New York for the Weekend

We just spent a great weekend in New York City. Well, everything was great except how it ended. We needed to rush out much earlier than planned since it was announced that all public transit will shut down late afternoon Sunday due to Hurricane Sandy.

Anyway, here’s a few exciting (and interesting) things you should put on your list when visiting NYC; well not all of this…

Windows 8 GA @ Times Square

Just when we arrived later Friday evening, Microsoft did a big roadshow pretty much all over Time Square due to their GA of Windows 8. Tons of booths. And you were convinced why you should have a surface. Of course.

One thing I really recommend is visiting the Empire State Building at night. It’s open until 2am and there is no line and no crowd if you go up late. This was my second time up and I find it very impressive to listen to the sound of the city below even at the late hour. I could stay up there for several hours. There is not much to going all the way up to the 102nd floor other than crossing it from your bucket list. There is no difference in the view and you probably hurt your head in the tiny room.

North East View Empire State Bldg

Visiting the Wall Street Bull (which is actually located on Broadway) is touristy thing you shouldn’t miss. I couldn’t find it the first time and ran out of time so I was happy doing it this time.

Sort of around the corner is the 9/11 Memorial which I highly recommend visiting. Admission is for free but you need to make your reservation at least a day prior to your planned visit. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about that but randomly found out you could tours with the 9/11 Tribute Center which happened to have two leftover tickets for the next upcoming tour. We didn’t know how lucky we were at this point. The tours are led by people who have a personal connection to the 9/11 attacks. Firemen, people working in the towers or living across the street. You very much will be moved having that whole additional dimension added while walking that ground.

The remainder of the day we spent with walking up the rest of Broadway up to Time Square. Only do that with a really comfortable pair of shoes. But it’s rewarding. You only really embrace a city by walking it.

Always a good place for breakfast, lunch or dinner is Ellens Stardust Diner located on Broadway at 51st. Enjoy your food while listen to Broadway youngsters. Be prepared to throw some bucks in their bucket to honor their performance. Food is delicious.

MoMA Sculpture Garden

Sunday was pretty lazy except a visit at the Museum of Modern Arts. Probably worth seeing but we both agreed that we’ve done more exciting things. If you want you can easily spend an entire day there.

As I said, we needed to rush out much earlier than scheduled. There was a substantial chaos at the Port Authority and the Greyhound folks were quite challenged with handling the crowd. All bus lines pretty much ran all buses available as soon as they got filled until the last seat regardless the schedule. Anyway, we got out.

Check out the updated New York photo stream.

The Charles River

So I’m in Boston for almost three weeks now! I started to work right away, pretty much in the first night I got here. And then, there is a lot of bureaucratic stuff to deal with. But that’s another story.

Spectators at the DeWolfe Boathouse
Spectators at the DeWolfe Boathouse

Today I finally was able to cut out some quiet hours. I grabbed my well used camera and started an easy city stroll. From my yet poorly furnished apartment I walked over to the Charles River, over the BU Bridge and through the Boston University campus. Dozens of people were heading the same direction to be a spectator of the yearly Head of the Charles Regatta. I watched a few rowboats and then continued to walk eastwards along the esplanade. The trees are featuring bright fall colors, well known across all New England as the Indian Summer.

Boston Public Garden
Boston Public Garden

The ultimate target was my every-Sunday-late-afternoon Starbucks at Winter Street. Yes, that’s right, there is such a thing already! After a few moments at the DCR’s Hatch Memorial Shell and the Public Garden the sun was setting and the warm fall day started to end. It became chilli almost instantly. Time to zip up your jacket. And for Starbucks. Here are the photos.

The Six-Hour Sunset

I traveled to Boston with an Airbus A330-300, departing at a quarter past six in Frankfurt, Germany. With a scheduled arrival at Logan international airport at approximately 8pm, we flew almost along the day/night border falling little behind with a ground speed of roughly 820km/h (540mph) having a sunset vibe throughout the entire flight. Heading northwest first, I could enjoy the full moon sitting on the eastern horizon; for about the first three hours. For the last hours of the flight, now in southern direction, it was exactly the same case with the red sun, that seemed to deny the ending of the very October 2, 2012.

FRA-BOS