WOW! What a week! What a City!
The Walker family spent the half-term holiday exploring the metropolis of New York City. Especially for photography!
We did our best to cram as much in to six days as we could and we walked a lot! Covering an average of 12.6KM a day for the six days!
We stayed in Midtown in the Riu Plaza New York Times Square. Which was a fantastic hotel, clean, friendly, helpful staff and an incredble breakfast buffet. We loved having this hotel as our base for the week.
Day 1
It rained, a lot! Which unfortunatly hindered our photography somewhat. We started the day by exploring Times Square. A crazy area full of people, light, colour and noise. We then walked down 8th Avenue, 41 blocks to the Natural History Museum, however because of the rain, everyone had the same idea. The queue was enormous. So instead we explored Central Park which was covered in icey snow. Amazing. We visited Belvedere Castle, the Alice in Wonderland statue and the icon Bethesda Terrace and fountain. By this point we were all soaked through and completely knackered. So we caught a subway back to Midtown for an afternoon nap and to dry off!
Day 2
The weather was beautiful bright sunshine for the rest of the trip, however the temperature plunged! It was freezing! With the windchill it was -15 celcius. Despite the cold conditions we headed Downtown on the Subway to the pay our respects at the 9/11 memorial and museum. Although I watch the tragedy unfold live on TV all those years ago, the experience of seeing the physical debris and hearing personal accounts was profoundly moving and almost unbelievable.
We made our way further downtown, heading for the famous Charging Bull statue, on the way we spotted Trinity Church, one of the oldest buildings in New York City and found Alexander Hamiltons grave, which made Hamilton the musical more real for the kids. We stopped by Libery Bagel’s to try a massive brightly coloured bagel before exploring Battery Park. This seemed like a really nice area of New York, the kids had a ride on the “Sea Glass” carousel and played in the playground whilst Claire and took in the view of downtown and enjoyed the sunshine.
After a short time we headed up Broadway towards City hall and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (which was knackering)but beautiful. The bridge gave some incredible views of Manhatten and Claire has taken some incredible photos which will soon be added to the galleries on our website. You can also see them on Instagram. We had a short wander to the river front in Brooklyn before catching a subway back to Midtown. A fantastic second day!
Day 3
We visited Bryant Park and watching the Ice skaters on the ice rink before exploring the New York Public library. This place is like a museum, you can feel the history as you walk through the doors.
We then made our way down Fifth avenue to the Flat Iron building, which was unfortunalty covered in scaffolding so I was unable to take a photo.
Next up we took a sight seeing boat tour down the Hudson river where I shot the Downtown New York skyline photo at the top of this post. The boat trip took us around the island as far the Williamsburg bridge then back out to the Statue of Liberty and back to Midtown. This was the Circle Line sightseeing cruises and I fully enjoyed it. I loved hearing about the different areas and history of the city. I highly recommend.
That evening we surprised the little Walkers with a trip to see Harry Potter and the Cursed child on Broadway which they all thoroughly enjoyed. The special effects were incredible.
Day 4
We headed straight to the top of the Empire State building, The views were incredible, especially with the bright clear days.
After that we then headed over to Macy’s where the kids bought a whole load of american candy, before walking down to Madison Square Garden and Hudson Yards for a quick bite to eat.
We then took a scenic stroll down the Highline, a disused elevated railway which has been turned into a public park. This serene park winds its way from Hudson Yards to Chelsea. We all enjoyed this immensly, taking in the views of the streets below, the various art works which are on display along the walk and seeing all the posh apartments. It was amazing that an area 10-20 metres above the noise New York streets could seem to peaceful and serene.
We finished the day with a quicky nosey through the Chelsea food market. I wish we had gone here when we were hungry as there looked to be some really fantastic restaurants and places to eat.
Day 5
We skipped breakfast and headed straight out to the Top of the Rock, what an awesome place the Rockefeller Center is! Incredible views from the top and a brilliant experience walking through the different areas. Having skipped breakfast we headed for brunch at Ellens Stardust Diner which was a completely different experience. The majority of the servers are trying to make it on Broadway and whilst they’re learning their craft they work as servers, however in this diner, they also belt out songs and are all very talented people. The little Walkers loved this place!
We then head a few blocks over to St Patricks Cathedral before wandering down Fifth avenue towards Central Park. We made our way through Central Park, towards the Natural History Museum, on the way we literally walked into Amazon filming a new Christmas movie starring Arnold Schwarzanegger, the kids couldn’t belive it! We explored the amazing Natural History museum, which the kids found fascinating, especially the dinosaurs and the real life butterfly exhibit! When we left it had actually started snowing! We then caught a subway to Brooklyn to take in a Brooklyn Nets Basketball game! Which marked the end of our trip.
Next time
We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would love to go back, although perhaps when its a lot warmer in the Spring/Summer. Top of our list of things to do on our next visit would be to explore more of Central Park, it is enormous and theres definetly more to discover. Second on the list would be a lot more street photography!
All our best shots from our trip will be on Instagram and our galleries soon, so be sure to come back and check them out.
Keep seeing the world through the eyes of a lens. Until next time,
Ben