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Published: August 27th 2008
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Panoramic View: Manhattan Skyline Through Empire State Building Safety Bars Skyscraper Views
On Thursday, we got up early. We wanted to beat the queues as today was the day we were going to climb (or at least take the lift) the Empire State Building. Famous for King Kong and being the tallest something or other at one point, it's a New York tourist must-do and as such is awash with crappy souvenirs.
We took the subway and wandered in, surprised by the lack of queues, as we weren't
extremely early. After going through stringent security, we headed up the lift to the top. Walking about the observation deck was fun as it was outside so the scale of it was well represented. The views it afforded us were pretty spectacular and being here this early meant we beat a lot of the crowding at the edges. After a good look about, we headed down and noted how much the queue size had drastically increased so it had been a good job we got there early.
There was a bagel place nearby which became our breakfast/lunch stop as we pondered over how we wanted to spend the rest of
Empire State View 2
Over downtown Manhattan as well as the fringes of New Jersey to the right, over the water. the day. Deciding to laze in Central Park, we walked up 5th Avenue and again took stock of some of the shops before eventually reaching the park where we took a well deserved rest. It was pretty hot in the park, although the grass areas could have been better maintained, but we still settled down anyway in the sun with our books. After a few hours though, we got a bit restless so headed over to Strawberry Fields, a tribute to John Lennon.
The man himself was murdered across the street as he left his flat by a crazed fan and this area of Central Park had a tribute to him on the pathway. Many people circled the area gathering pictures and reading inscriptions. We ended up just sitting on a bench for a while and did some people watching. Although Central Park is a nice, green area, it inevitably attracts a lot of homeless people so there were also some people who had set up camp in the nearby area. Although some of them talked quite coherently and were in even in good humour, there were a couple that had obviously had some harder times and were continually
Rockefeller View 1
Empire State Buiding & Midtown muttering to themselves. It was a shame to see.
After a while, we headed out to the Upper West Side and used the Subway facilities to head further downtown, although not before we bought a New York hawker stall specialty: a baked pretzel. Nothing like pretzels we had had before, this thing was massive and about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. It didn't taste that great either, in fact it was actually quite taste
less, but probably fattening enough to sell well here. Still, it was worth a try.
Our next stop was Ground Zero, although it is still referred to as the World Trade Center on the old subway train destination screens. This turned out to be a bit disappointing as it is now a fully fledged construction site and you can barely get a look in. Wandering the area, we found the tribute museum but times are tight and we opted not to wander the galleries due to entrance costs. Another place called Century 21st in this area which is a famous New York discount store so we headed in their for a bit (it was busier than a bee hive though) before taking
Radio City Music Hall Night Time
After coming down, we sat here for a while. the subway to Times Square for dinner. Not too sure why we ended up going there, but after a wander we chose to eat at Bubba Gump restuarant, a Forrest Gump themed place.
For the evening's finale, we made our planned trip to Rockefeller Center again and took the lift up to the very top observation deck. We deliberately chose to do this at night to get a variation from our day viewing at the Empire State Building and it was well worth it, probably surpassing the other skyscraper. The Manhatten skyline certainly looks a lot better in the evening and even the lift up was glass topped, so it was pretty nifty.
By the time Friday arrived, we were actually pretty exhausted. Our initial plan was to get up early and go to the Statue of Liberty thus beating the weekend crowds but after our alarm went off, we decided against it and had a well deserved lie in. New York can be exhausting. Instead, we headed out early afternoon over to the Upper West Side and visited the American Musuem of Natural History, a museum which we have infamous Tammany Hall Boss Tweed to thank for.
Empire State View
Brooklyn, Hudson River and the Manhattan Bridge. It was a pretty interesting place and obviously got a lot more funding than other museums we've seen on our trip as the exhibitions were pretty elaborate. It did however seem to employ the same jobsworth employees though who were more than happy to scruitinse your every move and telling me off for going back into an exhibit to find Emma. Emma was pleased to notice there was a special horse exhibit on which she really enjoyed and we also learned that horses evolved hoofs from standing on their tip toes.
It was a fairly long afternoon in there and after we left, we hopped on the subway to try and find a nice, warm cookie. We eventually did in a bakery just off Times Square (where else?) and it tasted a lot better than the pretzel. For dinner, we headed back on the subway to our hostel but alighted on 86th street instead and bought dinner from a Chinese take away nearby. Instead of going to our hostel, we took it to Central Park and ate it while watching the hordes of people jogging around the Jacquie Kennedy Reservoir. It was pretty tasty and we watched the sunset
Empire State View 3
Skyscrapers of the financial district. over the lake before heading back to our hostel for an early night for once.
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