New York: Day 3

America New York Travel 2 Comments

With another day of exploring ahead of us, we headed straight to the Whole Food Market a short walk from our hotel. I opted for the iconic New York ‘Everything Bagel’, which is topped with an array of seeds and most importantly dried onion & garlic flakes. The slightly caramelised onion flakes, which I believe act as mini dehumidifiers, keep the bagel fresh by sucking in excess moisture in the air and gradually rehydrating on the top of the bagel. The everything bagel works perfectly on its own, in my opinion, but some New Yorkers like to cut it in half… and add a filling.

If you can’t find an Everything Bagel in your area, fear not, the spice mix can be easily recreated. If you want to transform a plain bagel into an EB, you could stir the mix into melted butter (then cool) to create  ‘Everything Butter’. Or add Everything Butter to your EB for an everything overload.

The Everything Bagel.
Hatti had an almond croissant, she tells me it was. ‘great’.

..but no Everything Bagel.

My sunglasses served me well on the trip, even after a few rounds of superglue.
We ate our breakfast in a local park: folks were playing chess, meeting with friends and watching us eating our breakfast.
We headed towards this obscure skyscraper. The inspiration, perhaps, came from an haphazard stack of shipping containers.
Greek revival married with brick.
Another quirk of New York is the plumes of steam rising from… beneath.

It was interesting to read about the district steam heating system that feeds many buildings in Manhattan. The steam is usually created as water hits the pipes which carry the 350ºC steam, but sometimes there is a leak, and the chimneys help divert the hot vapour away from passers-by / traffic.

As we reached the West side we visited the memorial site commemorating the victims of the 9/11 attacks. We took a moment to pay our respects; the waterfalls were designed to mute the city noise which makes the site a contemplative sanctuary for visitors.

The 9/11 memorial; the largest man-made waterfall in the US.
One World Trade Center

On route to Whitehall Terminal, to catch the Staten Island Ferry, we stopped in at the Stock Exchange on Wall Street to check up on our shares. Turns out we don’t have any, so we continued onwards.

Turns out OXO cubes don’t cut it here.
We didn’t see the wolf, apparently they only let it out at the weekends.
We passed a heliport, used by a lucky few as a shuttle service between lower Manhattan and JFK.
Our first glimpse; the copper statue of Libertas.
Much like the helicopter tours, the ferry would give us a closer up look at the icon Liberty Statue.

The Staten Island ferry service is free to use, remarkably, and departs every half hour. The terminal was busy but the boat and its many levels diluted the crowds well, it didn’t seem overly crowded on board.

Jersey City in the background. Much of the foreground is reclaimed land… we later found out.
Land reclamation has been prolific in Lower Manhattan since 1650. Whitehall Ferry Terminal in red.
Soon we were passing The Statue of Liberty; stood proud (of the ground by 93 metres).
Ferry froth.
Greenville shipyard faces onto the Hudson River.
Looking back at Manhattan from Staten Island.

On reaching Staten Island, we took the opportunity to explore a little, we walked along esplanades to the East of the ferry terminal. Much of the water front we walked along was in a bad shape, the reinforcement in the concrete piers had suffered from salt water corrosion and were buckling and cracking. It reminded me a competition that was hosted by NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation) to challenge pioneers of emerging technologies to find a solution for the deteriorating infrastructure.

Remnants of old timber piers.
An old ticket booth lay abandoned on the cusp of the crumbling esplanade.
We took a stroll further inland, to find a snack to tide us over until dinner.
The snack; a couple of donuts from the reputable Dunkin’ Donuts.
The shipyard cranes mimicking the Statue of Liberty, now silhouetted, as we crossed back to Manhattan.
We followed the nicely landscaped coastline up to Brookfield Place Mall.
Some older rises getting some well deserved attention.
Jersey City
Brookfield Place Mall, an impressive filigree structure.
Another shot of One World Trade Center, from this perspective it reflected the clouds beautifully.
Now a little closer to the ‘container stack’.
Obligatory New York street cape.
Second from the top, a floor that seemingly harboured more greenery than the local park.
An old AT&T exchange, now rumoured to host NSA hardware.
Now underneath the container stack.
We now raced back towards Lower East Side desperate for some grub.
Vegan burger & thick cut wedges.

 

Suitably fed, we concluded the day by putting our feet up in the hotel to rest up for our last full day in Manhattan tomorrow.

See you then!

James

2 Responses to “New York: Day 3”

  1. I loved that filigree in Brookfield Place Mall. So delicate against the huge brutal sky scrapers surrounding it. ❤️
    You do take very good photographs, both of you. 👍🏼

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