Epic Day In Manhattan..

Wednesday we were determined to get something done, we had had a couple of lazy days but Wednesday promised sunshine so we were to make the most of it..

Wednesday was by far the most touristy day we have had the entire trip. we covered Wall St, Ground Zero which is now deep in the reconstruction phase, we went and had a look at the Flatiron Building, to Grand Central Station and finished the day at the top of the rock, the roof of the Rockefeller Centre right in the heart of NYC.

The nerd in me wanted to go and have a look at Wall st, and also because there is an awesome photo that i love that was taken 50 or 60 years ago on wall street. it was also on the way so why not.

Wall Street.

From Wall Street we walked up towards Ground Zero. they are now rebuilding the new World Trade Centre, which will be a 5 building complex of interlocking buildings, which will surround a massive memorial garden.

this is what it will look like once it is finished..

The entire covers 16 acres, the garden on the new site covers 8 of these and it the centre piece for the new development. the two square pools are set in the original footings of where the buildings stood, and will have the names of every victim inscribed around its edges, it is going to be beautiful. this year it is the 10 year anniversary so there is a bit of talk about the progress that has physically been made as well as emotionally in NYC. i was talking to a local, who lived about 10 blocks form the site in 2001, in her opinion much has changed and a lot of it for the better. New York is a wonderful place and i hope it continues to rise from the ashes and become a better and stronger city for it.

After Ground Zero we grabbed the subway and headed to the Flatiron Building, it is the most photographed building in history, and just all round a cool and intelligent building. where it sits the 2 roads run together to make a triangle corner. so the building conforms to this shape too. the front side of the building is so so skinny!

Flatiron Building

Anyway i think its awesome...

Grand central is about 12 blocks up from the Flatiron, so we figured we would grab the subway, but by the time we found a station we were pretty much there so we just kept walking. Grand Central is a beautiful station.  its huge and so so many people pass through it every day.  there was a couple having wedding photos taken while we were there.

Main Terminal Grand Central

we wanted to go up the empire state building but the line can take up to 2 hours, unless you want to pay an extra $30 on your ticket to go in the express line which brings your wait time down to about 45mins.. so we went to the top of the rock, which is the 70th floor and roof of the Rockefeller Centre. tickets are way way cheaper and it took us about 15 mins to make it to the top.

View of Central Park, looking uptown from Top Of The Rock

it is an unbelievable view of NYC, especially of central park. we spent ages up there, trying to figure out what all the buildings were, and watching the sun go down.

headed home and i went to bed pretty early, had a big few days planned.