Top of the Rock

My plan for yesterday was to go up Rockefeller Tower ie the Top of the Rock, and then head straight to Brooklyn via the walk over the bridge. Things didn’t quite go to plan, but I guess that’s what happens when travelling- things sometimes go wrong. Fortunately not massively wrong in this case, but still…

So, in the morning I headed for Rockefeller Plaza, and up to the observation deck on floor 67. The views are incredible! I did the Empire State Building years ago, but still felt the need to see the view. Top of the Rock claims to have the best view so up I went. The view was amazing. A little hazy off in the distance but still worth it.

It was while I up there that things went slightly wrong as I realised there was some dust in my camera. As I could see it with both lens it was clearly a camera issue, not a lens problem. As I want to take photos with my camera  (all photos currently on this blog were taken on my phone) finding some dust in the camera was not ideal. I had 2 choices – either pretend it wasn’t there, and then regret it when I get home and find half my photos have a line of dust on them, or fix it. I opted for fixing it. Which led me, via enquiries at 2 other shops to a camera repair place in the Garment District. On the positive side of this I saw an area of New York which I may not have seen otherwise, but as it delayed me doing anything else it was somewhat frustrating. The Garment District was very unlike the touristy areas, it felt much more like a working environment, less glitzy, with narrower streets and frequent building works and scaffolding.

I collected the camera at about 1.30pm, and  $40 less well off, and at least 3 hours later than originally planned I finally headed to Brooklyn Bridge for the walk over. This proved to be a hot and noisy way to spend an hour. The sun was shining as New York continues to enjoy an Indian summer- 26 degrees C was not what I wanted when I booked my trip months ago for mid October. Add in the noise and heat from the traffic and it was hot going. But worth it – the views back towards Manhattan are totally worth it. I don’t think anything can quite prepare you for the sight of all the buildings on the waterfront.

I then had a wander around Brooklyn Bridge Park and then up to Brooklyn Heights. The bridge park offers amazing views of Manhattan- naturally I took lots of photos! Brooklyn Heights was lovely. It’s only a small part of Brooklyn, but lovely. I saw a number of brownstone, which I have always thought are beautiful buildings, and so unlike anything we have in the UK. Some of them are even decorated ready for Halloween.

I then realised the positive of my delay getting to Brooklyn – I was able to watch the sunset over the East River and see the lights of Manhattan come on. I probably spent over an hour watching the sunset and watching the lights come on. 

It was an hour well spent. 

After that I headed back to the Top of the Rock. In the morning I had bought “the sun and stars” ticket, which is slightly more expensive but lets you go up twice – once to see the views during the day, and a second time to see the lights. The highlight of the evening visit was definitely The Empire State Building, but otherwise it was almost a letdown. Having seen the lights from Brooklyn, where you can appreciate them as a whole, to be in the middle as you are at Rockefeller isn’t quite the same.