I'm on the top of the World

Trying to use a song title for a blog post can be a bit of a challenge, but this post's title just suggested itself as appropriate as we spent an hour or so on the top of the tallest building in the Western hemisphere looking down on all that goes on in New York below.

One World Observatory

After leaving the Memorial pools as described in the last post we went across to One World Trade Centre to find that it, like one of its predecessors, has an observatory on the top. After the reflective mood of the pools it seemed being caught up in what had most impressed me about the old buildings would be a great expereince.

A tip for anyone coming to New York, book this trip online in advance. Their was a line (note the absence of the French word queue in US English) for tickets and then when you get to the booth you are told a time when you can return. In our case, buying the tickets just before 10 meant we had a 12.45 entry pass, and were told to be back by 12.30 to get in line for entry.

As it happened this worked out fine for us, we walked from One World Trade Centre towards the Hudson down Vesay Street past Four World Trade Centre to the river at the Irish Hunger Memorial, we spent some time here four years ago - you can see my comments and pictures from the blog post of 2011. We walked further down the river to North Cove and found a sitting area outside Brookfield Place, a mall, where you can go inside to buy coffee and bring it outside to drink. I went to a deli called Le District Drew was amused that the company had followed the pattern of many American places and put their date of establihsment on their logo - in this case the origin is 2015!! - See the photo of the cup as Drew wanted to share the evidence!

After the coffee we walked further down the Hudson to the New York Police Memorial, then walked up Liberty Street and in to Battery Park City. We stopped at a small supermarket and enjoyed wondering about looking at the wide range of food stuffs. This area, like much of New York, must have a large Hispanic community given the range of food available. After an hour of wondering about the shop we thought we ought to buy something. So we bought some Tide capsules (or Pods as they are called here) for the laundry we will be doing during the rest of the holiday. Always handy to have some in the case, rather than try to buy some when we get to a hotel with a washing machine.

We got back to One World Trade Centre, as instructed, at 12.30. We got in line and at 12.45 were let inside. Anyone who has been to the Empire State Building, or anything similar, will know the routine. Each stage of the walk through you are in a queue (line), then another. Though in this case the time didn't feel too long as we were walked through the basement amid the type of rock that forms the basis of the building - as you can see in the example photo.

Then we were into the lift for the speedy journey to the top - 102 floors up in a matter of seconds, with a history of New York playing on the screens in the lift and a count-up of the height. Drew, who is no lover of heights, gave up taking the photos about half way up - that was enough for him.

When we got to the top, there was another film of life in New York today and then a big sell to rent an iPad which had a special app which allowed you to see what was what on the skyline across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey and beyond. Finally we got to the viewing area with some great vistas of the surrounding area. Drew, even with his fear of heights, took a large number of photos.

I'm not sure I can pick a favourite - I think the long view of Manhattan or the view down to the Memorial Museum and the Northern Memorial Pool are probably my favourites. But why not go to Flickr and pick your own.

The High Line

Having spent an hour or so at the top of the World Trade Centre we began to travel to our next destination for today - the High Line. We caught the E train from World Trade Centre subway station to 14th Street at 8th and came up to ground level. 

We headed towards the High Line and saw a coffee shop called Think Coffee on 8th avenue. Over to Drew: 
<< co-pilots note: upon entering this location, I was immediately struck by my dweew-sense that something was not quite top-drawer. What could it be? I inwardly wondered to myself. Could it be the two staff, who looked suspiciously like the frog brothers from the film 'lost boys', or perhaps the combination of industrial design with wood panelling, not quite pulling off a steam punk vibe. Hmmmmmm.

Upon sitting down, and leaving Mr B to do his hunter/gathering (go get 'em tiger. Grrrrr). I sat. Pondered. Observed. And then pondered some more. I looked around the room. And then pondered some more. There were around 20 others in the store. 19 using some form of electronic device. All of which were Apple products. It was like something from village of the damned.  It then become apparent that most, if not all of them were also batting for our team. It was almost as if we'd entered a spatial wormhole and been transported 3,500 miles to the south west. (Editor's note - he means San Francisco)

Dear readers may also, during the course of this blog learn about the special friend that Mr B made when leaving :-) >>

While I think Drew has captured the nature of the place, the friend he mentions was caused by him. I had asked one of the 'frog brothers' where the mug and plates were to be put - told where and turned to direct Drew to place his in the location I had just put mine. Of course someone else had got between Drew and I and was very grateful for my directions to the washer basket. I did explain it was Drew I was gesturing too not him, but he did seem very grateful. 

Anyway apart from that direction we had two very nice, very large mugs of freshly made coffee and I had a roll with prosciutto and swiss cheese while Drew had a sandwich of Farmhouse Turkey. We took photos of the food, but not the venue, Drew was too scared.

In between the excessively camp gayness the people beside us, I'm afraid we were so close I could not help but overhear, was a drug rehab worker and a 20 year old who had just started the process of "getting off the big H". Something of interest for everyone here!

Having left the coffee shop we walked down Ganservoort Street and came to our target - the High Line. In planning the holiday we had discussed what we would do in New York and Drew had read a review of the High Line on Trip Advisor saying how quiet and peaceful the High Line was. As it is a new feature of New York we decided to include it, just as much as we had decided to visit the 911 Memorial which, as I mentioned in my last post, was also new for us.

Well I'm not sure when the reviewer for Trip Advisor was here ah, I see 2013. Well by 2015, at least in August he is just WRONG. The High Line was as busy as Times Square had been on Saturday evening. We were having to squeeze between people moving both ways and also avoiding a large number of Buddhist monks who were offering little prayer cards then, if you took one, trying to get you to sign up and donate to their new temple! I've never been intimidated by a Buddhist before, talk about watch out from your wallet. 

Actually the High Line is fabulous. I would agree with this Time Out review, but on a hot Sunday afternoon it was hectic. The 2 miles walk was hot and slow, though the views provided a very different view of New York and the flowers and art were well worth seeing, so I'm glad I didn't miss out. The photos can be seen here. We spent two hours walking that seemingly short distance and for the last mile the sun beat down quite uncomfortably, unlike the early shaded parts, by the time we got to Hells Kitchen we were glad of the shade. 

I realised I don't walk enough at home as by this time every part of my leg was aching. Of course we didn't take a clever option and get public transport back to the hotel. No we walked all the way up 34th Street from the bottom to Park Avenue. We got back to the hotel and were glad for the rest. Having left at 8.15 this morning it was now 5.15 - a nine hour day and most of it on our feet!! 

We often do made walks on our holidays, but seldom on the first full day. I type this on Monday and musles I didn't know I had are still aching in my legs :-)