New York- the landmarks, part 1
Anyway, enough complaining 😉 Today, I wanted to share our experience of NYC’s landmarks with you and cover all the bits and pieces of the holiday which I haven’t already mentioned. If you missed my previous NYC posts, click here and here. You can also find my full NYC photo album on Facebook.Â
Our New York Pass gave us “free” admission into all the attractions we wanted to see- so we crammed as much as possible into our days. We commuted to most of these attractions with the subway. It was cheap ($28 for unlimited use over 7 days), and really easy to use. In fact, the whole of NYC is really simple to navigate (even for the directionally challenged like me) because the streets don’t have names, they have numbers. The streets run across and the avenues run down, and the whole of Manhattan is a perfect grid.
If museums are your thing, NYC is the city for you. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the American Museum of Natural History (where Night at the Museum was filmed). After that, we were museum’d out so we didn’t visit MoMa (Museum of Modern Art). The museums are huge and impressive, but your need a lot of time to fully appreciate them. Some stuff was arb, like there’d be a huge canvas painted in blue, with nothing else on it, and that would be an exhibit on its own. I think we did the museums more because you kind of have to when you visit NYC, but they weren’t one of my highlights.
Unfortunately one isn’t allowed to take pics inside, but I did take a photo of the Guggenheim’s interior, just because it is so striking, and the popular Met steps, which Gossip Girl fans will definitely recognize!
We also did a Gossip Girl tour (yes, I am obsessed with the show). Rishav will never admit it, but he has watched every single episode (since Season 1) with me, so he was quite happy to go on the tour. We also got to see quite a bit of Manhattan so it was a productive day. Here are some highlights.
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The Museum of the City of New York- used as Constance school for girls- where Blair and Serena went |
The empire hotel- where Chuck lives. We even got to go inside! |
Speaking of GG- I actually managed to spot them filming! I saw trailers around the Met so asked one of the crew members where they were. He directed me to the street corner, and I saw Blake Lively and Penn Badgely (and their stunt doubles) in the flesh!
They were filming a scene on a Vespa on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. Security was pretty tight and they cleared out the entire street, but I did manage to get a few snaps.
 
These are actually Blake and Penn’s stunt doubles |
The real deal 🙂 |
GG wardrobe trailer |

The set |

Another one of my favourites was the New York Public Library. Most of you will know it from SATC, when Carrie got left at the alter and fled down the stairs. While it sounds like it would be unassuming, the interior is breathtaking. The Main Reading Room is huge- 9 massive chandeliers, and books lining the walls. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pics, but here are some I found off the net.
We also visited Central Park. Did you know it would take 3.5 hours to walk from one end of Central Park to the other? It’s humongous! Once you’re inside it’s really pretty- there are separate trails for cyclists, runners and walkers. We went at lunchtime on a weekday and there were lots of people. I gathered that some were people exercising during their lunch breaks, some were new moms walking their babies, and others were people just chilling on the benches having a break from their day.
That’s all for today… tune in tomorrow for part 2 🙂
Have a great weekend 🙂
x
H
September 10, 2012 @ 10:35 am
All of the old buildings look so beautiful, I could spend all day in a library if it looked like that! Really am enjoying these posts as you make us feel like we were there too by describing the atmosphere not just showing pics.
September 11, 2012 @ 6:34 am
Thanks hun 🙂 The library also offers free Wifi so I think many people do spend all day in there! look out for today’s post- the final one in the nyc series 🙂
January 3, 2013 @ 10:52 pm
I’m reading this blog for the hundredth time. I just cannot get over it, makes me feel like I’ve been there with u guys. Started saving for my NYC trip! Already!
January 4, 2013 @ 6:40 am
Thanks for the feedback, Aubrey- that’s exactly what I was going for when writing these posts. You have to go! It’s one holiday everyone should do 🙂
August 23, 2013 @ 1:58 pm
Shut the front door…Gossip Girl street scenes! This post has made me even more excited!