Trip to New York City -
July 2004
A short summary
This
trip report will focus on the trip that my wife Nikki and I took to New York
in the period from July 5th - 11th 2004. We spent the days in NYC
sightseeing on Manhattan but as it is a big city and I guess we only scratched the
surface on what the city has to offer during our 6 day visit. But I hope
that this trip report and the links that we have included can be of some use
to other first time visitors to New York City. Please get in touch if you
have any questions or comments. Feel free to check out
this interactive Google map of New
York City that I have made. I have put on markers that shows attractions
that we went to.
| Note: Nikki and I went to NYC again in November/December 2007. Please click here for the new NYC travelogue. |
Prelude
We have been talking about visiting New York City for many years now and we
finally got a chance to see it when we took a family trip to the USA. We
decided to first go to my sister in Ohio and spend a few days there. After
this we would go to NYC and then go home to Norway from there.
Like
most others we felt that we knew the city a bit even if we
hadn’t been there
before. After all, the city is portrayed in so many movies and TV series, it
sort of feels like you are going back to a place you have been to before. When I was young I remember seeing TV shows about how kids grew up in NYC
and it felt very distant from my own upbringing.
I also remember seeing
movies like “The Warriors” and of course I wondered if this gave a true
impression of the city. Well, as I have gotten older I have of course come
to learn and understand that there are a lot more to NYC than the negative
things the press often focus on. We
started planning our trip by buying a DK Eyewitness guide for the city from
Amazon but
there is also an amazing amount of stuff to be found on the web. The problem
is of course trying to find which information that can be of use to you. It
is possible to buy books which focus on certain stuff, e.g. if you just want
to visit locations used in movies. So it should be possible to find all the
information suitable for your needs.
Finding a hotel in New York
New
York is obviously a huge city so hotels come in all price categories (but
mainly in the upper ones :-) and are spread all over the city. So we had to
decide which price class to go for and which area to stay in. We looked into
quite a lot of different hotels and guesthouses but in the end we booked a
room at Hotel
Thirty Thirty. This hotel might not be the most exciting hotel but when
we travel to big city destinations we don’t look for hotels that have a lot
of different amenities. We just look for a hotel with a good
location (near the city center or near transportation), with a clean and
private bath and it is also quite nice if there is a TV in the room.
Here is a review of Hotel Thirty Thirty
based on our experience.
Before the trip we had searched the net and called travel agencies here in the area and the cheapest tickets that we could find for our trip (round trip from Stavanger to Columbus (Ohio) with a stop in NYC) was with KLM and Continental and we had to pay 7400 kroner per ticket (about 1050 US dollars with an exchange rate of 1$=7 kr).
The trip begins
We
started our trip early in the morning on Friday the 25th of June. After the
short KLM flight from Stavanger to Amsterdam we had a few hours before our
next flight to Newark. Due to this my brother Jone and I decided to go into
Amsterdam to look around. Maybe it was not the best idea because my trusted
Canon Powershot S30 was stolen without me even noticing it when we walked
through the crowds at the flower market. This camera had been with me on
trips to Thailand,
Kilimanjaro,
The Maldives,
Venice etc and was a great camera.
We flew Continental from Amsterdam to Newark Liberty Airport and this is the first time I have used them. It is always hard to rate an airline based on just one flight (after all the experience varies with the crew, mood of the crew etc) but I was not very impressed with Continental. When we checked out their website it said that they had little TV screens in each seat and you could even play games on these screens. But when we came onboard the plane this didn’t work. And when I asked one of the flight attendants about this she looked like she was really fed up with getting just that question. She mumbled that she would try and reset the system for the rows that we were in to see if she could get it to work but it never did. One of the flight attendants also got into a big loud argument with a passenger that was complaining about the delay in take off. I guess passengers can be quite a challenge from time to time and I guess the flight attendant had a bad day because she got into a loud argument with the passenger saying that she would have the police waiting for him in Newark if he didn’t stop. I think that the flight lasted for about 7 hours and we got two meals during this time. When we got the last snack they also started handing out the forms for US immigrations and customs. But this was done rather late so before we had more or less finished filling out the forms we were told that we had to fold our tables etc. Why couldn’t these forms have been handed out in the middle of the flight?
We did reach Columbus, Ohio in the end and after visiting my sister in the period from June 26th to July 5th Nikki and I moved on to New York City.
Arriving in New York City
On the morning of July 5th we checked in at
Port
Columbus airport and got ready to take the Continental Express flight
from Columbus to Newark. Due to safety rules you have to leave your luggage
unlocked now in case they need to inspect it.
