Winter adventure: NYC
- Andrea
- Oct 7, 2024
- 25 min read
Updated: Jan 6
A little bit of background📝
This post is number three in a series of four on our winter adventure. The first post in the series documents our winter prelude, the day we spent in Los Angeles on our way from Australia. The second post is full of snow stuff, as we were lucky enough to experience a white Christmas in Chicago [and a white Christmas Eve in Milwaukee]. This post documents our winter adventure in New York City. I've made a separate post on our day trip to Washington DC from NYC.
Our winter adventure took us to Chicago the week prior to Christmas, where there'd been a massive snowfall just before we arrived. We spent Christmas Day in Chicago, then flew to NYC on Boxing Day, where we stayed until January 4, giving us eight full days to explore. [When I say "our", I mean my husband, W, and E, our 16-year-old daughter, the collective WE.]
We live in the southern hemisphere, in a part of Australia where it never snows. Christmas is summer for us, hot and humid, like it is for a good portion of the year. I'd had a long-held dream to have a proper winter experience and a white Christmas. I’d also always wanted to visit Chicago as the lake and the city architecture fascinated me. My desire to visit Chicago prompted the trip but who doesn't want to experience New York City? I usually write my posts as a journal of sorts, documenting my experiences of the places and spaces I visit as the trips unfold. This post on NYC will follow our 9-day itinerary with separate post, as noted above, on our day trip to Washington DC.
Travelling from Chicago to NYC✈️
Boxing Day was all but taken up with getting ourselves to New York. We took the train back to Chicago O'Hare and boarded the two-hour Delta flight to NYC into LaGuardia Airport. The above map shows the piece of the United States that flew over to get to New York. Once landed, we took an airport bus to Grand Central station then a train to Jersey City. LaGuardia and Grand Central Station are marked on the below map. I've marked Grove Street on the map as it is the closest train station to the loft that we stayed at in Jersey City. More below on why we chose to stay there.
We had no trouble finding our way to the loft, but it was a bit of a business. We also felt a bit flat arriving in NYC as it was cold and grey and we'd come from beautiful snowy Chicago. We'd loved Chicago so much that I was wondering whether NYC would live up to my expectations in the same way.
Jersey City loft🪴
I'll start this post on our NYC wanderings with an explanation of where we stayed. Why did we choose to stay in Jersey City, when Manhattan is where most people would say it's at? It's totally on brand for us to stay in less popular places, for one. The loft we booked was relatively inexpensive compared with Manhattan accommodation, and we had a kitchen to prepare meals. As the above map shows, Jersey City is not far from Lower Manhattan even if separated by the Hudson River.
Here's the loft. Cute, right? WE can be seen at the bottom of the stairs in the third photo. They are standing near the entrance to the building; the loft was at the top of the stairs. The loft had two bedrooms, one of which can be seen through the door in the second photo. The bathroom is through the door in the first photo. The fourth photo shows the glimpses of Manhattan we could see from the front bedroom.
We loved staying at the loft as it is an easy and inexpensive 15-minute train trip on the PATH [Port Authority Trans-Hudson] into Manhattan from that part of Jersey City. The Grove Street PATH Station is only a 10-minute walk from the loft. There is a supermarket close by and a shopping mall within walking distance. We found the loft to be clean, warm, and cosy. Sure, it would be easy to step straight out of a Manhattan hotel to explore NYC, but we loved our little loft as a sanctuary each evening from our day's wanderings.
Day 1: The Financial District💰
The PATH took us to Lower Manhattan on our first day, giving us the opportunity to experience the spectacular new World Trade Center station in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The original 1961 station was demolished as part of the 1971 World Trade Center construction and later closed after the September 11 attacks.
The fancy new station was opened in March 2016, only nine months before we were there. The main station house, the Oculus, cost USD$4 billion to build, and was designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. The Oculus has white ribs that interlock high above the ground. It's extremely WHITE, as my photos show.
We started our NYC wanderings with a visit to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center to remember the victims and those involved in rescue and recovery operations. The memorial began construction in 2006 and was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, in 2011. The memorial's design was selected from over 5000 entries in an open competition by a 13-member jury in 2003-2004. The museum was opened in 2014.
