, has a lot more seating, including lots of sun loungers and all sorts of modern are has sprouted up. It was a great walk, but was the complete opposite of last time in that it was baking hot. One day we will walk along it and it will be a comfortable temperature. One section had cold water flowing along the path, which was fantastic if you took your shoes off.

There some signs warning you not to give money to panhandlers. Someone will need to tell me what on earth a panhandler is!?

Next we headed for the 9/11 memorial and museum. We didn't realise, but Tuesdays are "free Tuesdays" at the museum although we still needed to get a ticket. We just got there in time as there are restrictions on the number of tickets available. Our entry time was however an hour and a half after we got the ticket so we walked around the memorial, tried to work out what the "survivor tree" was all about and also had a mooch around the shopping centre which has just opened on the World Trade Centre site. To say the shopping centre architecture was unique and unusual would be understatement of the year. Very, very impressive. The shops befitted the architecture, namely Tag, Gucci, Breitling, Hugo Boss, Fossil and the like. A tourist tat-shop was out of the question, but I guess it is in the heart of the New York financial district so if you don't own two Rolexes then you probably shouldn't be there.

We tried our luck getting in half an hour early and it worked, which gave us longer to look round as we were booked to go up to the One World Observatory at the top of the new Word Trade Center building. The building above ground hides just how big the museum is. After the usual security you go down some escalators into a huge cavern which is in part built into the infrastructure that remains of the twin towers. Even after going in early, we needed longer to look round the exhibits covering the construction of the twin towers, the events of September 11, the people who died, a lot of recovered artefacts and the aftermath.

Unlike the last time we went to the observatory, there was absolutely no queue and we could walk straight to security and then straight to the lifts (elevators). Given details of the lifts would normally be phenomenally geeky, but these are the exception. The walls of the lifts are huge screens that show the view outside evolving from when there was first a settlement on the site up to the current day, including a quick flash of the twin towers. They ask took just seconds to reach the 102nd floor.

At the top there was a short video about New York life (included the chirpy subway voice saying "stand clear of the moving doors please", which I have already heard way too many times) and then the screen opened-up to reveal the view. It worked really well. Sadly, next we had to stand and listen to a plug for a tablet to give information and videos about different parts of the view.

As it was my wife's birthday, we had booked to have a meal in the restaurant above the observatory. It was fantastic to be able to walk around the observatory to see the views in daylight, then watch the sunset whilst eating your meal and then walk around the observatory again to see the views at night. It was a good job it was fantastic as it was by far the most expensive meal we have ever had, particularly given that there was also the cost of the observatory tickets to actually get up there. The meal didn't include vegetables, which needed to be ordered separately. Then, when the bill (check) arrived it had an 18% 'gratuity' included, but also had space to add a tip. I have no idea what the difference is and we wondered It seemed like they were trying to pull a fast one so we didn't add a tip. No doubt we caused massive offence, but the cost of the meal, plus vegetables, plus tax, plus a gratuity, plus a tip was seriously getting out of hand.

We did save a little bit of money (as with every meal) as our son had to have a soft drink. He is 19 and so is used to being able to drink in the UK, but now he is suddenly underage again, given that the legal drinking age in the US is 21. At least he could go out and buy a gun if he wanted to probably.

The Empire State Building looked fantastic in the distance, with the top coloured purple, orange and green for some unknown reason.

Going back down we had the virtual lift experience to look forward to again. This time it was a view flying around the building.

We got the Subway back to our hotel and I then went for a night-time outing with my camera to try and get some try and get some night pictures of the Empire State Building. I needn't have bothered as when I got back to the hotel room again, we were all treated some an excellent view of the colours of the Empire State Building from our bedroom window.

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Photos

High Line Art
Some of the more strange and disturbing art on the High Line.

World Trade Center Museum
Some iron-work from the old World Trade Center.

One World Trade Center
The new World Trade Center building.

Shopping
The stunning shopping concourse at the World Trade Center.

NYPD
New York's least cool police-car.

Empire State Building
Moving taxies and the Empire State Building in the background.

Hotel Room View
The night-time colours of the Empire State Building viewed from our hotel room.