The
flight to Newark only took 1 ½ hours and soon we had all our luggage with us
and ready to go into the city. It seems like there are various ways to get
to the city. We went for the cheaper alternative and took the Airlink. This
is a service from Amtrak and I think the ticket costs about 11$ per person
for a one way ticket. To catch the train to NYC we took the airtrain at
Newark Airport. The airtrain is the little train the links the terminals and
train station together. We had already picked up train tickets from a
machine in one of the terminals but I don’t think we would have known about
this unless we had read about this in the guidebook
I
guess the air con on the train was out of order because it felt like we were in a sauna.
And the train isn’t really made for travellers with big suitcases so we had
to stand with our bags on the trip to Penn Station. The trip doesn’t take
that long…I would guess it takes about 30 minutes. All of sudden we were
standing on the street outside Penn Station and Madison Square Garden and
the first impression was I guess just like we had expected it to be: lots of
yellow cabs, skyscrapers, big billboards etc. We got in the taxi line and we
got a cab pretty fast. The ride over to Hotel Thirty Thirty only took five
minutes and cost us about 5 dollars including tip. Please check out this
page for a review of the hotel itself.
Getting around in the city -
Subway
After
we had unpacked some of our stuff we were ready to start taking a look at
the city. It was kinda strange to come out on the streets of New York. It
was a bit eerie to be honest because the streets were more or less empty (or
at least a lot less crowded than we thought it would be) and we could see
steam coming up from a holes in the street. It was just like taken out of a
movie :-) Well, I guess the streets were empty due to the fact that it was a
public holiday for many. The first thing we did was to go down to the subway
station on 28th street and Park Avenue to buy a subway pass. For 21 $ we got
a one week unlimited travel pass (called MetroCard) that we used quite a lot
during our stay in the city. In fact, Manhattan was not as big as we thought
it would be.
So
during our stay there we walked a lot and used the subway over longer
distances. There are a lot of yellow cabs but we never used these apart from
getting to and from Penn Station. The subway was quite easy to use…we have
previous training from cities like Paris
and London :-). The only problem was that some
trains are local trains and some are express trains and the last category
doesn’t stop at all the stations. But once we figured that out we didn’t
have any problems. It was just a matter of swiping the MetroCard at the
entry gates and then get on the right train. So when you just figure out the
concept of Uptown and Downtown you should be fine :-) The trains have
air-con by the way but they stations can be pretty hot.
The subway is only a part of the transportation network covered by Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). You will find a pretty good subway map on their homepage . If you don’t by a MetroCard I think that the fare is about 2 $.
The
subway felt like a pretty safe transportation method even late in the
evening. We saw quite a lot of MTA personnel on the subway trains and there
was quite a lot of police around. From time to time we met people who were
trying to make a living by performing (dancing, singing, playing an
instrument) in the subway system. One night we met this guy who played a
fiddle while he was singing…it was such a sad song. And the even sadder fact
was that no one was really paying attention to his song. We saw all kinds of
people on the subway…a homeless guy that were stinking so bad that no one
wanted to sit around the guy, the young generation, people in suites going
back from work etc. Some of the subway stations are quite small. And unlike
Paris where you get down to the Metro station and then you deal with the
question of which direction you are going, you have to make a decision if
you are going uptown or downtown already on street level. On our first day
we went down in one subway station and we were looking for a way to get to
the other sides of the tracks. In the end we had to ask and the lady told us
that we had to go back out of the station, cross the street and enter the
subway there. I guess we should have thought about that :-) Granted it would
have been easier to distinguish up from downtown if there were routing maps
at the platform entrance – like in London.
With
many of the streets of Manhattan being logically numbered and split into
west side and east side, it was also quite easy to walk around in NYC. We
did use the map in our guidebook
Sightseeing in New York City
Empire State building - the
aging beauty
One
of the things that we wanted to do in NYC was to go to the top of the
Empire State Building.
It’s a famous landmark and I don’t think that it needs further
introduction. We went up there on the first day and we found it by
“accident”. We walked around just checking out the neighbourhood around the
hotel and we went into a Walgreen's to buy some water.
Well,
I stuck my head out one of the side entrances to the store and I found
myself in the lobby of Empire State Building. I think it is amazing to think
about the fact that this building was built over 70 years ago! The lobby
oozes tradition and history and it looks like they have kept it well.
Once I had seen the lobby we decided to go to the observatory deck on the
86th floor. There used to be another observatory deck on the 102nd floor but
this was closed of because of the increase in the number of visitors. We had
to wait a few minutes to get tickets. If you buy the tickets separately they
cost 12$ for adults. We went for the
New York CityPass but I’ll
get back to that later on. If you buy the combo of the observatory deck and
New York Skyride I think that it will cost you about 22$.
