It's been a busy summer of travelling and visiting friends and family, and it's a bit hard to believe that I'm less than two weeks away from heading back to Vienna! Last week a couple of friends from Austria were in town visiting, so we played tourist for 4 days and had a really great time. I always love seeing New York through fresh eyes, and I love to have reason to explore neighborhoods outside my normal routine. We walked A LOT over the 4 days and used Google pedometer to estimate about how far we went...not including small walks to and from the subway and things like that, we walked over 28.5 miles which is about 40km. But we did get to see quite a bit, although not quite everything on our list...so they'll just have to come back!
In Times Square...this was pretty much my view most of the time...we'd stop...Philipp and Kathrin would take pictures...and then we'd move along.
Thankfully after a few blocks in Times Square they were also overwhelmed with how crowded and crazy it is, so we didn't stay here long
New York Public Library...we went inside and saw this cool exhibit about the history of New Yorkers' lunch hours
Grand Central Terminal...still one of my favorite buildings in the city
30 Rock...and then it was up to the top!
South view of Manhattan
Looking up towards Central Park
After Top of the Rock we walked up 5th avenue, stopping in a few stores along the way, and then up through Lincoln Center and over to the Piers along the Hudson River.
Looking back towards the apartments from the Pier
We had been walking a long way, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and lovely view of the boats on the Hudson for a while
And then we met up with a couple of my friends for dinner on the Pier...definitely one of my favorite summer activities
The next morning we got up and took the Staten Island Ferry back and forth from Lower Manhattan to Staten Island (helping them to cross off all 5 boroughs during their trip)
The Statue of Liberty from the Ferry
Lower Manhattan
After getting off the Ferry back in Manhattan we got slices of proper New York pizza and walked around a bit, passing the New York Stock Exchange and going through South Street Seaport including a stop at a shop to get some Yankees apparel :)
New York Stock Exchange
Now, I am a HUGE Yankees fan, and I realize that not everyone else is, especially two people who have never seen a baseball game, however, these two are up for anything to enhance their New York experience, so we got tickets to the Yankees/Red Sox game while they were here.
They even got all decked out in Yankees gear for the game...and made quite classy choices I think...on our way to the subway we were walking through Harlem and a guy on the street said..."You guys headed to the game?"...I said "Yep"...he looked us all up and down and said "That's what's up". I feel like they passed the "local" test. Well done.
And the Yankees won! They loved the game (or at least seemed to and told me they did) but regardless it was a very fun evening.
Monday morning we got up and went to the High Line and walked around the Meatpacking District before walking down to World Trade Center, heading through all the neighborhoods in between, and we even had a few celebrity sightings! (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan)
I hadn't made it down to the September 11th memorial yet, so I was sort of glad it was on their list of things to see, it is really beautifully done, and it will look even better once the construction is finished and the museum is open.
The new One World Trade Center building
From World Trade Center we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge, which is sadly partially under construction, so you can only see off the two sides in the middle and not across the entire length of the bridge, but it was still really nice.
From here we met up with a few friends of mine and headed to Chinatown and Little Italy before heading back to Harlem for dinner at Harlem Tavern...I apparently got tired of taking pictures but I know Philipp and Kathrin have plenty :)
Tuesday we headed into the city and went to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (my other favorite place in the city) and then over to the East Side to peruse the artists in front of the Met. We grabbed some sandwiches and headed into Central Park for lunch.
After lunch we took a sweeping walk through the park to see some of the sights, and then over to the West Side.
Pavilion near Bethesda Fountain
Looking towards the Mall
Sheep's Meadow
From here we did a bit of shopping, walked back up the West Side in and out of the park the rest of the afternoon, and then back to the car and I drove them to the airport. It was a whirlwind few days, but so so much fun, and allowed me to be sure I saw plenty of things in the city before I head back to Austria. We also made a deal that since I've now shown Philipp and Kathrin around NYC, they will return the favor and show me some things in Vienna that I've apparently been missing, so stay tuned :)
