New York's downtown reborn

New York's downtown - the Financial District, where till 2001 the World Trade Center stood - has improved considerably since our last visit. A new PATH station (a public transportation hub and shopping mall) was opened, planned by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It is an impressive, unique building: all white, all organic, with "wings" and an oculus in the center of the roof.

Brookfield Place:


Only thing is that it appears a little jammed in between other skyscrapers, especially 3 WTC, which is still under construction (as is 2 WTC). We could watch progress firsthand, since we were staying in the building next to it, the Millenium Hilton, for the last two nights of our NY stay. The hotel had invited us and we even got a corner junior suite on the 28th floor with a splendid view towards the World Trade Center Site with the 9/11 Memorial (see above) in the footsteps of the towers, the 9/11 Museum (pic above), the 1 WTC (with its observation deck, detail on picture above) and Brookfield Place (former World Financial Center) at the banks of the Hudson River (see pics). In the other direction we were able to watch the Staten Island Ferry at the end of Church Street. What a gorgeous view, even from the bed!!!

The hotel...

... and our views (morning/evening/else):


Well, nevertheless, we had to leave our room to explore more things, especially in the downtown area. The Calatrava building contains the Westfield Shopping Mall with many shops (including a huge Apple Store) and connecting tunnels to Brookfield Place and to the Fultton Center, another transportation hub. About eleven subway lines plus PATH train lines (to NJ) are meeting here now. In Brookfield Place the two food courts, American and French, as well as the new Palm Court, festively decorated, are a real improvement (it opened last year already). But, even better is Eataly, NY's second Italian marketplace, now in 4 WTC. From Roman Grom ice cream to Pretzels everything is available in the WTC area. Also, newly opened is the elevated Liberty Park with St. Nicholas Orthodox Church (still under construction) on one end. The church was destroyed on 9/11.

Calatrava's PATH station and Westfield shopping mall:


On Wednesday we had moved from Harlem to downtown by subway, and, though we are missing our friends and the special Harlem atmosphere, we had to admit that it is a very convenient location. Much easier to get around, e.g. to Fort Greene, where we had dinner in LaRina, an Italian place with mainly deliciously creative pasta variations, in Fort Greene/Brooklyn. After dinner, we still went for a drink in the newly opened historic Beekman Hotel in downtown Manhattan. The bar was packed with what appeared to be all "rich and famous New Yorkers" and we got only one bar stool for the four of us and paid almost $ 20 for one cocktail. Didn't get drunk this evening...


Thursday we had breakfast with our friend Susan at Dimes NYC: buckwheat pancakes and a Mexican inspired egg-chickpea-spinach-taco dish. In the late afternoon we met Dom again in DUMBO/Broolyn (now just a couple of stops by subway and not a big deal), at Jacque Torres Chocolate to have a rich hot chocolate to chat some and warm up for our ride to Barclays Center, where we attended an NHL game (NY Islanders: St. Louis Cardinals). It was not a bad game, but no atmosphere at all and only few fans. "Home" late and up early for another walk-around after packing. It has become cold, only 35 deg. F. (2 deg. C) now, but less clouds.

The view in the evening, at sunset, from Brooklyn was gorgeous, a nice welfare! We were picked up on Friday briefly after noon by a shuttle bus of AirLink (this time a shared-ride) and brought to Newark Airport (EWR). The pretty rough drive (as always in NYC!) took about an hour, check-in went quickly (thanks to Silver Medaillon status), but even PreCheck lines were like miles long before the security check. In addition, though with PreCheck usually no undressing is necessary, I had first to remove my sweater, then, my boots, and it took much longer than usually.

The plane was departing on time at 5:30 pm, booked to the last seat, and it was a smooth flight back home to Munich where we arrived shortly after 7 am in the morning at approximately the same weather as in NYC: around 35 deg. F and a some sun. Time flew... ten days in NYC over. Next time in summer, it's more pleasant then and not as packed.

Busy Times

Our last days in NYC were VERY busy. There is always so many new things to check out, neighborhoods to walk to see what has changed, new museums or exhibitions to visit, new restaurants to experience (that's the best part!!!) ... and, in between, it's a lot of train riding, waiting at subway stations and walking. From the southern tip of Manhattan to Harlem it's about a 30-minute train trip, to Brooklyn's Midwood section, where we visited our friends Paula & Gail on Tuesday, it was almost an hour one way. Distances are immense and it always takes a lot of time, even more by bus than by train, to get from A to B. The weather was mixed most of the time, not good for picture taking, but at least it was not raining and not terribly cold.

On Monday we walked from Harlem over the bridge across the Harlem River to the Bronx, or, rather to the Yankee Stadium, which took us less time than to take the subway, not quite half an hour. We met with Olga, our friend from the Bronx Tourism Council in the Courthouse Building to get an update about this borough and then explored downtown, the Grand Concourse and Arthur Street (the Italian neighborhood with an excellent market hall, see pics further below) and had great pizza for lunch. The Bronx is also famous for its many murals:

Back to Manhattan, we noticed how small and touristic in comparison to Arthur Street the Little Italy on Manhattan is (pic). Adjacent Chinatown (one of the shops on the picture) is much larger and more authentic, but also pretty run-down and dirty, whereas the Lower East Side is getting hipper and hipper. Formerly a poor neighborhood of Jews and immigrants, it has become a rather fancy neighborhood now.

In the evening we were invited to a fancy bar in the West Village ("Analogue"), for their third anniversary. Fortunately, our friends Magdalena & Michael introduced us to the "Art of Mixology", because considering the cocktail menu (several pages) we were just overwhelmed. We tried quite a few different cocktails (without eating a whole lot) and I slept on the subway back "home" to Harlem and had a little hang-over the next day. Nevertheless we got up early, as usually, to visit some museums.