We
followed the queue and had a bit of a wait to get into the elevators and on
the 80th floor. On the 80th floor you change elevators to get to the 86th
floor and they used the opportunity to take pictures of everyone hoping that
someone would buy the pictures later on and you could also rent an audio
guide there. I was just thrilled to see the views that were starting to
appear from the windows on the 80th floor. As mentioned the building seems
to have been well kept at least seen from outside and in the lobby.
On the 80th floor it is possible to see that this is an aging beauty.
Finally we were at the top of the building and could get out on the
observatory deck. There were quite a few people up there so it was not
always easy to get to see the view. But the view was great even if it was a
bit hazy that afternoon. From the various sides we had view to lower
Manhattan, the rivers surrounding the island, the bridges, other famous
buildings like the Chrysler building, Central Park etc. It was a great
experience indeed :-)
After
we had been on the top for a while we made our way down to ground level to
take the New York Skyride
since this was apart of the New York CityPass that we bought. The Skyride is
simulated flight around New York City and the whole thing was narrated by
Kevin Bacon. I don’t really think that it was worth the money and if you
have been to larger amusement parks I’m sure that you have tried out better
simulators. Well, you can get more details and info on the Skyride homepage.
CityPass
We bought the New York
CityPass because it included many of the attractions that we wanted to
visit. When you buy the card you can get access to American Museum of
Natural History, Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, Intrepid Sea
Air Space Museum, Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and of course the Empire
State building. We paid 48$ per person for the CityPass.
Intrepid
Sea-Air-Space Museum - all hands on deck for a Top Gun feeling
It
is always fascinating to see movies where there are planes, subs, aircraft
carriers etc. Well, in New York City you can get to see everything up close
more or less at the same time at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. One
morning we took the subway to Times Square and from there we just walked
down towards Hudson River and we soon found the old aircraft carrier USS
Intrepid. We got the tickets to enter the museum (by using the New York
CityPass) and we also got boarding passes to the Concorde which has been
docked up at the museum (it is on a barge). The museum itself is made up of
the Intrepid, the submarine USS Growler and the Concorde.
We
started on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier where we found lots and
lots of planes including F-14 Tomcat, F-16 Fighting Falcon, Harrier and the
amazing Blackbird.
Most
of the planes and helicopters can be found on the flight deck but some are
also displayed in the hangar inside the ship. In the hangar there are also
displays about space, the technology behind an aircraft carrier, some
simulators and some hands on exhibits. It is also possible to check out the
bridge of the Intrepid (although Nikki was pretty peeved when she was told
to keep her hands off all the buttons :-) and the mess deck…conveniently
turned into a McDonald’s restaurant.
We
also lined up for a bit to get inside the Concorde. The Concorde is located on
a barge and they let on board small groups at the time. We came in a door in
the back and walked through the plane and out the front door. The seats in
the plane were protected from curious visitors with plexi glass which runs
all the length of the plane from where we entered to where we went out. One
of the engines were also taken out of the plane and displayed under the
aircraft itself. Walking though the plane was not really a big happening for
me. On the other hand it would have been an amazing experience to have been
on a Concorde when they where operative and in the air.
The
last thing we visited was the USS Growler. After waiting for 20-30 minutes
we got to see the inside of what they claim is the only intact strategic
nuclear missile sub open people in the world. We were taken through the sub
by a guide that told us a little bit about the different rooms. It is always
fascinating to walk through submarines and see how much stuff they can
squeeze into them. It must have been pretty challenging to serve onboard a
tiny ship like this for weeks and weeks at sea.
The museum was fun at least if you are into history, planes etc. Check out their website on intrepidmuseum.org. It is pretty good and has lots of information. The general admission to the museum is 14.5 $ but once again we used the New York CityPass that we bought at the Empire State building.
Times Square - Play that funky
music white boy
We
walked over to this famous intersection already the first night. It doesn’t
take much to understand when you are there…large billboards where lights are
flashing, people every where etc. The place is also on TV and movies quite a
lot and every year they show pictures from the New Year celebration here.
Well,
all of a sudden it was Nikki and me that were there and it was mesmerizing
to see all the flashing adds blinking everywhere. There are lots of
activities here both day and night. One landmark that I hadn’t heard about
before is the Naked Cowboy (check out
nakedcowboy.com). This
guy is dressed up in his underwear (so he is not as naked as it may sound
*grin*), cowboy hat and cowboy boots…and his guitar of course. He plays and
poses for/with people and people tip him by sticking dollar bills in his
boots. One lady that took us on a tour in the Times Square area said that he
can make about 1000 dollars a day on this…and she added “Only in New
York…and only on Times Square”. From what I could hear he should spend some
money on guitar lessons *grin* But it is certainly a fun idea and people
were lining up to get the pictures take with him.
