New York, New York!

New York City, yeah! As one of the highlights of our road trip, we decided to spend a whole week in the Big Apple.

So we listened to live piano music at Washington Square Park...

Saw Times Square by day and night...

... and relaxed at Central Park

By the way - we got pretty lucky and found a nice furnished apartment in Manhattan's East Village district for the week. The owner worked for the U.N. and was out of town.

Craigslist is awesome! 

The place even had a deck - real luxury for a place in NY. And we found some great restaurants in the immediate neighborhood. Such as Jebon Sushi and Noodle, which seemed to be open pretty much around the clock.

Or Veselka, a Ukranian place where they probably serve the second-best Pierogi in the world - the best ones of course are made by Sylvia's grandmother in Poland :-). 

Let's see, what else...

One World Trade Center is making progress and will be completed about a year from now. 

The recently opened 9/11 memorial. This is one of the two square pools placed where the twin towers stood.













Oh, and we made sure to spend some time on our new hobby: attending TV show tapings. Comedy Central have their headquarter in NYC and we were lucky to get tickets for The Colbert Report!


Lots of fun, despite the long wait! Warm-up comedian Pete Dominick actually was quick to identify us as the two Germans in the audience and made sure to make plenty of fun of us - "So you guys live on trees with elves in that Black Forest?"

If you wanna see the episode and try finding us in the audience: http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/tue-april-10-2012-richard-hersh

A few more pics:

<-- Sylvia at the New York Stock Exchange, thinking of the good old days...


Rockefeller Center -->

Also, a walk on Brooklyn Bridge...

Sweet wouldn't have been the first thing on my mind when thinking of Brooklyn ...

... and this wasn't the only new thing we learned about New York.

Mental note: start training for July 4th now!

Also, did you know that New York actually has some really nice beaches? Such as here, on Coney Island.

Speaking of beaches: after watching every single episode of ABC's Revenge over the last couple of months (rich unhappy people living in the Hamptons), we had to finish off our visit by looking at some of the expensive houses on Long Island.

Turns out it's not as expensive as you would think: places like this are available for as little as $200,000.

Oh wait - that's the rent. For one month. No kidding (we studied some of the real estate magazines out of curiosity).

Good news for us was that the "season" (i.e. all the rich people arriving) on Long Island is from Memorial Day until Labor day.

Off-season, the place is practically dead and hotel rooms are heavily discounted. Such as ours at the Montauk Yach Club and Resort, which we got for 88% off on Expedia... :) 

If it weren't for the millionaire crowds during summer, Long Island would actually be a wonderful place!











So much from New York. Next stops: Boston and Amherst.

Washington D.C. & Philadelphia

Welcome to this week's US history lesson! OK, just kidding.
We explored Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, learning plenty from the time of the early 13 colonies to the Declaration of Independence and beyond. But we'll spare you except for a few pictures...

Of course no visit in D.C. would be complete without a visit to the White House.

Didn't have the special tour pass, so just looking in from the outside. This is the back lawn where they were preparing for an event the following day...

Sylvia helping to keep things straight...

Fountain in the middle of the Second World War Memorial - next to the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately the Mall was closed for construction, so just the close-up view without the water...

The man himself.
The picture is deceiving - there was about 300 people crowded into the small building in front of the statue. Max just patiently waited until no one else was in the shot. :)

Vietnam Memorial. Pretty emotional when you see families find names and leave flowers for loved ones...

National Archives. Waited about an hour to see the original Declaration of Independence, US Constitution and Bill of Rights. You can barely read them anymore! Too much sun damage.... :(








OK, so here's the weird part. It seems like D.C. has some explaining to do.
Looks like the ripped off some of the art from Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park. So we wanted to set things straight:

Max attempting to bring the Eagle's cousin back.
Sylvia not having quite as much luck, running away from the typewriter-eraser. AAAHHHH!!!!!

Finishing a full day in front of the US Capitol. The sun was bright!

Oh, and for our friends back on the West Coast, in case you feel like complaining about high gas prices, check this out:

$5+ per gallon, I think the locals feel the pain too... (oh, for our friends in Europe: that's 0.98 EUR per liter. Not sure what they're complaining about here... )

On to Philadelphia, the FIRST capital of the US.

Welcome to... China?

Not too worry, this is still Philly. Just happened to walk through Chinatown on our way from the hotel to the historic district.

Chinese pastries and bubble tea for breakfast. Yumm!!!

 

 After this hearty breakfast we were ready for a full day of sight-seeing and walking in the footsteps of the early colonists.

Here is the Liberty Bell (recast in 1753 by Mr. Pass and Mr. Stow).
Formerly placed in the steeple of Independence Hall, we now got to see it in its own building in front of Independence Hall.

For those of you who've seen the movie "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage, it pretty much looks like in the movie...

The original courthouse in Philadelphia, which became the Supreme Court.

Independence Hall.
Unfortunately all the tickets were sold out, so we couldn't go inside. But still cool to walk on the grounds of where so much history took place.

An early version of the declaration of independence - even older than the signed document itself.
You can see a lot of the text marked up for revision when you look closely...

The exact spot in front of Independence Hall. Enough said. :)

The first US Congress. Here the first Senate and the First House of Representatives met. Even George Washington was inaugurated here as president in 1793.

Picture above and to side show the House of Representatives. Some of the furniture is supposedly still originals.

Upstairs, the "Upper" House, also known as the Senate.

PILLOW FIGHT!!!!
Flash mob participates in pillow fight one block away from Independence Hall. Random but very fun to watch - from a distance. Too bad we didn't bring any pillows...

Of course you cannot be in Philadelphia without trying their famous Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches.
We shared one and I think my blocked arteries are just slowly recovering now.

Jim Steak's seemed to be the most popular one, but we decided not to brave the endless line around the block. Instead had a perfectly good sandwich elsewhere.

For my commodity-trading people - Philadelphia Bourse from 1895.

The Betsy Ross House. The lady is credited with making the first American Flag.

We've been told that some other guy actually designed the flag and she just sewed it after his specifications. But she ended up getting the credit for it - rare occasion in those early days that the woman gets all the fame and glory.

Walking along the waterfront in Philly, Sylvia noticed a familiar sight on the opposite river bank... Camden, NJ!

Back in the city, heading past City Hall and the famous LOVE sculpture.

After a full day on our feet, a final stop at the fountain in Logan Circle.

Next up - the Big Apple!