theDIBB - Our Epic 7 Day NYC Trip

We both had a pretty decent sleep and I had set an alarm for 7:15am . Dan was already awake at this point and he nipped to Starbucks which is literally attached to the hotel to get breakfast and a coffee (I had a chocolate croissant and Dan had a bacon cheese sandwich).

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Once showered and dressed we headed to the subway and travelled on the downtown R train to Cortantd Street, this was around 11 stops away and arrives at The Oculus.
The Oculus is the a transportation hub and Westfield shopping mall and whilst it looks small from the outside it covers a vast space connecting the trade centres underground and looks amazing inside and out.

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We had a quick look in the shops and then headed to the 9/11 Memorial fountains. This is the first time I have seen the memorial fountains and it has been completed so beautifully, its hard not to get emotional looking at the footprints of what was such an iconic set of buildings and remembering what happened that day. Whilst its not an attraction per-say its definitely worth a visit.

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We went back into the Oculus to look around some more shops and was politely moved out of the way by the police whilst they dealt with a “situation” the situation being a man who was off his head on something or other.
We then headed to our reservation at the One World Trade Centre Observatory and I had booked priority tickets.
We had no queue to get in the building initially and whilst they’ve got airport style security it was very smooth and quick. We then headed to the lifts which take you to the observatory, these lifts were so fast that my ears popped and the lift is also interactive and shows the growth of NYC over the years with the buildings rising from the ground.
Once at the top 57 seconds later you are taken to a little show which then lifts to show you the skyline behind. The view up there is amazing and on a clear day which it was we could see for many miles.

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One thing which was a pain though was the iPad that came with the priority tickets, it was a great idea initially as it tells you info about what you are seeing on the skyline but its got a heavy security case on it that makes it clumpy and we didn’t use it that much at all as it was more a hindrance.
In the observatory there is a restaurant and cafe and we stopped for a drink, grilled cheese sandwich and a hot dog. All were nice but pretty expensive and around 2 hours later were ready to head back down the super quick lifts to continue exploring.

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We then went to the 9/11 memorial museum which was only a couple of minutes walk away.
We had a city pass but needed to queue for tickets and then queue to get in the building which took around 30 minutes. We then had to go through airport style security again, I was a little peeved when my metal detector went off but no one checked me and I was waved through. I know it was busy and I don’t look much of a threat but I thought they should have checked anyway.
Once in the building its clear that a lot of thought has gone into this museum to keep it both sympathetic yet factual and it was a very somber experience, some of the artefacts are truly disturbing but to tell the story of what happened that day this is needed. It must be said that this museum is cavernous and you’ll need around 3 hours to completely cover the initial exhibits alone.

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Once we completed the 9/11 Museum we went back to The Oculus to head over to get the subway back to the hotel. We arrived back around 5:30pm and rested for a few hours. Dan wasn’t too hungry so we didn’t go to Black Tap as planned and went to the premium Deli across the street. I had an Italian Deli sandwich and Dan had burger and fries. We also shared some NYC Cheesecake and all the food was pretty good.
We went back to the hotel and watch a bit of TV and rested our bodies and feet before another busy day tomorrow.

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