Be
sure to visit the Times Square Information Center as they can provide you
with access to mail (maybe only Yahoo mail), information on where and how to
get cheaper tickets to Broadway shows and free walking tours. If you want to
get cheaper tickets to show you should also check out the Tkts booth on
Times Square (www.tkts.com).
Apparently you can show up here and get tickets for the evening shows to a
reduced price…but remember to bring cash :-). We didn’t go to see any shows
so I can’t really give much info about the subject. But we did go to the
movies a couple of times in the Times Square area. We tried out both AMC25
and Loews Cineplex and they were both excellent movie theaters with great
sound. The movie tickets cost about 10$ per person by the way.
We went for one free walking tour arranged by the Times Square Alliance. The tour lasted about 2 hours and the lady that took us around also did other tours that she informed us about during the walk. In this walk we were taken around in the Times Square area and we got information on how the theatre district has developed to what it is today, how Longacre Square has turned into Times Square, how the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin fits into the Times Square area etc. It was a pretty good tour but maybe a bit long (it lasted a bit more than 2 hours). It was at least clear to see that our guide enjoyed what she was doing and she was knowledgeable.
Guggenheim - let me see those
hands
I’m
not that much into art but the
Guggenheim museum is pretty famous so we
decided to visit it. I guess the building itself is as well known as the
museum itself. We took the subway to 86th street if I’m not mistaken and we
just walked over towards Central Park and Fifth Avenue. Soon the
characteristic white rings appeared in front of us and it is such a cool
building.
Of
course there were some construction work going on (as usual in big cities)
but that didn’t destroy the “experience”. The museum was a lot smaller than
I had imagined it to be and it contained a lot more pictures than expected.
Maybe it was because there was a special exhibition called “Speaking with
hands”. We only spent about an hour in the museum. According to their web
site the admission is about 15$ but we used the New York CityPass to get in.
We were not allowed to take pictures above the first floor…one English guy
tried to pull the old “I thought the first floor was the ground floor” and
the guards didn’t seem to happy with that :-)
Central Park - A break from
reality
I
once heard that there is more park area per person in New York City compared
to e.g. Paris. It is hard to believe when you walk
around the skyscrapers of Manhattan but easy to understand when you come to
Central Park. We just took a walk in Central Park on our way from the
Guggenheim museum to the Natural historic museum. You know it is a big park
when it even has its own homepage *grin*. So if you want to find anything,
look it up on
www.centralpark.org :-) . We walked through the park at about noon and
there were lots of people in and around the park.
People
were biking, jogging, using roller skates or just relaxing. We met
dog-walkers (I’m not sure that is the political correct term), people
playing softball etc. I’m sure that it would have been one of my favorite
places if I had been living in New York. One thing that I find a bit amusing
is of course all the signs and rules and regulation there is when it comes
to the use of the parks. Like the path around the reservoir in Central
Park…it seemed like it was only for jogging and it even seemed like they
wanted everyone to go in the same direction. What happened to freedom of
choice? :-) And do you really need a sign with a big list where one of the
items is “Park rules prohibit littering”. Shouldn’t it be obvious to all
that you shouldn’t litter? Central Park was lovely and it was such a
contrast to be in the calm Great lawn compared to in the streets outside the
park.
We
also stopped by some other parks on our walks around NYC. Union Square Park,
Washington Park, Columbus Park etc. In all the places the kids were playing
and people were relaxing in the sun or cooling down in the fountains. If I’m
not mistaken, Columbus Park sits on the place where Leonard DiCaprio fights
in “Gangs of New York”. According to the guidebook
American museum of Natural
history - past meets future
We
walked through Central Park and got to the
American museum of Natural
history.
The building façade is huge and impressive and it is easy to see that this
is a building with tradition and history. The lobby is also impressive with
two big dinosaur skeletons right in the middle. We already had tickets for
the museum through the New York CityPass but we had to pay extra to get into
the Hayden Planetarium. I think that we had to pay 12$ per person for that.
We
started out optimistic strolling slowly through the section of Asian mammals
and hall of Asian people. I think we soon realized that this museum was HUGE
:-). So we had to increase the pace a little bit if we were to cover it all
in a day. Let me tell you that you need to plan your visit if you go there
because it is more or less impossible to cover everything in a short period
of time. I think you could spend a full day in the museum just looking at
minerals for instant.
