We went to NYC for a KLS birthday trip. We stayed in the same hotel we always do and our room this time was amazing!
It even had a balcony, with a view of the city and Bryant Park:
Since dining-in hasn’t really returned (thanks Covid!) we made use of this balcony many times enjoying a meal with a view:
The city has also added many more tables and chairs everywhere for outdoor dining, which we took advantage of more than once:
So what did we do? Mostly shopping! We bought so much stuff, especially from the Japanese shops. Food, cosmetics, books, toys and souvenirs. I also sent too many postcards!
We walked everywhere visiting all our favorite stores and it was good to see they are mostly in good shape, obviously having navigated the pandemic well enough. There’s a lot of shops that haven’t though, with far more than usual shopfronts for rent. There’s more construction than usual as well, and this is in a city that is always busy with construction:
We also walked The High Line, a converted elevated rail line which is now a public garden. This took us to a brand new NYC attraction, Little Island, an artificial island/garden built on the Hudson waterfront:
Of course we went to Times Square as well:
And took a brief walk to Central Park to admire the newly opened tallest apartment building in the world, which was disappeared into the clouds the morning we saw it:
We filled our 3.5 days and had a lot of fun:
Covid is here to stay and I believe will be affecting our lives for years to come, especially in a country like the USA where a large contingent fails to take it seriously. It was reassuring to take a trip (including rail travel) amidst all the covid restrictions (masks, social distancing, vaccination cards etc) and still have as much fun as similar city trips we have taken in the past.