New York 3 - Monday

Another day dawned early. Hotel breakfast and Breakfast TV to start the day. Out for another day of exploring the city.

Today was the 2nd day of the New York City Pass, so we had a deadline to get lots of things done again. This time, we went on the Big Bus Tour again a little later in the day, and headed downtown.

We went past the Flatiron building, and back through Greenwich Village, and to City Hall, where we headed for Ground Zero to pay our respects.

We were sidetracked by Santiago Calatrava's Oculus building, which acts as a subway station and shopping mall, and also a memorial to 9/11 as it is aligned to light up with the sun on that day. It is pictured below and is a truly wonderful building.



The 9/11 museum had large queues by this time, so we postponed that for the time being, and headed for the Whitney Museum and the start of the High Line, which we planned to walk. When we left the subway, the weather had changed and we had the only rain all week - torrential at that. We were soaking wet by the time we got to the Whitney, and dropped off coats. The museum had some good paintings but was quite small - found lots of Edward Hopper for my son.

We were soaking wet, so headed back on the Subway to change at the hotel and shower, then headed back out for more wandering, and to MOMA. This was far bigger and had plenty of Hopper and other classic paintings such as Van Gogh's Starry Night. This was followed by some shopping at Target and Macy's.

We ended the day with the Empire State Building. This wasn't as pleasant an experience as Top of the Rock had been, but the night time views of the city were undeniably amazing.

The weather was very windy, and at the top of the building it was very pronounced and hard to keep cameras steady.

We returned to Macy's to play a tune on the piano that featured in the film 'Big' before heading for the hotel for snacks and relaxing. A long and great day.

Images: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license.