The memorial is named Reflecting absence. Michael Arad and Peter Walker's winning design consists of a field of trees surrounding two recessed pools with waterfalls, to represent the footprints of the Twin Towers and the loss of life and physical void that resulted from the attacks. The swamp white oak trees in my photos below are arranged in rows and the park is at street level, above the memorial museum. The names of the victims of the attacks are inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls. The names of remembrance include those who died at the the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon and on American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93, and the victims of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings.
The museum is a cavernous space that spans the footprint of the Twin Towers. It sits some 6.5 metres below ground, containing over 40 000 images and 14 000 artifacts from the September 11 attacks. The main pavilion is deconstructivist in design, representing a partially collapsed building. The main hall contains the Last Column [bottom left-hand photo], the last piece of steel to leave Ground Zero in May 2002. The 58-tonne steel beam stands 11 metres high and was once one of the 47 columns that supported the South Tower's inner core. It is inscribed with messages from families of the victims and from first responders and recovery personnel.
Three key artifacts are shown in my photo collage below. The Survivors' Stair is shown in the bottom right hand photo. It was the first artifact to be moved into the museum in 2008. The staircase is made of granite and concrete and is the final visible remaining original structure above ground level at the World Trade Center site. The steel columns in the top left hand photos are original steel tridents from the Twin Towers. The bottom middle shot is of a portion of the original slurry wall, known as The Bathtub, from the foundations of the World Trade Center. The wall survived the attack and helped prevent the site from flooding.
I found the memorial and museum to be moving tributes. The design of both spaces is thoughtful and the faithful exhibitions of relevant artifacts create both a sombre and informative museum experience. They are both quite low-key spaces for such a pivotal moment in America's modern history. I liked that about them, but I am always moved by narrative museums.
Travel tip 🌏
We pre-purchased our tickets online months before we visited the memorial. I strongly recommend pre-purchasing tickets. We still had to wait around an hour to get in, even with tickets.
We had lunch at a diner near the memorial then set off to explore the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. We found The Sphere in Battery Park. The waterfront park is known as The Battery. The Sphere is a cast bronze sculpture by German artist, Fritz Koenig, commissioned for the original World Trade Center in 1971. It is the only surviving sculpture from the attacks, although it was somewhat damaged. The year after our visit, The Sphere was relocated to Liberty Park, adjacent to the 9/11 memorial.
The tip of Manhattan is known as the Financial District, and, as expected, is home to Wall Street. Financial bits aside, the District is a lovely part of NYC, I think. The below collage is one of my favourite NYC collections. The tree-lined buildings are simply stunning. I loved the vibe in the Financial District, which seems at odds with my anti-capitalist stance!
One famous building that we wandered past on Day 1 is the Woolworth Building. It is a neo-Gothic skyscraper built in 1913 and the world's tallest building until 1929, standing 241 metres high. The building has a 30-storey base and a 30-story tower on top. I've included the magnificent building in our Day 1 wanderings around the Financial District as the building is located at 233 Broadway, but it's actually in the Tribeca neighbourhood. These days, the top thirty floors are residential dwellings and the bottom thirty are used as office and commercial spaces. The building was given National Historic Landmark status in 1966.
It was bitterly cold at Battery Park, as I expect the geography of the land forms a funnel for the wind to whip through. Ferries leave for Ellis and Liberty Islands from Battery Park and there's a nice side perspective of the Statue of Liberty from there.
Being in the Financial District, we had to walk down Wall Street! This was our first experience on the trip of a famous NYC street and it was kind of cool just to say to one another "we're on Wall Street!" My photo collage below has two shots of the New York Stock Exchange, a massive building that occupies most of the city block bounded by four different streets. The bit seen in my photos is actually on Broad Street, the main façade of the southern section of the building, designed in classic revival style and completed in 1903. The façade has impressive colonnades and fluted columns. The photo at the top right hand side of the collage is the northern annex at 11 Wall Street. It's a chamfered corner with a rectangular doorway with Doric columns each side.
