Day Fifteen

Last day in New York. I woke to some very sad news, and found out this morning that a friend of mine had lost her husband unexpectedly late last week, so that was a sobering start to the day.  He was a few months younger than me  It feels very strange to be having fun and posting stuff on Facebook etc when someone you care about has had their world fall apart.  But life goes on I guess……… for us at least.

We visited the Empire State building briefly, not to go up it but to oh and ah at the art deco building and decorations, and very lovely it was too.  Then we decided to spend the rest of the day walking the High Line.  This is an old railroad track that was unused for many years and eventually turned into a “community” space.  You can walk the old train line, which is elevated above the city, and they have paved some of it, let weeds grow in other parts and planted natives in other parts.  It is all very pretty and offers unusual views of the city that you wouldn’t otherwise get.  It is obviously becoming very popular as it was quite busy and crowded, especially towards the southernmost end.  It took a somewhere between 2-3 hours to wander along, lots of stops for photos and a very leisurely pace.  Thanks William and Pat for recommending this, it was a great thing to do and we were glad we heard about it.

After that we caught the train back to our motel to begin the pack/reshuffle of stuff in preparation for an early start in the morning.  Had to break out the spare bag, sigh.  We haven’t bought very much, honestly!!  Kits and books are very bulky you know, even in very small quantities!

Lobby of the Empire State

One of the hallways in the Empire State

Start of the Highline track at 34th Street

Example of the height above ground

The walking track lies next to some undeveloped tracks

There's some neatly designed chairs along the way

The track has many break out spaces to go and sit down in.

There's a lot of nice plantings

The track also takes you past many modern and unique buuildings.

There's also a space you can go and sit down in to just watch traffic!

The wheels of the chair.

Some of the chairs are on rails so they can be moved along a track.