Setting the Stage
This adventure included Adina, Adriana, and me. Adina and I arrived on Wednesday, June 5. Adriana arrive on the 6th.
We booked a flat through Air B&B in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Public Transit
We purchased a MetroLink card which allowed us to travel on the PATH which is the train that connects New Jersey to New York.
We took the Light Rail Transit (essentially a street car) in New Jersey.
We also journeyed on the ferry in New York Bay (which connects Hudson River to the East River).
We had an authentic NYC Yellow Taxi ride from 110th Street to 33rd Street.
We use the airport limo to get to and from Newark Liberty International Airport.
We walked. And walked. And walked. Which really isn’t public transit, rather personal transit, but is really worth noting here.
The People
Through our entire visit, all of the people that we met, without exception, were welcoming and friendly. From our cab drivers, limo drivers, host at our flat, shop keepers, fellow commuters, police officers (really great), food service workers, those employed in the tourist industry, transit employees, and museum workers.
Manhattan - The First Visit
Adina and I were on our own for the first day. After checking in and settling in we took our first train journey from Jersey City (Journal Square) to 33rd Street, Manhattan. We ascended the stairs to a New York City day! It was so amazing to see, first hand, many of the iconic locations of NYC that I have only ever seen on TV or in movies. One of the first buildings I noticed was the Empire State Building. Walking north along Broadway a bit we came across Macy’s. Finally, we emerged into Times Square. Times Square is a pedestrian area so people are able to wander around, sit at a bistro table, enjoy a cup of coffee, and people watch. Here we were able to see signs for Broadway musicals and plays (Les Mis and The Phantom are both playing here now). There was a huge, snaking line of people waiting to purchase tickets for shows. A lot of food trucks and magazine stalls are scattered along the street.
We continued north along Broadway, bought some late lunch, and took it to the edge of Central Park to sit and enjoy our food. We only entered very briefly into Central Park and I looked forward to walking through it further another day.
After our wee rest, we headed south down 5th Avenue. We passed by all of the high end shopping locations. We walked past St. Patrick’s Cathedral where the steps were filled with graduates and their family members. We veered a bit to the west to Rockefeller Centre where the iconic golden statue of Prometheus is located as well as NBC Studio.
We stumbled upon Bryant Park, located behind the New York City Public Library. It is a beautifully park treed with London Planetrees. There is a carousel, a reading room, plenty of places to sit, and an entire section dedicated to board games. People of all descriptions congregated to play board games such as Scrabble, Connect Four, and Chess.
We stopped off for a coffee at Pret A Manger, a coffee shop that I recognized from the UK, sat in the window and watched the world go by.
Our journey home was during rush hour, which was a true New York City experience. I became quickly intimate with strangers on that journey home!
Hoboken
We got some shots of us outside of the bakery. Other tourists were doing the same as us so we switched cameras to help each other out.
The real treat was inside. The shop is not large. One side is all counter with the most delicious looking baked goods behind glass. Cakes, pastries, cookies, cupcakes, and cheesecakes adorn the shelves. On the opposite side of the shop are a few bistro sets where people were enjoying their baked goods. At the back of the shop we were able to see some workers decorating cakes and filling pastries.
Adina recognized one of the counter workers from the TV show. We were served by someone we did not recognize but quickly loved. She was very sweet and helpful. All three of us bought two treats each! This was a difficult decision. I remember seeing an episode of Cake Boss with Sage where Buddy was filling triangular shaped pastries with cream. They were called Lobster Tails and I thought “I need to try one of those”. So that was the first choice I made. The other treat I chose was a tribute to my Italian trip, a cannoli. And of course, a cup of coffee. We sat and enjoyed the atmosphere and, even more so, the treats.
9/11 Memorial
Being in New York City, it was natural for me to want to visit the site of the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Partly out of curiosity, partly out of a desire to pay respect to the events and the people, this visit seemed necessary. This part of history is so clear in my mind. I remember where I was when I first heard about the attack on the Twin Towers. I remember being confused, not quite able to understand what had actually happened. Or possibly, not really believing that something like that could actually happen relatively close to home. I remember the airspace over home being silent, no planes. I recall the 10th Anniversary and becoming unusually obsessed with gathering and reading and viewing all the information I could about the attacks and the Twin Towers. I guess that I was trying to make sense of a completely senseless act.
