TravelDiary
written by Noah Knülle
about my New York-Trip
from 2nd till 7th October 2017
with my mum, my brother and friends
Day 1 :
We started our journey from FrankfurtAirport to New York JFK at 11am on Monday. After an 8-hour-flight we arrived at JFK at 1pm local time. It took 3 hours to get through the identity check. After picking up our luggage we took a bus to our hotel in midtown Manhattan.
Then we walked past St. Patrick´s Cathetral to a restaurant at Time Square.
Times Square is one of the most visited tourist attractions with over 50 million visitors annually. 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily.
On our way back to the hotel we passed the RockefellerCenter and RadioCityMusic Hall (theater).
Day 2 :
After breakfast we bought a New York-Explorer Pass for 5 attractions and a Metro-Card for the subway. We started a hop-on/hop-off bustour through downtown Manhattan. We left the bus at Financial-District and had a typical hot dog.
Then we took the Staten-Island-Ferry and had a great view at Manhattan-Skyline, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
In the evening we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called “Ninja“.
That was very funny. Then we took the subway back to the hotel. You can get a sub every 2 minutes, all day and night. But the stations are dirty and full of people. Many homeless lie on the floor because it´s very warm down there.
Day 3:
On our third day we went to Ground Zero. We took a look at the 9/11-Memorial : 2 big water basins where the Twin-Towers stood before the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001. They´relike footprints of the old towers. The names of the victims of the attacks (including those from the Pentagon and the two airline flights 77 and 93) are inscribed on the parapets surrounding the waterfalls.
We also visited the 9/11 Museum and the One World TradeCenter.
The tower is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center Complex. It´s the sixth-tallest building in the world (Height 546m) and it costs over US$ 3,9 billion.
Then we walked along the famous 5th avenue and saw lots of famous buildings and many old buildings and chapels between skyscrapers.
Flatiron Building
Day 4 :
On this day, my friend Collin and I visited the New York ComicCon. Many cosplayers were there. It was very funny.
In the evening we went to the Empire State Building. It has a roof height of 381m. It was the tallest building in the world from 1931 to 1970.It´s an American cultural icon and many movies, like King Kong, are filmed here.
We had a great view over Manhattan at night.
The CryslerBuilding
Day 5 :
On day five we went to the RockefellerPlaza and RockefellerCenter.
It is also famous for its annual Christmas tree lighting.
30 Rockefeller Plaza is an AmericanArt Decoskyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center. The observation deck atop the skyscraper is called "Top of the Rock".
Lunch atop a skyscraper is a famous photograph taken during construction of the 30 Rockefeller Plaza
After that we walked to Macy´sHerald Square, which is one of the largest department stores in the world. The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet (ca. 102,000 m²) of retail space. The value of Macy´s Herald Square has been estimated at around $3 billion.
After walking through Korea-Town we went to Time Square again. At nighttime all the lit-up advertisements made it as bright as daylight.
Day 6 :
On our last day we took a break at Central-Park.Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan. It´s the most visited urban park in the United States, with over 40 million visitors yearly.The park was established in 1857 on 3.41 km².
With new energy we visitedGrand Central Terminal.
Grand Central Terminal is the greatest railway station of the world with 67 tracks and 44 platforms. The station was founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1850. He was the richest American. He owned 5 % of the American assets. In 1870 it was $100 million. That would equal $2 trillion today.(100 times richer than Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump together)
In 1871 Vanderbilt built Grand Central Depot and in 1900 it expanded to Grand Central Station. Because so many steam locomoties threatened the chaos. The company was committed to switch to electric drive. All tracks were relocated under ground and the station was rebuilt as a terminal and re-opened in 1913 as a cathedral-like majestic building. Vanderbilts were so rich that they spent enormous amounts of money on details. Atop the terminal there´s a clock with the world´s largest Tiffany-glas (4m diameter).
The Main Concours is the center of Grand Central. The ceiling is painted with the starry sky and it´s larger than 8000 m2 (but they painted it mirrored ). A little spot shows how dirty the ceiling was before its cleaning in 1990. That was all about the cigarette smoke.
At 4pm we left Manhattan towards JFK and went back home.
The journey was a great experience.
Noah Knülle