As promised, the sun was shining again today. It was just like that, as if we had only imagined the last two days. We were out early and when we 9/11 reached the museum, for the first time there hadn't been a long queue there. So we took the chance and went down a long staircase to the foundations, on which the two towers of the World Trade Center used to stand. Not only the memorial was impressive, the underground museum also reported movingly on the attacks. The smell of burning was particularly disturbing, which is still in the air. Even after such a long time.

Outside, freshness greeted us again, mild air and sunshine. Today we wanted to take a tour of downtown New York by bus, to get a rough overview. The city is just too big, to explore on foot. According to the travel guide, it's almost 9600 kilometers of road, that you would have to walk. I really like walking, but that's a bit too intense.

The tour started at Time Square and took us past many sights. The view from the upper deck of the bus was really great, but over time it got quite fresh.

So we ended the tour in Chelsea near the High Line. This green, former freight train route runs more than two kilometers through the west of Manhattan and should be well worth seeing. When the weather was nice, you could see from afar, that today it was easier to stand in line than to walk on the High Line.

Schade, but we were fed up with crowds after visiting the museum. Contrary to expectations, we did not find a nice restaurant for lunch in the vicinity. Because the hunger wasn't that bad, we marched towards Madison Square Garden. We got there just in time, to be able to take a look behind the scenes during a guided tour.

This famous venue had a lot of history and a lot of technology to offer. Schade, that we were not allowed to experience a concert or a sporting event here, the atmosphere would definitely have been something special. This will definitely be on the list for our next visit to New York. This time we had decided on a musical on Broadway: School of Rock. The evening ended with a very powerful voice in the truest sense of the word. A brilliant story in a great theater with great actors. Class!

The next day we redeemed the second half of our NY bus ticket. Today it would go to Uptown NY. Again we found ourselves in a long queue, but by now we were a bit used to it :-). Finally it started, once around Central Park past all the luxury apartments, then through Harlem and back again. We only got off at the Metropolitan Museum, because we had received many recommendations for this museum. We wanted to take a quick look at least once. Aus „kurz“ wurden dann ganz schnell zwei Stunden, denn an diesem Ort vergisst man die Zeit. Und trotzdem hatten wir nicht einmal 10 Prozent des Museums gesehen 🙂

Dietmar hatte sich für heute genug Plattfüße gelaufen und machte sich auf den Heimweg zur CESARINA. Mein Bewegungs- und Erkundungsbedürfnis war aber noch nicht gestillt und es war auch noch ganz viel Platz für Fotos auf meiner Speicherkarte frei 🙂 Rockefeller Center, Central Station und die Brooklyn Bridge. Diese drei Sehenswürdigkeiten hatte ich mir für heute noch in den Kopf gesetzt. Als ich denn im Dunkeln am Hafen eintrudelte, waren auch meine Füße für den heutigen Tag platt und müde.

Nach zwei Tagen Bustour waren heute die Wolkenkratzer dran. Empire State Building am Morgen und Rockefeller Center am späten Nachmittag, dazwischen ein bisschen MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) und ein „kleiner“ Spaziergang durch den Central Park (Von Harlem ganz im Norden bis zum Columbus Circle im Süden).

Dann hatten wir wirklich fürs Erste genug gesehen und nahmen ein letztes Mal die Fähre zurück zur „Liberty Landing Marina“, wo unsere CESARINA lag. Morgen würden wir noch den letzten Punkt auf unserer Liste erledigen. Die Freiheitsstatue, die hatten wir bisher noch nicht besucht. Aber morgen, wenn wir weiter nach Süden fahren würden, fahren wir nahe an ihr vorbei 🙂