I am sure that relatives, friends, service workers, New Yorkers, all those who experienced the events first hand, have not been able to make sense of these horrific attacks. But in rebuilding and creatingt hese exceptionally unique and special areas in New York City, they have truly done an excellent job of respectfully memorializing those who lost their lives on that day.
In the exact location of the North Tower and the South Tower are two memorial fountains. They are the largest ever manmade waterfalls. The four sides of the fountains are in the same location as the four sides of the walls of the two towers, sitting in the footprints of the towers. At about waist height, around the edges of both fountains are written the names of the 2977 people who lost their lives that day. Including not only those who lost their lives at the site but also the victims from the plane crash near Shanksville, Pa., at the Pentagon, and the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. At night, the falls and all of the names are backlit. It really is a beautiful memorial.
Underneath of where the towers were located is the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I truly can not say enough about this museum. It is excellent. It is thorough. It is sad. It is informative. It is interesting. It is overwhelming. It is a fitting tribute.
When you descend the escalators, you enter Foundation Hall. In the hall, you see the original slurry wall that remained standing when the towers came down. I learned that the slurry is a retaining wall, based on Italian design, that was built to keep water out and support the towers in an area of soft earth. Also in this large hall is the “Last Column”, which I think a lot of people would recognize from TV news as the column on which rescue works raised an American flag. This column is covered with memorial writings and missing persons posters. Finally, in Foundation Hall, there are artifacts from the towers, including things like letters written to loved ones and a burned axe of a firefighter.
I was especially captivated by three gigantic pieces of steel hanging form the ceiling. These mangled and bent pieces of steel were taken directly from the point of impact where the airplane hit the North Tower. It is completely incredible to see how bent and twisted this steel became. It was also heart wrenchingly phenomenal to see a photograph of these steel beams directly after the plane had hit the tower and prior to its collapse. Looking extremely closely, I was able to see the image of a woman standing at the edge of the building. This was 92 floors high. Behind her was a complete black hole. I can not imagine the terror that she felt at that moment and for the next hour.Around the hall, I was able to follow the outside walls of the North Tower and the South Tower around their edges. The remains of the support pillars have been preserved to mark the perimeter of the towers.
On the wall opposite the slurry wall there is a beautiful artistic memorial to each victim. There are 2977 painted blue squares. Each person who painted a square was asked to paint their memory of the colour of the sky on September 11, 2001. The multitude of shades of blue is dramatic. Using reclaimed pieces of metal from the towers, the Virgil quote, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time” takes its place between these squares.
In the centre of the museum (The North Tower part) is the Historical Exhibition. This exhibition is divided into three parts - Events of the Day, Before 9/11, After 9/11. I spent most of my time in the first part of this exhibit. This section is dedicated to everything that happened on September 11, 2001. Visitors are able to hear audio recordings from people on the planes, flight attendants contacting ground crew for assistance, and flight attendants and passengers contacting loved ones with their last words. There are news reports of the events. There are many artifacts from the buildings - papers, floppy disks, phones, items of clothing, desk photos of family members, all of the minutia of daily life working in the Twin Towers that take on a different meaning when you realize that these items survived the descent to the streets of Manhattan. This part of the exhibit also included things like parts of the plane wreckage, the wheel found three blocks away from the tower and parts of the fuselage. There is a fire truck, mangled and ruined from the events of that day. Photos of people coming down the stairs as rescue workers are heading up. Photos of rescue workers assisting people in many different ways to get away from the area. Pictures of clergy workers coming to help. A part of this section also included audio recordings from survivors and rescue workers recalling events of the day.
The second section shifted to a focused on the terrorists who attacked on September 11th. I did not feel that I wanted to dedicate any of my time to this section, so I moved on.
The final section focused on the events after 9/11, including trying to understand the whys of the attack, the clean up, and rebuilding efforts. I admit that I felt the weight of the first section of the museum and I know that Adina and Adriana were also feeling overwhelmed. We were tired from this emotional visit. I really feel like a visitor needs more than one day to get a full appreciation for this museum.
Under the South Tower section is the Memorial Exhibit. In a smaller room the four walls are filled with photos of each victim. In the centre of the room, on a continuous loop, are audio recordings and photos from family members remembering their lost loved ones. It is touching and overwhelming.
