Voyage, voyage…

I’ve been away!! My first real visit to the United States, and my first real vacation that has not been to my folks place since quite some time. And what a lovely time I had.

We were in fact invited to a wedding over there, and we took advantage of that and had two great weeks in New York City and Washington, DC (with the stopover in Maryland, for a wonderful party with some old friends).

I was really excited to go and visit all the famous places I know from television (Carrie Bradshaw, here I come. Yes, the house is lovely!), and to get to know much more. Thank God I bought some walking shoes that do most of the work by themselves!

Here goes the picspam:

Skyline of Manhattan, view from the ferry on our way to Ellies Island

I still miss a second tower in the skyline view, but the new tower is fancy. We also went to the Ground Zero memorial, which is really impressive in the sheer size, and a wonderful place of remembrance. (And I mean wonderful as in very appropriate.)

Since the photo was taken on our way to Ellies Island, I have to say that was a major disappointment for me. Somehow I expected more than just an abandoned, yet beautiful restored, empty big hall. The Immigration Museum in Bremerhaven, Germany (where you get to experience the journey from the European end) is much better. Oh, well, it was well worth the ferry ride on a gorgeous summer day and the views of the famous old lady were stunning:

Statue of Liberty

Of course one could (or should) never leave NYC without being to some of the fantastic museums they have there. We spent around 4 hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we just saw a fraction of it. I marveled at all the great classics – Rembrandt, Vermeer and the like, and big American painters like Hopper. Here’ s another one (look at the size alone!)

Washington crossing the Delaware – 1851 by Emanuel G. Leutze

My favourite building by far is the Chrysler building- what a beauty! And how it reflects and shines in the sunlight….sooo cool. Second comes the Flatiron Building, which we visited at dawn in the pouring rain, so the light was very special. We sat down at Madison Square Park, sharing one umbrella and fresh watermelon and watched the sun go down, colouring a beautiful red sky. Sigh.

But I will share this one with you, because I do like its reflections:

United Nations Building

Next post coming up soon: Washington, DC!

Thanks for reading.