Check out their homepage and check out the floor plan and try to make up
your mind of what you want to see. The Rose Center for Earth and Space was
nice and it was interesting the way the scales of the universe was
explained, the planetarium was also nice but the show was so short…not sure
it was worth the extra 12 dollars we paid for it. But I think it was great
that they had students in Rose Center that had some hands on experiments
where they tried to explain different stuff to kids (and adults for that
matter :-). The blue whale in the hall of ocean life was also an amazing
sight. It is incredible to think that there are animals that big on our
planet. The dinosaur section is of course also an interesting section :-).
It is always great fun to look at the big eyes of children when they see the
teeth on a skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
We
walked around there for a few hours and in the end we had to get some new
energy. Don’t worry..there are several places where you can eat and drink in
the museum. We went to the food court and there was lots of stuff to choose
from there. I think that our conclusion is that this is one of the best and
extensive museums that we have been to. The problem is that it gets a bit
much and you are in danger of exhausting yourself if you try to cover
everything. Get a floor plan and plan your visit and be prepared by the fact
that you might have to skip some of the sections of the place.
Brooklyn Bridge - walk all over
it
This was also on the top of my list of “to do” things when we came to New
York. Yes, I know it is kinda sad to go around half the world only to be
fascinated by walking across a bridge :-) But hey, I’m an engineer and I get
impressed by huge buildings and structures :-). I wonder if John Roebling (the
designer of the bridge) had any idea how famous this bridge would become as
the years has gone by. I’m just amazed that it was possible to build
something like this back then. The bridge was opened as early as 1883!
We went there one afternoon and it
looked like it was going to rain for sure. But as we were walking on the
pathway the dark clouds blew away and we could walk across with the sun
shining from a blue sky. It wasn’t hard to find the way to the bridge by the
way. We took the subway to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and from there it was
easy to find the access to the pathway. The bridge seems to be popular both
amongst the tourist and the locals. Lots of people were biking, jogging and
walking over the bridge. I kept staring up on the towers and Nikki had to
keep reminding me to keep out of the bike lane :-). We only walked half way
over and that gave us a great view of East River, buildings on lower
Manhattan etc.
After we had walked on the bridge
we walked back and over to the South Street Seaport area. This area has been
turned in to quite a nice place and apart from the incredible stench of fish
*grin* the area also offers a nice combinations of museums, shopping,
restaurants etc. We stopped at Pier 17 to take a look at the bridge from
there and we also stopped at Häagen-Dazs to grab some ice cream :-)
Staten Island ferry - the free
ride
We
decided to check out the Staten Island ferry one morning since we heard it
was free and that it offers a pretty good view of Manhattan. We took one
morning and we took the subway to Bowling Green and we walked the rest of
the way. The ferry service operates between Whitehall street in Manhattan
and St. George on Staten Island.
The
ferry terminal on the Manhattan side was a bit of a mess as they are
expending it or maybe building a new. Well, it felt like we were waiting at
a construction site before we could get on the boat. We grab a seat on the
left side…excuse me…the port side of course :-) This didn’t give us that
much of a view so when we came over to Staten Island we switched sides.
Well, first everyone had to get of and then we could board again. Come to
think of it we were also sitting on the port side when going towards
Manhattan again :-) Anyway, this time we were facing the Statue of Liberty
and Ellis Island and the view was great. I think the trip took about 30
minutes each way.
Grey Line tours - a bus tour
with linguistic problems
We
like to take bus tours of different cities that we go to. We normally make
this one of our first activities so that we can get to know the city a
little bit. But this time we took the tour after we had stayed in the city a
few days. We walked over to the Empire State Building to catch this bus tour
and we went for the downtown loop with a company called
Gray Line tours. The
tickets cost us 37$ per person and you can hop on and of as the bus goes
around the downtown area. We got a seat on the top floor of the double
decker bus after a few minutes and we were ready to get some in depth
information about New York. But we were a bit disappointed.
The
first guide that we had didn’t speak English that well and we had trouble
understanding what she said. On other buses it was hard to hear the guide at
all. I was hoping to get something back for the 37$ but the guides did not
give us that much information that we hadn’t already read in our guidebook
UN building - peace in our
time?
We
walked over to the UN building one afternoon and I think that we got there
at about 5 pm. When we wanted to get in we were told that it was closed…so
much of the “city that never sleeps” *grin*. We returned the following day
and after the mandatory security check we got into the lobby of the UN
building and we bought a guided tour for 10$ each. Our guide was from Italy
but she spoke perfect English and she took us through the different rooms:
the Security Council, the general assembly hall etc.
Our
guide was knowledgeable and she told us a lot about the work of the UN and
their operation around the world. We also got lots of general
information…did you e.g. know that the interior in the Security Council is a
gift from Norway? One of the strongest impressions comes from seeing
artefacts taken from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Due to the nuclear
blast over these cities there were examples of cups and glasses that were
melted due to the extreme heat. Let us hope that something like that doesn’t
happen again.