I only have one shot [top left hand photo above] of the Charging bull, the bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in the Financial District. The 3200kg, 3.5 metre tall and 5 metre wide sculpture is well...a bull..., supposedly the symbol of financial optimism and prosperity. It was created by Italian artist, Arturo Di Modica, in the aftermath of the 1987 stock market crash. The bull is very clearly a major tourist attraction, my photo showing how crowded it can be. We had no chance of getting anywhere near the sculpture.
That's W and me looking at a map in the above collage. Did you notice the church in the background? That's Trinity Church, located at Broadway and Wall Street. Here's a better shot of the church dwarfed by the surrounding buildings. I love the perspective on the church from Wall Street where we are standing.
Gothic revival-style Trinity Church is an active Episcopal church completed in 1846. It's the third church constructed for the parish, the first of which was built in 1698 and later destroyed by the Great New York City Fire of 1776. The current church was once the tallest building in the United States. The church seems completely out of place in the Financial District but I love the contrast of it with the modern skyscrapers.
Another notable building in the Financial District in the One World Trade Center, also knowns as the One WTC Freedom Tower. It's the tallest building in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world, reaching 541 metres. [The tallest is the Burj Kahlifa in Dubai, at 828 metres.] One World Trade Center stands on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center, which I think was the smallest building in the World Trade Center complex. The original building was demolished in the aftermath of the 911 attacks due to damage sustained when the North Tower collapsed.
Interestingly, construction of the One World Trade Center took several years, starting in 2006. The building became the tallest structure in NYC in 2012 when it took that crown from the Empire State Building. The spire in my photos was added in 2013, giving it the final 541 metre height. The building opening in 2014 and the Observatory the following year. I love the photos on the left hand side of my collage above of the building next to St Paul's Chapel and the view of it from The Battery.
The last place we checked out on our Financial District wanderings was Pier 15 East River Esplanade. It was cool and windy, but the sun was shining and the beautiful blue sky was a spectacular backdrop for the Pier and the views of Brooklyn and the East River. It's an easy 1km walk from Battery Park along the East River Greenway to the pier. The open space is lovely - two floors of observation decks, boardwalks, and plenty of seating.
The best bit about Pier 15 is the view of the Brooklyn Bridge! Yes, it was windy and freezing cold, but we were so glad we'd discovered the Pier and had our first sighting of the famous bridge.
Here's a map showing where we spent our first day in NYC. I've marked where we stayed in Jersey City on the map with the red pin.
Day 2: The Upper East and West Sides🌳
Our second day in NYC saw us head to northern Manhattan and the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighbourhoods to Central Park. We came in on the PATH to 23rd Street which gave us the chance to walk the 3km to the Park. Along the way we walked through Times Square which is not really...a square. I remember slowing WE down and pointing out that we were at the Square. E said, "but where's the Square?"
It's not a square like in Europe and the United Kingdom. Times Square is an intersection, formed by the junction of Broadway, 7th Avenue, and 42nd Street. I've seen it described as a bowtie-shaped plaza, but it's hard to discern it as such when walking there. The billboards are clearly visible, but other than that, there's not much to see. It's kind of underwhelming, I think.
There is nothing underwhelming, however, about Central Park. I love big green spaces in large cities as there's something magical about them and their contrast against the concrete and buildings. Surprisingly, Central Park is only the sixth largest park in New York at 341 hectares, but it's the most visited park in the United States, and one of the most filmed locations. The park's first areas were opened to the public in 1858. Even on a cold, bleak day, Central Park is lovely. And i know it's just a park, but it felt surreal to be walking around it. It's such an iconic place.
We walked around for ages, but I know we only saw a fraction of the park that is split into three sections: North End, Mid Park, and South End. There's a lot of green space, but the park is rockier than I was expecting. Apparently there are four types of bedrock in the Manhattan area and there are many examples of exposed rock in the park.
These are some of my favourite photos. I loved the December experience of the park, despite the lack of snow, as the winter trees and foliage made for a pretty wandering. And yes, we had a giant, chewy, salty NY pretzel!
I bought these beautiful black and white prints of three NYC icons from a street stall in Central Park. I'm so pleased I found the frames in the below photos when I got home to house the prints. They are perfect!
After our Central Park experience we walked south, stopping to have a proper look at Grand Central station. Besides being a functioning rail terminal, the station is one of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions. I'm not sure how the visitor numbers are counted - excluding train and subway passengers - but I read somewhere that the annual visitors exceed 21 million people.
