The Big Apple and all its attractions

Yesterday, the best-of-tourist program was on the agenda: a trip to the Statue of Liberty and a visit to the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

To escape or rather to be ahead of the masses of visitors, we booked the tickets for the visit to Liberty Island a few weeks ago online and had to be at the ferry at 9 am. The Statue of Liberty is located on a small island a few minutes from Manhattan, which can only be reached by ferry. Our plan worked out and the combination of an early time and (unfortunately) bad weather meant that we hardly had to wait. The statue is very impressive and beautiful. Unfortunately, the tickets for going to the crown were booked out months in advance, but from below, the Lady looks much better anyway.

Due to time constraints, we skipped a visit to the museum on the neighboring island (Ellis Island), even though the history of immigration is certainly very interesting.

Back in Manhattan, we visited Ground Zero. The place where on September 11, 2001, terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and with them, thousands of people lost their lives. When standing at the two fountains that were built on the site of the former towers, one immediately has the terrible images in mind. Everyone probably still remembers what they were doing on September 11th and how they learned about the terrible attacks. A very touching and moving place and a wonderful monument that reminds us all of the values of life in freedom as we know it.

Right nearby, the Americans have built a new tower of superlatives: the One World Trade Center. When Gerdi was in New York in 2015, it was still a monstrous construction site, but today it is finished and shines in full size in southern Manhattan.

Afterwards, we took a short lunch break at the hotel and then the previously gray sky finally cleared up, so we spontaneously decided to take a long walk through Central Park. The park is huge and centrally located. In the numerous lakes, we saw free-living, curious turtles, model boats and little boys steering them, many couples and families who enjoyed the afternoon just like us. Afterwards, we took advantage of the relatively good weather to visit the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Contrary to expectations, we had hardly any waiting time here either. The view from up there over the city is overwhelming and rightly one of the most popular activities in New York. We could not get enough and admired each direction several times. The sunset was really summery and the darkness revealed the entire beauty of this huge city. For miles on end: lights, lights, lights. The skyscrapers compete with each other and you can tell that New York is truly the city that never sleeps (spoiler alert: but people do sleep a little. But more on that later). You can't capture the whole beauty of this 'light pollution' in photos.

After coming back down to the ground, our stomachs were growling quite a bit and we went in search of dinner. As Berliners, we were more than surprised that the kitchens of New York go to bed early. At 10 minutes to 10, hardly any restaurant was open anymore. Except for McDonalds, which is open 24 hours here, the other restaurants close on time. That's when we appreciate our good old Döner kebab, which you can also get at home at 4 in the morning without any problems!

But we were not starving - don't worry!

After a long and exciting day, we, or rather our feet, are glad to be in bed.

Today we slept unusually long for our standards and didn't set out until noon. We took the subway to another neighborhood today: Brooklyn. Here we visited a street food market, which unfortunately was quite crowded (here too we immediately thought of Berlin - anyone who has been to Mauerpark on a Sunday in the summer knows what we mean!). Afterwards, we took the ferry directly to the start of the Brooklyn Bridge. There we walked from Brooklyn back to Manhattan over the city's most famous bridge, which spans the Hudson River in multiple levels. Since the weather was unexpectedly hot and sunny again today, we can be glad that sunscreen has a fixed place in our backpack.

Then we visited the heart of New York's financial district: Wall Street and the stock exchange. Now we are pretty exhausted and enjoying a cappuccino before embarking on new adventures!