The
UN is an international area and they even have their own postal service. So
if you go into the post office you can buy UN stamps but remember that you
have to send the postcards from the UN building. We did get to take a look
at the general assembly hall but we didn’t get to take any pictures. This
was due to the shooting of a new film by the name of “The Interpreter” which
stars Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. We were hoping to see some of the stars
of course but we never ran into them :-)
Wall Street and
Ground Zero
After
we had taken the Staten Island ferry we walked over to Battery Park to see
if we could take a trip out to Ellis Island. But we decided that we were fed
up with lining up so we skipped this and walked through Castle Clinton and
through Battery Park to get to rest of the downtown area to check that out.
On the way we passed a monument that used to be located at the World Trade
Center. After the attacks on September 11th this monument was reassembled
and placed here and it is a strong reminder of the incident.
The downtown are is not that big because all of a sudden we saw the bronze
statue of a bull (which is supposed to symbolize Wall Street) near the old
Custom house. We did of course walk down Wall Street and took a look at the
New York Stock Exchange but it wasn’t easy to get a closer look. The place
looked pretty fortified with cops in full combat equipment. According to our guidebook
Right now it is just a gaping hole in the ground so there is not really much
to see there. There is a lot of activity in the area because the buildings
around the site are being refurbished and I guess they are preparing the
site for the building of a new tower and to make a proper memorial. But
there were some posters on the fence around the area which gave information
about the WTC complex. There were many things that reminded us about the
incident on September 11th. For instance we walked by a fence in Greenwich
Village that had lots and lots of little drawings clearly inspired by the
events.
Buildings of New York
There
are of course many great buildings around New York that you see a lot on
film and TV and I just want to mention a couple of them. The first is
Grand
Central Station. We walked past this on our way from Times Square to the UN
building and we had to stop by of course :-) It is squeezed in between
skyscrapers but when you get inside it you can see how beautiful it really
is.
According
to some information inside the building it was refurbished in the end of the
90’s and they did a great job. It looks brand new but you can see that this
is made with class in the old days. When you enter from 42nd Street you get
into a large room which doesn’t really serve as much apart from being a
“passing through” room. The main concourse has a high vaulted ceiling with
beautiful decorations. Beneath this hall we found the “food court” and
access to the different tracks. It is really amazing how much money they put
into decorations of buildings in the old days. The Grand Central Station is
certainly quite a contrast compared to the MetLife building near by :-)
On
our way to the UN building, we also walked by New York Public Library. It
was last seen as a refugee camp in “The day after tomorrow) :-). We only
stopped to look at the façade of the building and it is impressive. Another
building with a striking uniqueness is of course the
Flatiron building on
Fifth Avenue. This building was the tallest in the world when it was
completed in 1902 and even if it is old it stands out due to the strange
shape and due to the amazing decorations on the building. On our walks
around NYC we also stopped by Rockefeller Plaza. I guess this is most famous
for the Christmas tree and the ice skating rink in the winter time. In the
summer time there is a outside restaurant where the ice rink is normally
located at the place is used as a venue for concerts and stuff.
A walk in the Village
We didn’t spend that much time in
SoHo and Greenwich Village. We did take a
little walk in the Sheridan Square area and it was strange to come out of
the subway here because it is quite different from the financial district.
The buildings were lower and it looked like it was primarily an area were
people were living….I guess we understood that when we walked past a place
were a couple had a loud argument about their relationship :-) We walked
through Gay Street by the way. I guess this is a sign that Greenwich Village
is home to a part of the gay community in NYC. After passing 75 ½ Bedford
Street (which is supposed to be the narrowest home in NY) we eventually
ended up in Washington Square. On our way we walked past many nice
restaurant and we returned there a couple of nights to fins places to eat.
We didn’t spend that much time in
Chinatown and Little Italy either but we had to walk through the area of
course. We started out by Columbus Park and we walked through parts of
Mulberry Street. It was strange to come from the financial district with all
the tall buildings to all of a sudden come into Chinatown. Here you’ll find
lots of restaurants and shops and all the signs were in Chinese of course.
It was also quite easy to see when we reached Little Italy. Many things
(like parking meters etc) were painted in the colors of the Italian flag and
there were of course lots of Italian restaurants. It is pretty cool to live
in a city where you can “travel” through two countries just by walking for a
few minutes.
A big city journey is not complete
without a visit to a church :-) Well, we didn’t really have any intention of
looking for a church but one day when we were walking around we came across
Saint Patrick’s cathedral. It looks out of place located on Fifth Avenue
next to skyscrapers and shops. It sure does stand out when you walk past it
because it is huge. It is supposed to be the largest Catholic church in the
USA and we took a closer look inside.