The curators and those in the decision making process have done an exceptionally thorough job of creating a memorial and museum that pays tribute to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. This is well worth a visit.
Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty
No trip to New York City would be complete without visiting The Statue of Liberty. This is such an iconic part of New York. This was the first thing that 5000 immigrants a day would see as they prepared to step on to American soil for the first time. Liberty Enlightening the World, her proper name, is a beautiful statue representing freedom and was a gift to America from France. The fealty between France and America was based around the common history of revolution and independence and to was a gift to commemorate the perseverance of freedom and democracy in the United States.
Adriana, Adina, and I met the ferry in Liberty State Park, New Jersey. The ferry took us first to Ellis Island. As we journeyed we were able to get great views of the statue and of Manhattan.
Ellis Island is a memorial to the millions of immigrants to entered America via New York. The old building, which housed the Registry Room, where immigrants were asked there names, home town, occupation, destination, and amount of money they carried, is now a museum to immigration. This museum has only been open since the mid 1980s. The immigration building was closed in 1954 and sat unused until it was brought back to life and became the museum.
The ground floor is called “Journeys: The Peopling of America”. This section of the museum describes the varied reasons why people would immigrate to America from 1550 to the present day.
The second floor demonstrates the immigrants experience when they landed on Ellis Island, including the medical inspections and legal examinations they would need to complete in order to be allowed to head on their way to their final destinations.
The third floor included the Bob Hope Memorial Library and an exhibit that outlined the restoration of the building from derelict to restored. Especially interesting on the third floor where the preserved pillars, encased in glass, that showed graffiti of newly arrived immigrants - their first mark on their new home.
After our museum visit, we hopped back on the ferry and headed to Liberty Island. We had tickets to the Pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. We climbed up to the pedestal and were able to walk completely around the base of the statue. Basically, this gave us excellent views of Manhattan, the waterway, and a number of bridges.
Climbing down the stairs and walking around the outside, we were able to get wonderfully close up views of Liberty. Under the actual statue, there is an exhibit that describes the planning, building, delivery, and erection of the statue.
Our next ferry ride took us to the base of Manhattan, at Battery Park. We walked past a sculpture called The Sphere. The original location of The Sphere was between the World Trade Centre Towers. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, The Sphere, having been damaged, was relocated to Battery Park, without any repairs, as a temporary memorial to the victims of the attacks. An eternal flame was placed in front of the sculpture making Battery Park The Sphere’s official new home. The sphere was designed to symbolizes world peace through world trade.
We wandered around the base of Manhattan. We browsed an out door market. Walked north on Broadway, stopped and stared at the infamous Wall Street, admired the architecture of all of the buildings, people watched, checked out some street performers, saw City Hall, and made our way to Park Row. Park Row leads directly to The Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge is for cars, bikes and pedestrians. The pathway was packed with people walking and biking over the bridge. We joined these people and walked to the first tower where we admired the view, took a few pictures, then turned around and headed back to Manhattan.
Having watched and loved Blue Bloods, I really wanted to see 1PP (One Police Plaza). A NYC Police Officer helped us with directions to find our way to 1PP. Although that was highlight enough, this also became the place where we had our first and only encounter with NYC rats. A true New York experience. And a gross one.
We ended our day with a slice of New York City pizza at a small pizza joint called Majestic Pizza on Courtlandt St. The pizza was fantastic. This pizza joint was essentially a kitchen with a small shop front where a couple of tables and stools stood for a few customers at a time. On one wall was a black and white photograph that caught our eyes. It was a picture of Courtlandt St after the fall of the towers in 2001. We can see the store front of Majestic Pizza in the foreground. At the end of the street we can see the remains of the towers, the walls of the towers spread out like an open box. The picture is entitled Touching Ground Zero. The caption states, “For New Yorkers, the urge to bare witness is incredible.” It is an incredible photograph.
The High Line
Saturday morning, I parted ways with Adina and Adriana for a wee bit. I wanted to walk The High Line. The High Line is a NYC linear park. A path has been built on an old section of railroad tracks. Sometimes the old tracks are still visible. Part of the path is wooden. Part of the path is made of rock. It is a lovely path to walk. The railroad is elevated over part of the city. As I walk along, I am able to look down a number of different streets of New York City. There are many art installations along the path. The park is also filled with different types of greenery. The path eventually makes a huge turn toward The Hudson River. The curve bends back around to the street where the park ends. Within the curved section is the parking ground for the trains of NYC. The views over The Hudson are fantastic.
