Part 1: Grand Central Station and Top of the Rock

20180202

The Experience

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

This area of town still has mixes of low rise and high rise buildings. 

Out on 7th Avenue, there were plenty of folks on foot seeing the sights.

Times Square is a marketing and branding gold mine.  Large electronic signs were everywhere.

Kathleen stated that she wanted to see the model train exhibit at Grand Central Station, so we headed east.  Along our path we got a view of the Empire State Building south of our position.  The low structure in the photo above is the NY Central Library.

The concrete canyons of Manhattan always provide opportunities for interesting photos.  When sufficiently sunny, the glass windows provide otherworldly reflections of adjacent buildings.

At Grand Central Station we could see the ornate clock over the entrance portal.

From the street we could see the Chrysler Building, one of the best art deco structures in the city.

An elevated roadway bridge built with rivet and plate technology provides auto access to the second level of Grand Central Station.

Adjacent to Grand Central Station is a new building under construction.

We found a place to brace our camera on a wall and got the shot above.  This was a 1.5 second shutter speed which renders fast moving folks as ghostly blurs.

The Information Clock at Grand Central Station.

I had forgotten that the ceiling of Grand Central Station is covered with the signs of the zodiac.

The Annual Train Show at Grand Central Station with many moving model trains.

Her is the MetLife model building next to the model trains at the The Train Show at Grand Central.

We went into the basement area to get a view of the actual station platforms.

Back outside, the sun had started to come out.

The sun provided interesting reflections of near by buildings.
 


The watery sunlight provided an interesting reflection of the Empire State Building.
 


We had a couple of hours to burn before an obligation, so we decided to go to the viewing area on the top of Rockefeller center, AKA "Top of the Rock".  At 48 floors up (850 feet), you get a great 360 degree view.  This view is generally to the north with the Hudson River visible at the left edge of the photo above.

Looking northeast toward Brooklyn and Queens.  Kathleen literally had to hang onto her hat as the wind was strong, gusty and cold.

The mirrored windows on an adjacent building creates interesting reflected patterns.
 


The highest deck does not have windows that would interfere with a good photo.  This photo is looking south toward downtown.
 


The eastern part of lower Manhattan and a portion of Brooklyn are visible in the photo above.
 


Rockefeller Center has an ice skating rink.  This seemed appropriate since it was ice cold.  The gold statue is of Prometheus, giver of fire.
 


Nice bronze statues at Rock Center.



Another nice bronze statue.
 


The flags from various nations adds interesting color to an otherwise drab overcast day.
 


A statue of Hercules on the 5th Avenue side of Rockefeller Center.



From statues in bronze to statues in LEGOs.  We spotted this beauty in the LEGO store in Rock Center.
 


The store was packed and I had to wait for a break in the surging crowds to get an unobstructed photo of these animals.
 


The dragon has giga-bucks worth of LEGO blocks.
 


This is the LEGO Logo made out of LEGO men.  Check out the details.



From Rock Center, we crossed 5th Avenue to visit St. Peter's church.



A nice view of one of the stained glass panels.
 


The opposite end of the building had a huge set of stained glass panels.  Each panel tells a story.
 


The various altars and chapels were in pristine condition.



A rather morose face of Mary.

When we finished at St. Peters we hit the bricks and started making our way back to our hotel.  The first thing that we saw as we came out of St. Peter's was Saks Fifth Avenue, the famous department store.



Nightfall was rapidly approaching and the stainless steel orchard had its lights on.



To get back to our hotel we had to pass Times Square which was lit-up like a Christmas tree.  Times Square takes marketing to a whole new level.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2018, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.