When we got inside we ran into the
usual problem…how do you browse around a church without interfering with the
people that are there to worship? Well, it was possible for tourists to walk
around in more or less the entire church and it was a nice looking church. I
do find it a bit strange to find the American flag inside the church but
that’s just me I guess. Our “problem” is that we have been to some pretty
magnificent churches during our travels…like the Duomo in Milan and it is of
course hard to surpass place like that. But Saint Patrick’s is nice and it
has some very impressive bronze doors and a huge organ.
Eating and drinking in NYC - Super size me?
In the States and in NYC you can get…eh…I guess what we know as junk
food on every street corner. We don’t really eat that often at places like
McDonalds and Burger King here at home and we don’t even have stuff like KFC
and Wendy’s. So I think that it is great to pig out on junk food when I’m
traveling. And even if we did eat a lot at these places I hadn’t gained much
weight when I got back home *phew*. We do try to not get too carried away
and we order small portions (even if a small portion in the US is a large
Norwegian portion :-). There seems to be more awareness about the…eh…junk food
problem now because it is possible to get low carb meals in most places now
and it seems like there is also a focus on salads to replace burgers and
French fries. And you can also read up about nutrition facts in many of the
fast food joints…I wonder how many people that actually reads these fact
sheets. The toilet conditions were often bad in these joints. Many times
there was only one rest room even if it was a pretty big restaurant and in
others we went to there were no locks on the doors...well, when I think
about it the fast food joints here at home don't really have great toilets
either :-)
If I were to select a winner in the junk food category I would have to go for Burger King (the Whopper is great). KFC is also one of my favorites and I guess it is because we don’t have it here at home so I only eat it 2-3 times a year.
But we didn’t only eat junk food
of course. We tried a couple of restaurants while we were there. On my
birthday we went to Il Bagatto on 192 East 2nd in East Village. This is an
Italian place which was recommended by our guidebook
It was a pretty dark place with lots of little lights strapped to the
ceilings of the rooms. It was so dark that I had to use the candle on the
table to read the menu :-) We went for both an appetizers and a main course by
the way and it was a bit much because we got really full. I had a gnocchi
starter with gorgonzola sauce and that was dish full of taste and it was
great while Nikki had a bruschetta that was OK. The main course was veal
with shavings of parmesan and spinach for me while Nikki went for the sea
food tomato based penne. Both these main courses were OK but it is nothing
that I will remember for a long time. The tiramisu that we shared for
dessert was pretty good. I think we had to pay about 120$ and that included
tipping and a bottle of wine.
We also wanted to try out a
steak
house and we went to a place called
Strip house located on 13 E. 12th St. in
Greenwich Village. When we first walked in there they didn’t think that they
had any tables available but they managed to squeeze us in. This place was a
bit more..eh..classy then we thought it would be but we decided to try it
anyway. In fact it was so classy that we decided to not get out the camera
and start taking pictures of everything like we normally do :-) The service
was great in this place. Before the meal we got some great fresh bread on
the table and we even got a small cocktail. I had a sirloin which was OK
while Nikki had a lamb rack which was sooo tender and good. You can order
different side dishes to go with the main meals but they cost extra of
course. For dessert we had two cups of cappuccino (they tasted great)
together with a piece of chocolate cake which was a little piece of art.
Well, I’m not sure I can say “little” because we got a HUGE piece that we
were going to share and we only managed to eat half of it. It was a pretty
good meal and it cost us 170$. But you know you are in a classy place when a
bottle of water cost 10$ :-)
We also wanted to try out a place called Otto Enoteca Pizzeria located on 1 Fifth Avenue. But when we got there it was crowded and we had to wait for 1 hour to get a table since we didn’t have a reservation and we were starving…so we ended up at Domino’s Pizza instead. But Otto might be worth checking out. The reviews have been good both when it comes to the pizza and the gelato dessert :-) If you want a cheaper meal you can go to an Applebee’s restaurant. I guess it is something in between a fast food joint and a…eh..proper restaurant. We went to one near Times Square before we went to a movie and the food tasted good, it came pretty fast and the meal cost us about 75 dollars.
We had breakfast a various places
around the hotel. We went to a place called
Pax a few times. They served different sandwiches, eggs, salads
etc and was a pretty good place. We also went to a place called Suzi’s
kitchen a few times. They had lots of different stuff on the menu and we had
to try the bagel of course. The bagel was good but I got so much cream
cheese on it and it was just amazing. But most places we had to pay 10-15$
for a small breakfast for both of us.
