"Adventure Day" in NYC

Friday was our NYC "Adventure Day". Each year we are in town, we meet at least once with our long-time friend Dom, a professional tour guide, to go on tour. Since we have already explored many of the Brooklyn neighborhoods (he is Brooklynite!), he proposed that we this time take a walk on Broadway in Manhattan. Fine with us! We had a wonderful time and found things - like the FIT Museum, Koreatown, Flower Alley and some interesting stores and restaurants - we would never have found without him!

For the first time we visited the FIT, the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the State University of NY, and internationally recognized. They have a small permanent exhibition and show great changing exhibitions, like the one we have seen: "Dress, Dreams and Desire" (below):

Crossing through Koreatown,on W 28th St., we discovered New York's Flower District, a community of plant wholesalers and retailers. Very fragrant and vibrant!

Checked out the new New Museum in the Bowery (getting an expansion - right building on the photo) and reopening end of the year:

Formerly a bit run-down, now picking up: the Bowery:

In Little Italy we got a chance - thanks to Dom and his Italian heritage - to visit the newly opened Italian American Museum on Mulberry Street. Currently, they have two interesting exhibitions: One about the end of the "Andrea Doria" and the other one (photos) shows 32 life-sized puppets of the Manteo Family. In the early 1900s Agrippino Manteo created a Marionette theater at 109 Mulberry Street where he and his family held nightly performances of the tales of Orlando Furioso.

On we went ,,, view towards a fantastic modern skyscraper by Herzog & de Meuron, conceived as a stack of individual rooms (left) and the 1WTC - the substitute for former World Trade Center Towers:

Wall Street is home to the famous Stock Exchange, the NYSE Building)  in the Financial District of NYC. While we still had the chance to visit the trade floors before Sept. 11, 2001, nowadays no visits are possible anymore.

The National Museum of the American Indian is located in the historic Alexander Hamilton US Custom House at One Bowling Green, on the southern tip of Manhattan. 

Newest thing are the long lines at the bull in front of the building, young people touching the bull for a photo ,,,?

Okay, I am not allowed to tell, where we had dinner. Our friend wants to keep it a secret. It was a historic tavern, with a long wooden bar, frequented by locals. Good food - e.g. burgers - for decent prices, and beers for $ 7! Great NYC atmosphere.