New York in 15 photos

Last week was better than average... I spent it in New York.

I've wanted to go to New York to see the Christmas lights since the first time I saw Home Alone 2 many moons ago, and it was absolutely everything I dreamed it would be.

We went for six nights and managed to fit in a highly impressive amount. As a result, I thought it would be a good idea to share one photo from each of the sights and attractions we visited. I took 777 photos in total so this was quite a difficult challenge, to put it mildly.

A separate post will follow next week about New York's Christmas decorations, including the spectacular Rockefeller Tree, so don't be alarmed at its omission from this post!

Empire State Building

Top of the Rock

One World Observatory 

9/11 memorial and museum 

Best of NYC Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise 

Central Park 

Times Square 

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Madame Tussauds 

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum 

The High Line 

Grand Central Station 

St Patrick's Cathedral 

Mickey The True Original exhibition 

The Friends apartment building 

My Fitbit informs me that we walked 175,000 steps and 134km in total... this isn't surprising when I look back at all the places we visited and take into account the fact that we walked everywhere and didn't use any public transport! 

Look out for more blog posts about New York over the next few weeks, including the aforementioned Christmassy bonanza next Friday. 

New York #2: Empire State Building

Everyone talks about how amazing the Empire State Building is, and I've seen lots of great photos of it, but I don't think you can appreciate its true grandeur until you experience it at first hand. It's one of the tallest buildings in the world, and the second tallest in New York at 381m high. It's visible for miles and is truly iconic. I kept staring at it whenever we were anywhere near it, just trying to take it all in and marvelling at  what a majestic building it is.

From the bottom!

From the river

We decided to visit the Empire State Building on our second evening as we wanted to see the view from the top when it was dark. It was all very grand inside the building, and going up in the lift to the 86th floor was quite an experience. We definitely didn't regret our decision to go in the dark as the view of the city at night from such a massive height was truly astounding. It was extremely windy at the top though, which might have been a bit disconcerting for people who aren't comfortable with heights! I could have stayed up there for hours looking down at the city and trying to take it all in, if it wasn't so freezing up there. New York really does look magnificent from that kind of height. 

Here are a few photos from the top:

The photos could never do it justice, but they do give a flavour of what kind of view you can expect. Has anyone else been at the top of the Empire State Building? What did you think?