The hunt continues
We have become a bit addicted to Caffe Moccha lately here in Norway. For
those who are not familiar with this I can inform you that it is a mixture
between espresso, steamed milk and chocolate…preferably served with whipped
cream on top. We decided to make it a “mission” to try out Caffe Mocca on
different locations in New York to see if they could match the one we get at
a place called Charlie Brown here in Stavanger….but to summarize it pretty
quickly: we were disappointed. We tried it at Starbucks coffee, Dean & Deluca, New
World Coffee, Au bon pain etc but we were not impressed. So it was nice to
get back home again and taste a “real” Caffe Mocca :-)
Shopping - get out your credit
card
I’m
not that big on shopping but there are certain things that I like to look at
:-) Sports stores can be fun and we found one great shop that I have to
mention: Paragorn
Sports located near Union Park (on Broadway). We went in there the first
day and we also went in a few days later. They had several floors of all
kinds of stuff ranging from squash rackets, bikes, all kinds of
running/training/hiking shoes, rollerblades…well, you name it. This is one
of the best sports stores that I have been to for several years so it was
fun :-) We also took a look at places like Macy’s and
Bloomingdale’s but I was not thrilled. Macy’s might be the largest
department store in the world but is it the best? They did have some good
sales but they focused a lot on clothing which can be pretty boring if you
ask me. Fifth Avenue had a lot of high end and price stores and I only did
some window shopping. I did walk into a watch store called Wempe. The
service was great but the prices were quite ridiculous at least if you look
at the start price.
We
walked over to the famous toy store F.A.O Schwartz but it looked a bit
closed. On the bus tour they did mention something about the store having
economic difficulties. We did go into Toys’R’Us on Times Square and that was
open and full of entertainment. They had even squeezed in a Ferris wheel
into the shop! They had a pretty good selection of lots of stuff…they even
had a big Tyrannosaurus Rex that were moving and making some scary noises
:-)
Head on home
Going back home is always a shared emotion: on the one hand we were sad to
leave and on the other hand we were looking forward to getting back home. We
stored our luggage at the hotel until it was time to leave. Once again we
took a taxi over to Pennsylvania Station and from there we took the train
out to Newark Liberty Airport. The check in took some time but we were there
early so it wasn’t a problem at all. We also flew Continental home and apart
from a 1 hour delay (which caused us to miss our connecting flight in
Amsterdam) the flight went fine. We came home to Stavanger in Norway on July
12th about 6 hour later than expected due to the delay in Amsterdam.
Conclusion
I
guess I can start with the bottom line: we had a great time in New York
City! It was great to finally experience the city that pops up in so many
movies, TV shows (hey, we walked by Hunan…Seinfeld’s favourite Chinese
restaurant on Fifth Avenue), pictures etc. We felt pretty safe during our
walks around town…and let me tell you that we walked a lot :-) Even at night
it wasn’t a problem taking the subway. I guess a contributing factor to this
feeling is that you run into cops more or less where ever you go. According
to one of the guides on the bus tours there are 40.000 cops in New York!
We
had great weather in New York and on most days the temperature went up to
about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Yes, it is a bit hot for
sightseeing but with enough cold water everything is possible :-). I thought
it was great just to walk around looking at people. Lots of people were
walking around with MP3 players in an attempt to shut out the noise of all
the traffic. We saw people in suits using rollerblades to get from and to
work…I guess it beats sitting in a traffic jam. We saw posh girls one moment
and then a homeless person with a big trolley the next. We saw religious
groups protesting with pictures of unborn children outside a women’s clinic
next to our hotel and I guess it was an attempt to prevent someone from
getting an abortion.
Foreigners who come to Norway often complain about how expensive stuff is here. Well, I think my standard comment from now on will be: go to New York and see if that is any cheaper :-) Yes, NYC is pricy. The hotel will cost you a pretty penny and eating out will cost you.
So
will we go back to New York City? Yes, if we get a chance I think that we
would go there again because there are still lots to see and do. There are a
few things that were on our list that we weren’t able to squeeze in. I would
have liked to take a tour with
Big Apple Greeter
because I think that the concept is great. We enjoy our food and I think
that it would have been great to take a
food tasting tour.
And I guess if we go there again we will try to catch a Broadway show, a
baseball game etc. I think that the list could go on forever. One thing I do
regret is not finding a place where I could have a proper New York
cheesecake. Well, I do make a pretty excellent cheesecake myself (honestly)
but it would have been great to taste New York’s best cheesecake :-)
I hope that this trip report will be of some use to other people that are going to New York City for the first time. Please get in touch with me if you have any questions and I'll do my very best to answer :-)