The last time D and I went to New York City was in 2019, and the top of mind activities we did back then were the dinner cruise and cycling using the Citi Bikes along the Hudson River. It was during the cruise where appreciated the Manhattan and Jersey City skylines, and saw the Statue of Liberty up close. Riding the Citi Bike was quite an adventure because we did not have an agenda in mind and just pedaled to where our feet would bring us (and where there were vacant bike slots to return the bikes to). From Lower Manhattan we managed to bring ourselves to Hudson Yards, and the Washington Square Park.
After 2019 we had always wanted to go back to NYC but then travel restrictions happened in 2020. When the restrictions were finally lifted, the plane tickets from the Philippines to NYC skyrocketed and thus we opted to travel to destinations nearer to our country.
I had an upcoming two week vacation leave on the first two weeks of October 2023, and we were cramming on finding a destination to go to as our initial plans of flying to Europe had to be rescheduled to early next year. We were almost decided to go to South Asia, but then a week before my leave, D mentioned it had been some time since we went to the US, and out of curiosity I checked the plane fares for the US. Lo and behold we found a very good deal with All Nippon Airways. The selling point aside from the price drop was an overnight layover in Tokyo. In a heartbeat, we went for it and booked our roundtrip tickets to NYC. The new itinerary became NYC-Philadelphia-Washington DC-NYC.
This would be our third time in NYC, and for this trip we booked hotels in Midtown West. During our first two visits we stayed at the Upper East Side, then at Lower Manhattan. From what we observed, Midtown was always busy, however we thought might as well stay there this time. We would be commuting by bus to Philadelphia and back from DC, and the Midtown hotels we booked were close to the bus stations.
We arrived at JFK on a Saturday afternoon, and we got to the city via the Airtrain to Jamaica Station. Then we hopped on the Long Island Rail Road to Penn Station. We headed to our hotel, The Herald Powered by LuxUrban at W 35th St. We were to stay there for a night and then head to Philadelphia the next day. We were fortunate to be given a room with a view. From our window we could see the Herald Square and Macy’s.
After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we wasted no time to start exploring the area. Our first priority was to locate the MegaBus stop so we know how long it would take us to get there the next day in time for our trip to Philadelphia. It was about 20 minutes’ walk away from our hotel, and we were pleased to find that it was close to The High Line. D and I were excited to revisit the High Line, and what appreciated most was this eye-catching sculpture of a tree.
Afterwards we had light snack at Whole Foods. That’s when jetlag started kicking in full force and I summoned my will to stay awake because we had Sunday mass to attend.
En route to the church, we passed by this striking stainless steel sculpture called Adam and Eve by Charles Ray.
A bit further down the road was the Moynihan Train Hall, and we went in to check out and compare the rates and times of taking the train for Philadelphia. We found that it was more pricey to take the train, hence we stuck to the plan of taking the bus. In Moynihan Train Hall, I admired The Hive, a spectacular sculpture mounted on the ceiling such that it appeared as an inverted cityscape.
We heard mass at the St. Francis of Assisi Church, then went back to the hotel to call it a night.
We thought we would wake up after a long sleep but thanks to jet lag, we got up early at around 5AM. It was a good thing as that meant we could explore the area once again, and it would not be too crowded yet. Off we walked to revisit the Bryant Park, Grand Central Terminal and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. En route to these destinations we took quick photos of famous buildings like the New York Public Library, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center.
That sums up our short stay (Part 1) at NYC. Though we were mostly tired and barely scratched the surface, it was a good start seeing the city’s character once again. We were excited and cannot wait to go back after our quick visits to other cities.
Living Free and Making a Difference 