As has become my habit, I stopped by the Diner early in the morning, refreshed myself, and set out to fulfill my next new day’s quest.
St. Paul’s Chapel
The contrast is very striking, especially for Manhattan – you are walking down a busy street, everything is rumbling and noisy, people and cars are everywhere, a police siren is wailing somewhere in the distance, and suddenly everything seems to get quieter as soon as you enter the chapel. I’m not religious or superstitious – most likely it just seems that way, and my brain adjusts the visual quiet picture to the appropriate noise level, and besides, the chapel itself is located between two other buildings, which also partially block the omnipresent noise of the big city, but still, anyway, very interesting sensations.
Amazingly this chapel, although it is near the One World Trade Center and where the infamous twin towers were, was virtually unscathed that day, only covered in dust.
What I noticed long ago, and what makes me a bit confused, «just a little», is that there is no care for the grave stones except cleaning around them – the grass will be cut, everything will be clean and noble, but the slabs will be on their own, as if someone else should take care of them, or in general they should somehow take care of themselves.
Harlem
Then, near the chapel, I hopped on the A line, even though I was supposed to take the C line to get to the American Museum of Natural History. Although both lines run in the same direction, the A stops much less frequently, and I «skipped» the right station (81 st.), plus all the trains were stopped because of some incident, so I had to walk back after a while from the 125 st. station. That’s how I ended up in Harlem.
Since I had unwittingly gotten into Harlem, I decided to walk around it a bit in the direction of the museum. I walked through the Morningside Park on my way.
I would have stayed a little longer, but in moments like these, I always reminded myself that I didn’t have much time overall. For my first visit, it was better to see the most famous spots, leaving other locations for next time. So, after walking through the park, I headed straight to another one – the biggest and most known of them all.
I must say that a lot has changed since the times when Harlem was mentioned only in a negative context, and to me the neighborhood looks very solid and dignified. To tell you the truth, I was only there during the day, and a couple of locals recommended me not to be there closer to dark anyway.
I can’t claim anything about what goes on there at night, however during the day, walking down a couple streets and into Morningside Park, it seemed like a nice place to me.
The Central Park
Since I still hadn’t really walked in Central Park, but only on occasion, and since the opportunity presented itself, I decided not to miss the chance.
Once again, the weather that day was gorgeous – just right for a walk. It was as if the weather was tailored to me to give me the best experience of the New York city and its sights, despite the fact that November is usually supposed to be quite chilly there. In my case, I was walking around in a T-shirt that day.
Of all the seasons in Germany, I like fall the best, especially after a scorching summer that only gets worse every year. In the fall, for a very short period of time, a wonderful comfortable temperature is established for me, when it is neither hot nor cold, but just feels normal.
And the weather during these days in New York was about as I described, so I just enjoyed these days and especially being in the park, because nature during such periods has its own special ineffable charm.
In autumn, I love the palette of colors that nature takes on around me, and the variety of different types of trees growing side by side only enhances this picture.
I’d also like to note that a morning walk in the Park is especially wonderful because there are fewer people around at that time 😅
After strolling in the Park for about two hours, it was time to head to the museum. Drawing from the experience of previous days, I decided not to push my «energy reserves» any further and instead save them for the planned museum tour. I’m hoping that next time I can dedicate an entire day to walking in the park. I’ll pick a day with conditions just like today’s and spend the whole day hanging out there.
American Museum of Natural History
The museum is right next to the Central Park, so I didn’t have to walk too far. I’ll only share a few photos from there, since you can probably find every exhibit in a billion variations online, with much better quality.
Again, I want to acknowledge the meticulous approach of the Americans – to place a life-size model of a 94-foot-long blue whale and a 122-foot-long titanosaur skeleton is truly impressive.
And I suspect they really wanted to put a whole life-size sequoia here, but apparently something got in the way and they placed «only» a slice of nearly five meters in diameter. By the way, this sequoia was named after the writer Mark Twain.
Strange and unusual interior design as if they’d just picked one of Midjorney’s generated images on request «futuristic museum». I don’t understand this design – it looks very unnatural, especially for a museum of natural history. Although, upon closer inspection, it started to remind me of a view from inside the enormous skeleton of some dinosaur.
Walk back
As usual I was in the museum for about 4 hours, and I was walking the whole time, so once again I was tired, so I decided to take a break and hang out at the hotel before going to One Vanderbilt.
I like photos with this perspective. The only thing that slightly spoils the frame, which was unintentional and was noticed by me much later, is the cybertruck that got into the frame, but otherwise everything in the frame is perfect – beautiful weather in a great city.
One Vanderbilt
After failing to catch the sunset in the Empire State Building, I decided to take a ticket at One Vanderbilt for the evening with the expectation that I would be able to arrive early, look around the other two floors, and at the end of the day watch the sun disappear over the horizon.
And I didn’t miss coming in advance, because there was already a huge queue at the entrance. As I understand such queues there all the time (and it’s worth it to stand such a queue, actually – see the photos below).
It also gave out… shoe covers (also called overshoes), which you had to wear. At first I didn’t understand what this quirk was, but when I got inside, I realized it was to avoid damaging the mirror flooring.
I love sunsets, but it’s a special treat to watch them from so high up.
At that moment I had at hand a camera of not the best quality, or to be more precise, it was a phone camera, but the sunset captured in the photos was not very different from what I saw in person.
What a striking contrast – admiring the beauty of nature in the morning and contemplating the splendor of a huge metropolis in the evening. And all of this is placed next to each other in a single space.
Next time I visit New York the first thing I’ll do is take a ticket for the same evening time again. Everyone has their quirks, and personally I enjoyed my time at such a time and altitude, even if the biggest drawback was the crowds, so sometimes you couldn’t get close to the windows.
After spending some more time there, I decided that this day had come to a perfect close, and it was time for me to head back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.