Grand Central covers 19 hectares and has 44 platforms. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, opening in 1913. We found it to be as busy as expected and beautifully decorated for the festive season. I know it's just a train station, but I am rather partial to them. Standing on the main concourse added to my excitement of seeing so many iconic places "for real" while we were in NYC.
I recall we went to the Rockefeller Center for lunch and saw the famous Christmas tree and ice skating rink, but I don't seem to have taken any photos. Not sure why! The only memento from our visit that I have besides the black and white print is this bag. I can't recall now where I got it from, but it was either the Rockefeller Center or a shop at the subway station we came in on that morning. It's so weird that I didn't buy any NYC kitschy souvenirs!
Our last iconic sight for the day was the Flatiron Building, a 22-storey 87 metres tall steel-framed triangular building that sits on a triangular block formed by 5th Avenue, Broadway, and 22nd Street. The Flatiron was opened in 1902 and took its name from its shape, as in a cast-iron clothes iron. The building is designed as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling. Cool, yeh?
Here's a collection of some notable buildings that we spotted on our wanderings. Some of them I had to look up to write this post, mind you. I've labelled the collection. Highlights include the New York Public Library and Federal Hall, and New York City Hall, built between 1803 and 1812 and the oldest city hall in the country that still houses its original governmental functions. The Standard Oil Building is also known as Number 26, Broadway, and was built as the headquarters of the oil company owned by the infamous John D Rockefeller.
I love the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, shown in the top left shot below. The super cool skyscraper is 210 metres tall and is one part of the overall building, built in Italian Renaissance Revival style. M&Ms World is also in the below collection. We popped into the store near Times Square, but it's not as good as the London one. I've been to the stores in London, Orlando, and Las Vegas now!
I know we walked a lot! Looking at Google maps, it's around 7km from the Financial District at the 9/11 museum to the bottom of Central Park. The city is huge but quite walkable, especially if you want to take in the vibe and check out the beautiful architecture and iconic sights. That said, we also did take the subway a few times over the course of our time in the city.
Here's a collection of some of the famous streets that we walked down during our wanderings. I know they are just streets, but it's kind of cool to be on famous ones.
This map gives some perspective on our Day 2 wanderings. Outside of the Financial District, the chunk of Manhattan that I have circled on the map is where most of the famous sights are located.
Day 3: Day trip to Washington DC 🚅
Our third full day in NYC was actually spent in Washington DC. My post on our day trip is here.
Day 4: Hoboken, baby! 🎂
We explored Jersey City and Hoboken on Day 4. I know that New Jersey, and particularly Jersey City, gets a bit of a bum rap and is seen as the poor cousin to New York, but we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty it is there. Here are some shots that we took from our wanderings around where we were staying.
We took the train to Hoboken, a 17-minute journey on the train from Grove Street. Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey and part of the New York metropolitan area. The city is known as the birthplace and hometown of Frank Sinatra. It sits on the Hudson Waterfront, directly across the Hudson River from the West Village.
OK, so full disclosure: We went to Hoboken for Carlo's Bake Shop. We'd been huge fans of Cake boss and couldn't resist the opportunity to visit the bakery from the TV show. Carlo's Bake Shop was founded in 1910 and later purchased by the Valastro family who made the cake decorating reality television show from 2009-2020.
Our happy faces outside the shop show that we thought it was kind of fun to be there after having watched the show for many years. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a formed queue to buy bakery goods inside the shop and we couldn't see what was in the bakery cases through all the people. In the end we gave up and found a bakery around the corner! The chocolate chip cookie in the below photo that we bought was absolutely decadent and delicious.
Hoboken itself is rather nice near the waterfront. There's a massive boardwalk along the Hudson River that stretches over 5km from Hoboken to Weehawken. There are plenty of cafes, places to stop and sit and enjoy the views, and wide open green spaces. I highly recommend a visit when in NYC. Sure, there's loads to see and do in New York, but don't forget about New Jersey! The vibe is more relaxed, too, and we enjoyed the break from the crowds in New York.