I made my way back to Broadway and 33rd Street to meet up with Adina and Adriana. I enjoyed a coffee and sat at a bistro set doing more people watching while I waited. Adriana want to spend some time shopping. Neither Adina nor I were interested it this but we were interested in taking a sight seeing bus tour. We agreed to meet up in a couple of hours.
Our bus tour covered Lower Manhattan. Our guide was an authentic Brooklyn resident whose accent was heavy and sentences clipped. Introductions to most attractions began with “By the way…”, which really sounded like “by da way”. He even treated us to a “Forget about it” (fuhgeddaboudit) in true Brooklyn fashion. Classic.
Our tour included many of the popular hotspots that New York City is known for, everything from Times Square, Carnegie Hall, the Empire State Building, SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy, One World Trade Center, Battery Park, United Nations, and Rockefeller Center, and Central Park. Our guide regaled us with piles of interesting information, including the cost of one night in the most expensive hotel room in NYC - $18 000 and the cost of a three bedroom apartment in Manhattan - $3000/month!
Our bus tour ended up taking a bit longer than we had anticipated and so Adina and I were a bit late meeting up with Adriana. When we did, Adina and Adriana decided they could use a drink. I wanted to head to Central Park. We agreed to meet at the Met later that day.
I started my walk to Central Park. We had met Adriana at Broadway and 33rd so I headed over to 5th Avenue as I wanted to meet Central Park at the 5th Avenue entrance. My plan was to follow a route through Central Park that had been mapped out in the tourist book that I had purchased. I walked from 33rd Street and 5th Avenue to 59th Street and 5th Avenue. I purchased a pretzel from a street vender, smothered it in mustard, and enjoyed my snack as I walked toward Central Park. There is constant activity in this city. The energy is amazing. It seems that no one really bothers with the walk and stop signs on the street corners (unless you are a Canadian visitor). It really seems best to go with the flow and just be extra cautious of the cars, buses, and taxis that are moving around. The constantly honking of horns really acts as the warning that pedestrians should stay out of the intersections.
At the base of Central Park there was a lively jazz band playing, a band like I would imagine hearing in New Orleans. Not only was the music awesome but the bad members were extremely lively.
Finally, I arrived at Central Park. I entered the South East corner and took out my map. I was directed through the Central Park Zoo. I walked along The Mall and passed through statues of a variety of authors. Along this walk there was a piano that had been place in the park that anyone could stop by and play. There was a young guy playing a beautiful piece of music and a small crowd gathered around to listen to him play. Also along The Mall were a variety of artists selling their paintings and drawing caricatures of those who chose to stop and have themselves sketched. I made my way down a wide stair case to Bethesda Terrace. There was a lovely group of singers just before the large fountain.
The next part of the map took me around the west side of The Lake to Bow Bridge. The lake was littered with row boats and gondolas. Unfortunately, Bow Bridge was under construction and I had to back track a bit, going off map! I decided to follow the west side of The Lake until I could meet up with the location opposite Bow Bridge. I passed by the Swedish Cottage and Delacorte Theater, the north side of Turtle Pond and made my way to the back side of The Met. Central Park is beautiful. It is lush. There are many trees and plants. There are also a lot of people lounging, walking, running, biking, blading, and generally spending time enjoying the countryside within the city.
I circled around to the front of The Met and contacted Adina. We met in the basement of the museum. It was time to rest my feet and charge my phone for a bit. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is gigantic. I know that it was big but the size of it really surprised me. I am guessing if a visitor wanted to see all of the collections they would likely need an entire month. I decided to dedicate a small amount of time to the Egyptian, Roman, and Greek sections of the museum. Adriana was in awe of everything that she saw and spent more time that I did exploring the museum.
The three of us met up outside The Met and decided to take a taxi back down to 33rd street to look for some grub. This was my official introduction to a NYC taxi ride. We grabbed some dinner at the UrbanSpace vendors and then it was time to say so long to Manhattan. We hopped on the PATH and headed home. We were exhausted and happy. It was another great day in New York City.
I have always thought that the New York City slogan I♥NY was a really cheesy slogan. After visiting, all I can say is they got it right and I totally understand because I♥NY!
