Visiting The Big Apple - New York City

March - April 2008

Sunday, March 30, 2008 - Day 1

We spent all day walking around in New York City. At about 9.30 am, we landed at LaGuardia airport in New York City and immediately went to the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. We left our luggage, drank something, and walked to 5th Avenue, just a few blocks from the hotel.

We walked south and passed some famous shops and the lovely St. Patrick’s Cathedral, built between 1858 and 1879. It is strange to see this gothic-style church between all the other tall, modern buildings.

We visited the New York Public Library, which we knew from the movie “The day after tomorrow,” and the Flatiron Building (1902), one of the first buildings built with a steel frame.

The gigantic gap between the skyscrapers at Ground Zero was a sad reminder of the 9/11 tragedy. It is now an enormous construction site with lots of building activity. Our visit to the exhibition “World Trade Center 9/11″ nearby gave a sad but impressive story about the victims, their relatives, and their rescuers.

After seeing the exhibition, we walked the southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park. The Battery is named for the artillery battery the Dutch and British stationed here to protect the harbor.

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Today, tourists can catch the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty here. Musicians were playing for the long line of tourists waiting for the ferry; they started to play the Dutch national anthem for us when they noticed we were Dutch.

The trip on the boat was freezing, so we were glad we arrived at Liberty Island. It is a shame tourists cannot climb the crown anymore after 9/11. Otherwise, we would have walked the 354 steps.

Since we had been wandering around all day, we took a taxi back to our hotel, went out for dinner, and went to bed early after an enjoyable but very long day.

Date

Sunday, March 30, 2021

Distance

About 7 miles

Moving Time

All day

Weather

37 °F,
Moderate Breeze, Sunny