New York 2006

Midtown & Upper Eastside

After breakfast, we’ll head to Manhattan (36th St.) around 10 a.m. and first go to Madison Square Garden. We’ll then walk along 7th Avenue to Times Square. The huge, glowing billboards are pretty cool to look at even during the day, but they’re nothing compared to the nighttime view.

Next, we’ll take the MTA Subway toward the Upper East Side.
Here, right next to Central Park, stand the multi-million-dollar apartment towers. From the outside, they don’t look all that posh or expensive, but inside, they seem all the more decadent. But one can only guess at this, since there are usually doormen standing at the entrances and all you can see is the lobby. These are usually adorned with marble, gold, and chandeliers.

The next stop of the day (around noon) is the Metropolitan Museum of Art (admission $20). Since we don’t have nearly enough time to see everything, we split up and each explore the section that seems most interesting to us. After about 2 hours, we meet up again in the entrance hall.

Unfortunately, it’s raining as we leave the museum, so we decide to visit a museum of a different kind. We hop in a taxi and head to the Museum of Sex It tells the history of pornography, starting with old drawings and writings and leading up to modern films.
It’s all quite interesting and makes you smile in some places.

Around 5 p.m., we head back to New Jersey, since we have a reservation for 8 p.m. at the TAO Restaurant.
So we freshen up quickly and head back to Manhattan.
Once we arrive at the restaurant, we have to wait a bit for our table and have a cocktail in the meantime (about $15). Shortly after, we are shown to our table.
Andreas and Vinzent decide to treat themselves to an exclusive Kobe steak (90 USD each). But the other dishes are nothing to sneeze at either. All in all, we highly recommend TAO, even though our bill came to 550 USD (for 5 people). But hey, you don’t treat yourself to anything else. Overall, it was a lovely way to end the day.

Photo gallery: Colorful New York