I flew down to New York for the day this past Monday (March 7th, 2011) for the day for an all day meeting. The day started at 3am as I dragged myself out of bed, headed over to the bus stop and realized on the way there that the temperature was around -10 Celsius. It may not have fully woken me up, but it certainly made an impression. Cold! Caught the night bus that I found that goes straight from my house to the airport, so that was handy. Got off at the wrong terminal, but I had given myself enough time to make my way over to the correct terminal, make it though customs and board the plane for the short flight to LaGuardia airport. Arrived just after 8am and took the shuttle into Manhattan! Lucky for me it was a gloriously sunny day and everything looked great. I met up with my bosses at the Waltdorf=Astoria hotel for some not-inexpensive breakfast and found out that I would be staying the night! This was good and bad news, as I had not packed a change of clothes, but I did have enough sense to pack a toothbrush and a change of underwear.
After a great all day meeting with the United States Olympic Committee (thanks guys!) I finally had a bit of free time to go and check out some of the landmarks. I wandered over to 30 Rock to check out the skating rink, and the building itself.
Pretty cool building, lots of Art Deco style highlights and art pieces. I would come back here the next day for a trip up to the observation deck.
Times Square was amazing, such a showcase of marketing, advertising and pure commercialism. Still pretty cool to walk around and see just how bonkers the whole thing is. New York certainly does know how to make a show of things. One of the things the really stuck out to me was the US Military Recruiting centre right in the middle of the whole thing, I guess it’s a good place to use people’s patriotism of what the USA can create to put them to work defending it.
Walking by Bryant Park I was treated to a view of the Empire State building though the trees and I was quite happy with how this picture turned out. I find that New York begs to be shot in Black and White as it really makes the contrasts stand out.
Grand Central Station was really impressive, I knew it was big and famous, but I didn’t realize just how beautiful it is.
I woke up the next morning (again to brilliant sunshine) and had a couple hours to sightsee before the rest of my meetings and the flight home. I went back over towards 30 Rock and saw this great Cathedral with reflected sunlight on it.
I went to 30 Rock and bought a pass to go up to the top of the building to the NBC Observation Deck, after being quickly whisked up 67 floors (the elevator had a plexi-glass roof) I was treated to some amazing views of the New York skyline.
The Empire State building is also an incredible sight, it towers above anything around it and is a very imposing sight on the skyline.
This is my favourite picture from the trip, the Empire State Building is on the right. It was a quick trip, with lots of work, but I’m looking forward to coming back sometime and exploring a lot more.
Awesome photos…. I’m going to New York in November for a visit – totally pumped! Looks & sounds like you had an awesome spontaneous adventure – lucky you!