The views from Hoboken across the Hudson River and the NYC skyline are stunning. There are several places along the boardwalk where there are fab views. The below ones were taken from Pier C Park. My favourite shot is the top left hand one below, showing the NYC buildings through the winter trees.
Here's a map to give a little perspective on New Jersey. The state is much bigger than this map shows, but the bit that sits directly across the Hudson River from NYC is on the map. Our loft is marked by the red map pin. Liberty State Park is where we took the ferry from to the Statue of Liberty the next day. Newark is where we flew home from and Elizabeth, not marked on the map but sort of near Newark, is where we took a bus to in the afternoon of Day 4 to a giant shopping mall.
Day 5: New Years Eve🗽🎆
Our fifth day in NYC was New Years Eve. We started the day with a trip to Ellis Island and Liberty Islands. It is possible to take the ferry to both islands from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan or from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. We opted for the latter, given we were staying there.
Our tickets were for the first service of the day. We got up super early but it sure was worth it. We were treated to a stunning early morning walk from the loft to the ferry terminal at Liberty State Park. The first-thing winter light was just magic.
While we waited for the ferry we visited the New Jersey September 11 memorial, Empty sky. The memorial honours the 749 people who lived or had ties to New Jersey who lost their lives during the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. Empty sky has the 749 names placed randomly on twin brushed steel walls that are 64 metres long, the width of each side of the World Trade Center Towers. The walls sit parallel to each other and rise to 10 metres, with a 4-metre paved path of bluestone in between.
The most striking part of the memorial is the view between the two walls, that allows visitors to look straight towards Ground Zero and the "empty sky" where the Twin Towers once stood. Like the 911 memorial in Lower Manhattan, the design was chosen from an open international competition, this time by the Families and Survivors Memorial Committee. The memorial was dedicated on the 10-year anniversary of the attacks.
We'd purchased tickets for the Statue of Liberty that gave us access to the National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island, access to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty interior. Our first stop was Ellis Island, a symbol of the American Dream as it served as the main US immigration station from 1892 to 1954, processing over 12 millions immigrants through that period.
The museum on Ellis Island is super interesting, very much set out in the narrative style that I love, providing insight into the stories of the thousands of people who made their way to Ellis Island in search of a better life. The museum is housed in the restored main building of the former immigration complex and is an immersive experience, including the Great Hall [bottom left hand shot below] where new arrivals gathered to be processed, the baggage room, and dormitories. Learning about the immigration process and the journeys of the many immigrants who came to America was food for my soul as a history nerd.
The below photos of the museum also give an idea of the proximity of Ellis Island to Liberty Island and the nice perspective on the Statue of Liberty from there. It was another cold, bleak day for our visit and I didn't get the chance to take a good exterior shot of the museum.
Liberty Island, is of course famous as the home of the Statue of Liberty. The island is owned by the US government and covers almost 6 hectares of land. The island is actually within the waters of Jersey City and there is a long history of disputes over ownership. The island and its famous statue were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. A museum opened on the island in 2019m9, three years after our visit, housing the statue's original torch that was carried by Lady Liberty from 1886 to 1984.
And here's Lady Liberty in all her glory, standing as a symbol of freedom and independence on the NYC skyline since 1886. The origin story is well known, about the copper-clad neoclassical sculpture was a gift to the United States from France. The statue was designed by French sculptor, Frederic August Bartholdi, with its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel.
We had to pinch ourselves that we were actually there! It was such an iconic experience to see the statue inspired by the Roman goddess of liberty up close, despite the freezing cold day. I hope my photos give a true sense of the scale of the structure, rising to 93 metres from the ground to the torch. We spent a lot of time just wandering around, taking in the magnificence of the statue from various perspectives.
As the bottom right photo shows, there are 215 steps up to the pedestal and 162 to the crown. We did both! If you can manage it physically, I'd highly recommend purchasing the crown and pedestal ticket as it's a thrilling experience to climb such an iconic structure. That said, this is how the National Park Service describes the climb:
The climb is strenuous. The National Park Service recommends that crown visitors have no significant physical or mental conditions which would impair their ability to complete the climb, such as (but not limited to):
Heart conditions
Respiratory conditions
Mobility impairment
Claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces)
Acrophobia (fear of heights)
Vertigo (dizziness)
OK, so having been inside the statue, I get it and the information from the National Parks Service bears considerations. However, I did it! I'm actually rather proud of myself as I was only six months out from major brain surgery at that time. The surgery left me with poor balance and full and permanent hearing loss in my right ear.
