US East Coast Travelogue 3 - New York, Iconic and beautiful city!!

US East Coast Travelogue 3 - New York, Iconic and beautiful city!!

In Continuation of Travelogue 2...

We started our day with Empire state building, going up on 86^th floor to watch over the NY City, after airport like check up and long queue.. clear sky and Manhattan on plate for breakfast, believe me you won't have seen such a view before. You can see whole Manhattan from up there, standing tall among them is newly constructed $2B One World Trade Center. 'Amazing' would be the perfect word to describe it!! There was 104th floor view as well but we didn't take that because of time constraints.

Then we passed by Wall Street and New York Stock Exchange building, taking a stop near bull statue on Wall Street to get the feel of wealthiest street in the world. If you have seen these bulls next to stock exchanges, then you would know those are raging bulls… indicating the confidence in stock market and eventually in the economy of country.. but here.. all Chinese and Indian tourists had circled him, giving no chance to poke in. All were taking photos next to whichever part they could stand, some tourists were taking photos with bull's face, some with his tail, which was going high in sky. Kids were below the belly and parents was happily taking their photos. Complete mockery of bull was on display, poor animal. Not sure how these people would explain their friends, that its the NYSE bull in their photos, imagine you see yourself and just the tail of bull or only belly and kids... lol!  if this was real bull, dare anyone even go near him. So if there was any chance to see that bull in one piece, then it was when tourists go back to their buses and your bus passes by it. I thought may be that's where Mr Trump would have got the feeling that Chinese and Indians are stealing American jobs, there is big Trump Tower near NYSE.

Going through narrow lanes, bus passed by most famous landmarks One World Trade Center, 9/11 memorial, Chrysler building, Trinity Church and many others. But there was striking similarity among these places - Heavy Security!! Which would remind you the horror visuals of Twin Tower tragedy. Hope someday humanity wins over terror.

After breakfast, we reached our destination for see ‘Statue of Liberty’. It was a ferry ride, to take us around the statue and bring back, unfortunately we didn't get the chance of visiting statue from inside. Well, whatever we get. We were excited to see the most iconic figure in the world. In excitement, people forgot that they were not standing in queue, and as most of them were Chinese and Indians, you hardly expect anyone to follow the rules and least of all the queue. But then ferry operator lady, literally shouted to go back and get in queue or no one would get the chance to board the ferry, people had to fall in line. If not wrong there were around 150 passengers, everyone wanted to seat on upper deck and get the pole positions for best view of Manhattan and Lady Liberty.

I looked at the seating arrangement to realize, all elderly were in middle of ferry, newly married on the corners and bachelors were looking for any opportunity they could grab. One of the family with bachelorette nearby me, started asking about the family, job, everything of a bachelor nearby.. mothers will always be mothers!!

Ferry started, on the display was most beautiful panoramic view I had ever seen, Empire building on one side and One World Trade Center on other, funny thing was that whatever buildings were in middle, had chosen either of them as a leader.. both groups were fighting for prestige of NY, one held high the heritage, history, other the finance and fighting spirit of NY. All you have ever seen as NY's skyline on TV and Movies was on display here.

Moving through Hudson river, started the blur visuals of Liberty statue and someone shouted 'look The Statue' and all public that was busy at looking and taking selfies of themselves next to WTC tower ran towards the other side of ferry, for a moment scaring me if it would capsize the vessel. As we went nearer, the statue got clearer.. making everyone on board realize why it’s so iconic and powerful. It was brown in color when gifted by France, but as it was made up of copper, copper oxidized with time and became green.

Its taller stature was overlooking all of Manhattan, assuring confidence and strong support to the City. Lady Liberty has been there for nearly 130 years, accepting millions of migrants every year, giving them assurance that America is the land of the free and immigrants are welcome here, at the same time she stands firm for the rights of everyone, striking fears in the heart of her enemies with burning torch of fire in one hand. Her face and eyes show the resolve to stand against any kind of injustice, handing over a book of values to everyone for carrying with them while entering these shores. The black marks drilling down from green statue represents the turbulent times the country has faced.

I looked into the eyes of statue, its surrounding, to feel that moment of being at the most iconic place in the world to cherish it for rest of my life.

 

We visited other places like aircraft carriers, history museums with artifacts from greats like Picasso, central park but none matched the aura of Statue of Liberty. We visited the Times Square during the day as well and it was as good as night. I would recommend you to visit aircraft carriers to see how brave soldiers spend their daily lives to protect the country. 'Freedom is not free' and someone pays the price of it everyday, this realization is very important for us in today's world.

After a long day..we headed back to the hotel for stay and our next journey to Washington!!

I must say, I visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas but none matched the energy and beauty of New York.

P.S. - This is part 3 of travelogue of US East Coast tour, there are 2 more I am planning to post. Please visit next post. Thanks.