The newly opened MetBreuer (pic) - the Metropolitan Museum took over the old Whitney Museum for its contemporary arts program - was showing an interesting exhibition about the afro-american painter Kerry James Marshall, but for the rest, it's barely noticeable, that it's not the Whitney anymore. Same interior, lobby, café, shop - nothing new. The New-York Historical Society museum (pic) was our next stop and they showed a new film and an interesting exhibition about the Battle of Brooklyn during the Revolutionary War. On the way back to Harlem we visited the campus of the prestigious Columbia University and in the late afternoon went on the looong train ride to Brooklyn to visit Paula and Gail for a great dinner and to meet their new dog, Benny.

Crowds everywhere

Smorgasburg is a fancy gourmet market, created a couple of years ago in Brooklyn. While in summer it takes place at different open-air locations, it's consolidated with Brooklyn Flea (a flea market)in winter. It changes locations frequently and this year it takes place in a gorgeous old bank building (pic) on Atlantic Avenue, closeby the sports arena Barclays Center. Whereas the ground floor and the mezzanine is occupied by fleamarket vendors of all kinds, the basement consists of a food hall with multiethnical, excentric food vendors and, also, small producers, selling like syrup, chocolate or German stollen.


The place was packed with people and after an hour and a bite to eat, we left by train for Brighton Beach - the Russian neighborhood of Brooklyn (pic shows main street underneith subway) and continued on the famous boardwalk to Coney Island, the former entertainment district of town, with rides, ferris wheel and roller coasters. Now, in winter, nothing was open, of course, besides famous Nathan's Hotdogs - an institution.

Train trips in NYC are either horrible (when the trains are packed) or - like on this Sunday afternoon - sort of relaxing: Just sitting, resting the legs and watching the scenery pass by (part of the trip was above ground) and the people. We made the mistake, to throw ourselves into the fray with all the Christmas shoppers on 5th Street and in Midtown on a Sunday. Mostly it was a pushing, hustlng and bustling, not much fun. We wanted to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (pic) and Trump Tower. Got in amazingly easily, just had to open the backpack, but were rather disappointed. Not much with the exception of a lot of gold, glitz and glimmer, just one little store of Ivanka Trump and a souvenir stand. Store window decorations on 5th Ave. - in contrast - were fantastic, the picture shows Gucci.

Staten Island and Hockey

Saturday morning we took the free ferry to Staten Island, which runs 24 hours, day and night. The trip takes about 20 minutes and reason for visiting there was mainly to see how far the projected new Ferris Wheel and the outlet shopping mall has grown. Mostly there are foundations to be seen (pic), but not much more yet. Will see, whether it really opens in 2018, but in any case the new outlet mall will be a big draw, being the only one closeby Manhattan.

The view from the ferry - passing Ellis Island (pic above) and the Statue of Liberty - is gorgeous and there is still a lot of port activity with huge cargo ships going on on Staten Island (and New Jersey).

In the afternoon we explored the Union Square Market (regular farmers market plus Christmas market) first, did some exploring in Chelsea and walked on the new Highline Park.

In the evening we attended a college hockey game in Madison Square Garden. Besides the game having been fast and good to watch, the MSG is always an experience! "Home" late.

Red Hook - On the wet side of NYC

It's good to have friends, like Dom, who is a Bensonhurstonian, a knowledgeable Brooklyn tour guide and a long-time friend of us. It took us about 1,5 hours to get from Harlem (far up North on Manhattan), down to the Southern tip of the island and over to Brooklyn by train and then, by bus, down to Red Hook, an up&coming neighborhood of Brooklyn. Formerly a purely industrial zone and the port of Brooklyn, it all got started in 2008, when IKEA opened and introduced regular ferry service from Manhattan. In 2012 hurricane Sandy hit the area badly, when it was just about to prosper, and many of the small enterprises here got either destroyed or had to move. We have seen the neighborhood before the desaster and now, and good thing is: it's back again.

With Dom we walked Van Brunt Street (the main axle) and visited some highly interesting new (and old) businesses. Many of them are situated in old warehouses along the waterfront (great views from there, see pic). For example, we visited a female blacksmith (She-weld, on pic having produced new waste baskets), a glass bending company (Flickinger Glassworks), a wood-working artists' space with a barber shop included (!) (Natalie Shook), a local liquor store (dry dock), and, finally, Red Hook Winery, where we had a great tasting & tour (see pic). Excellent wines made by three different wine makers in three different styles from grapes from the North Fork of Long Island.

Took the bus back to Dumbo (where the Brooklyn Bridge starts) in the late afternoon and walked the Brooklyn Promenade, one of our all-time favs, at sunset, with a view towards the port and the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline and the newly constructed Brooklyn Bridge Park. The lights were just starting to come up when we left Brooklyn underneith the East River by subway.


An interesting day was topped off with a geat dinner at The Green Fig in the fancy Yotel (a boutique hotel) not far away from Times Square. Not only that the food was excellent, the chef, who served it to us in person, was a highly fascinating personality. 25 years young, from Israel, highly creative and adventurous. He served us about six different dishes plus dessert (a pumpkin combo with pumpkin mousse, sorbet and icecream, see pic), including a superb mushroom dish, duck (pic), lamb, fish and scallops. Just fantastic. Boy, we were stuffed at the end, walked back to 42nd Street subway station and struggled to nof all asleep on the subway back "home" to Harlem.