Step 1: Make it to the pedestal. That's 215 steps! Here's a snapshot of the perspective from the pedestal.
Step 2: Make it to the crown. That's another 162 steps...
Our Statue of Liberty trip was taken on the day of New Years Eve. I'd gone to great pains to try to find a fun thing to do on New Year's Eve, even though NYE isn't usually our thing at all. We were in NYC, though, so I had to try for the ball drop experience. Now, if you're prepared to stand around in Times Square in the cold for hours on end with no facilities to save a good spot, go for it. Instead, I paid a HUGE amount for three tickets for Chevy's Times Square experience. This is the only time that I have booked something on an international trip that has left me bitterly disappointed.
Here's my review: We battled the crowds to push our way into the restaurant only to realise that, despite the promotional material, there's no way we'd be able to see the ball drop from Chevy's restaurant. The website says that the restaurant is located "just feet away" from the Times Square ball drop, but that makes no difference. Standing outside with a bazillion other people is the only way to see it.
Travel tip 🌏
As noted above, the only way to see the ball drop is to stand around in Times Square all day in the freezing weather to mark your spot. It's so crowded around where the ball drops that I felt completely overwhelmed. There was rubbish everywhere we we made our way past the crowds to return to the loft. My advice is not to bother unless you have a burning desire to see the ball drop.
It was early evening when we got there and we quickly ran out of patience as, unless you are with a big, rowdy group and drink and eat constantly, there's nothing to do at Chevy's. The food was ordinary and the lines were long for it. We got into the spirit for a couple of hours, then gave up and went back to the loft. I later discovered that there were free fireworks in Liberty State Park in New Jersey. We should have just gone there!
Day 6: The Empire State building, The High Line and Washington Square Park🏢🌳
New Year's Eve was a bust, but we made up for it on New Year's Day. We'd booked tickets for the Empire State Building, deciding on one "views of NYC" activity from the many buildings from which to choose to experience the city sprawl from up high.
Here's a reminder of what the Empire State Building looks like. It's a 102-story art deco skyscraper in the Midtown South district. The building was completed in 1931, rising to a roof height of 380 metres but to a total of 445 metres with the antenna.
I recommend pre-purchasing tickets. Even though we did that, it was still a long wait. That said, I thought the system for pushing people through was super efficient. The art deco lobby is rather nice, too, and we had the added bonus of the Christmas decorations to look at while we lined up.
There is no doubt that the views are spectacular from the two observation decks. There are several buildings with observation platforms for views of the city, but the Empire State Building is a good choice! Here's a snapshot of our views on a beautiful winter's day.
I know we were there on a busy New Year's Day, but it was VERY crowded. We had to jostle for a view and find some breathing space to take it all in. It was still an incredible experience, though, and I'm so grateful for the sunny day.
After lunch we headed for the High Line, a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on the West Side of Manhattan. The freight rail line was in operation from 1934 to 1980. The cool thing is that the space was saved from demolition by residents in the area in 2009. The High Line is an eclectic mix of green spaces, open boardwalks, semi-enclosed passages, and spurs that connect streets and buildings.
The views from the High Line are fabulous. There's almost 2.5 km of walking paths giving walkers a range of views of the city and the Hudson River. The Statue of Liberty can be seen from High Line albeit in the distance [top left shot below]. The High Line is one of those cool, lesser known things to do, and we loved it. Best of all, it's free!
Our final wandering on New Year's Day was to Washington Square Park, about a 20 minute walk south of the High Line. The 4-hectare park sits in posh Greenwich Village, dominated by the Washington Square Arch at the northern gateway to the park. New York University sits at the head of the park. Check out our pretty photos from our late afternoon visit.
We wandered through the lovely West Village on our way back to Jersey City. The below shots are just what I was expecting NYC to look like.
This map shows the three places we experienced on Day 6. The Empire State Buildings in in Midtown South, the High Line in Hudson Yards, and Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.
