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.