The weather on Tuesday morning was beautiful, finally the Sun was out, the sky was blue, but unluckily the temperature also climbed upwards quickly. By the time we arrived to Brooklyn where our day started, it was already too hot to stay in direct sunlight, so we tried to go from shade to shade. After a quick breakfast sandwich for Clio (which was quite nice) and a burrito for me (which was way too hot and heavy, so I barely touched it at the end…), we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Walking down on Washington Street towards to waterfront you first get to see the metal structure of the Manhattan Bridge, which is already very impressive, and I get Clio’s point, who claims it is even the prettier of the two bridges.

From here we followed the walkway along the East River, until we got the perfect view of Brooklyn Bridge. Here we (I) spent some time taking pictures, then we crossed under the bridge and walked back up to the start of the pedestrian path which runs along the upper level of the bridge.

The view on Downtown Manhattan is great from here, and the suspension structure along with the stone arches of the bridge are truly spectacular, but we were very happy to finally arrive at the other end and sit down on a bench in the shade (and have a nice Belgian waffle with strawberries) of the City Hall Park. From here we walked down on Fulton Street to the South Street Seaport.

Since I did not have much breakfast I had a huge banana split here (it was 3 huge bowls of ice cream and two bananas, plus some crazy amount of whipped cream and various dense sauces) after we had a quick walk inside the building and the souvenir shops of Pier 17. Then we continued down to and then back up Wall Street.

We passed by the highly secured Stock Exchange, then arrived to Trinity Church. This is a really nice and pretty church surrounded by a small and quiet, green park/cemetery.

After a short rest, we turned southwards on Broadway, bought me a new pair of flashy fluo yellow Nikes, and walked down to the ferry towards Staten Island. We took the ferry just for the view, and it was worth it (especially given the fact that the ferry is a free service). On the way towards Staten Island we had a great spot sitting on the rear deck overlooking the skyline of Downtown Manhattan.

We made two observations from here: first, the enormous height of the new WTC tower is only clear from the distance (since from the street level, every skyscraper looks the same), second, the Statue of Liberty is way smaller than we imagined. It is kind of tiny :D After taking the first ferry back to Manhattan, we took the subway to the north to visit the High Line Park.

It is one of my favourite sights of New York, a preserved and transformed elevated railway track. Narrow but long, it crosses many blocks as it is heading northwards across Chelsea.

With its modern, green design, with each ingredient nicely put in place, it is a perfect place to stroll along, sit down here and there, and watch the city.

After walking through the park, we walked all the way up to the Rockefeller Center and went up to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck after less than 15 minutes of waiting in line. The view was very nice from the top, although the air could have been a bit more clear, but there is nothing we could have done about that.

As sunset was just upon us, and – as usual – we were already dead tired, we headed back to Jersey, and after a nice dinner (pasta and pizza) just outside the PATH station overlooking the main square, we went home and Zzzzz…