Day 7: The Brooklyn Bridge🌉
Sadly, our run of cold but mostly-sunny and rain-free weather came to an end for the last two days of our visit. Day 7 was taken up by our wanderings over Brooklyn Bridge. It was wet, bleak and freezing, but we were determined to make the trek over the iconic structure.
The Bridge connects Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn Heights. It's distinctive stone arches support five lanes of vehicular traffic. This website told me that as of 2022, over 107 000 vehicles, 32 000 pedestrians, and 4000 cyclists cross the bridge each day. Some other bridge facts: the total length including approaches comes to 1830 metres and the main span is 486 metres. The bridge was completed in 1883 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
We had our iconic moment despite the rubbish weather. We were planning to wander around Brooklyn - so I could go brownstone spotting - but the weather worsened when we got to the other side, so we ended up heading back to the loft for a rest. I'm still a little disappointed I didn't get to see any Brooklyn brownstones. That said, our NYC experience was filled with incredible moments!
Day 8: Yankee Stadium⚾
The weather was still terrible on our final full day in NYC. We were all pretty knackered by then as it had been a huge trip. E and I mustered up the strength to follow W on a Yankee Stadium tour. Baseball was his thing, but we both went along for the ride. Our son was playing baseball at the time so it was kind of cool to do the stadium tour, despite the inclement weather.
It's a bit of a trek to the Bronx to the stadium and it's not located in a very nice part of the city, which surprised me, for some reason. Even if you're not into baseball, it's still an interesting tour and being somewhere so famous is a tiny bit thrilling, I'll have to admit.
Here is a map of our final NYC wanderings. Yankee Stadium is not on the map as such, as it's 5km north of Central Park, in the South Bronx.
Day 9: The long journey back to Australia✈️
Day 9 was a huge day of travel to get back to Brisbane. First up, we caught a very crowded bus to Newark International Airport from the loft for our 2.45pm flight with Delta to Minneapolis St Paul. The flight is three hours. We arrived at 4.50pm local time and departed for Los Angeles at 5.45pm. And yes, it was freezing in Minneapolis!
The next part of our journey was a 4-hour flight to Los Angeles, arriving at 7.55pm local time. We had a few hours to stretch our legs before departing at 11.05pm for the 14-hour flight to Brisbane. So, we left the loft in the morning of January 4 and arrived at 7.10am local time on January 6. What a massive journey!
Although my love affair with Chicago remains strong and I will never forget our winter snow experience of the city, we did have a pretty awesome time in NYC. It didn't snow and it was bitterly cold, but it was a nice bonus to be in the city during the festive season.
New York City has so much to offer and I know we only scratched the surface, even with the iconic experiences we managed to fit into our time there. Those iconic experiences will stay with me and I am so lucky I had the chance to experience them. That said, I feel like NYC is just that, a series of iconic experiences that are to be crossed off a list. I've crossed a lot of that list but I don't feel connected to the city. I'm not sure I can put my finger on why. I'm sure it's a hugely unpopular opinion not to love NYC. There's something about it that makes me feel like I am "supposed to" love it, without thinking about whether I really do.
What I will say, though, is how pretty the city is in places, with the lamps and trees set against elegant architecture. The homes and the green spaces around Central Park really are beautiful. This is the part of NYC that does connect with me. I love the vibe of the Financial District part of the city.
Our 2016 winter adventure had special meaning for me after I was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour in May of that year. The tumour was successfully removed the following month but the surgery left me completely and permanently deaf in my right ear and traumatised by the experience. The trip was my gift to myself and a celebration of life. I was beyond grateful to have been able to experience it. Chicago will always have my heart, especially for our incredible snow experience and our first ever white Christmas.
Of our NYC experience, what I remember the most is the unexpected beauty of Jersey City, the awesome loft we stayed in, and our daily trips on the PATH into Manhattan. I'll also remember the bitter cold, felt so much more keenly than snowy Chicago. The "pinch me" moments were too numerous to name, but the highlights were Central Park, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. And the beautiful buildings, trees and lamps in the Financial District.
Check out my posts on our Chicago and Washington DC winter wanderings. There's also an LA prelude post that documents our day-long stopover in the city on the way to Chicago from Australia.
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