Saturday, April 30, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 6

After recovering from the awesomeness of day 5, I grabed my complimentary paper plate and danish cheese breakfast. So I was prepared to follow the trails of the Pilgrims today. Before that, I visited the port of Hyannis in the freezing morning. Hell, was the wind chilly!
I crossed some of the towns on the Cape till I reached the highway to Provincetown, located at the very end of the peninsula. On the way, I stopped at a National Park hiking spot to walk along the First Spring trail. Here, the first pilgrims made their first explorations (and drunk the first fresh water on North American soil) after their landing in Provincetown with their famous Mayflower.
Provincetown was absolutely amazing. Usually a packed tourist town in the summer time, today almost no tourist crossed my way. The town, famous for its hippy and gay communities, was like in hybernation: closed shops, calmness, relaxed dogs walkers and pure sun. Brilliant to see how a town like this looks off-season!
Next stop was Plymouth, site of the first settlement of the Pilgrims. However, it was a bit disapponting there. Except the old graveyard on top of a hill next to the first church on American soil, there was nothing really special. Maybe I should have visited the Pilgrim Museum...
Final destination for today was Boston. Using my GPS again, it was absolutely no problem to find the hotel, but didn't help me finding cheap parking. I cruised around for about half an hour before I gave up and paid the 30 bucks. It check in at the Sheraton at Prudential Center and enjoy the sunset walking around the MIT campus, Massachusetts Avenue and Prudential Center. As this morning, it was freezing cold again after the sun was down. So I brought me a burger and spend the tiny rest of the day in the hotel, which offered a beautiful view over the Charles River and MIT campus, especially at night!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 5

I spent four awesome days in The City, but now it was time to get out of it. I packed my stuff (suitcase still half empty, didn't hit the outlets stores yet), walked over to Alamo and picked up my Chevy Aveo (small but more than sufficient). With the grateful help of my cell phone navigation I steered the silver bolt up north, avoiding all the toll roads and reaching Connecticut quickly. It was absolutely enjoyable to see the landscape transforming so quickly: First midtown with its skyscapers, taxi-packed avenues and traffic signs, then the Bronx with its apartment complexes and the storage facilities. After a few more minutes there it was: nature. The state of Connecticut gave my a wonderful reception. Highways were empty, the hilly forests gave view to so many little lakes and the sun was gleaming. Perfect...
After about two hours I reached the first stop on my trip to Cape Cod: New Haven. This city on the Atlantic shore is home of Yale University, one of the famous Ivy League members. After finding parking I enjoyed the sun while walking around the campus yard. The university area was rather small which I really liked. Everything looked a bit like a Best Of Oxford & Cambridge (but much younger). Ivy league really comes from a lot of ivy! My walk brought me also to the city center with its civic and religious buildings. As most of the New England churches, a bright white-towered little something marked the center of town. Although New Haven is not much of a deal off-center, I loved what I saw. The obligatory visit of the university book store to buy a uni t-shirt marked the end of my short visit.
I headed out of town a bit inland. Although the Interstate would have been faster, my scenic route showed me some of the beauty of New England. I felt like in a movie, everything looked so calm, harmonic and emm... kitschy. However, it was original. Memorable.
My suitcase got filled a little bit more in the outlet mall of Clinton. Because I was kinda running out of time, I skipped the city of Exeter (is supposed to have a very original habor) to drive to Mystic quickly, which has another cute harbor. Time was still running, and so I decided to change my planned route. Initially I planned to take the southern route to visit Newport, but I temporally skipped that route point (went there on my trip back to NYC anyway) and took the Interstate to Providence, Rhode Island. From there, it wasn't far to Cape Cod anymore. This vacation retreat was my today's final destination. Of course I had no more time to do some extensive explorations. Nevertheless, after checking in the Days Inn in Hyannis, I drove down to the Atlantic shore to catch the last sun beams of the day. I found a wonderful spot with an old lighthouse in between all the mansions along the shoreline. Perfect ending of the day, I thought.
Because Cape Cod Mall was literally next to the hotel, I stopped by to see if the A&F and Hollister stores had something decent to offer. Well, what can I say: when you see the stores of your favorite clothing brands having almost everything on sale, you easily spend 200 dollar in an hour. 200 bucks for more than then pieces! On top of that, the food court offered my the food I was waiting for for a long time: asian-american fusion food. Now it was a really perfect day!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 4

On day four I tripped down to where I stopped last night: Washington Square. From there Greenwich Village and some alternative spirit was just across the street. Later I found my way to Union Square and the famous Strand book shop. Passing the iconic Flat Iron Building I reached the High Line Park, a transformed former elevated railway line. From there you really have beautiful views of the city, the Hudson and Downtown! My urban hiking trip lead me to Midtown in the following. During the night, my tripod helped me to take some further video sequences... Still working on it!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 3

Day three of my trip, unluckily, was on the rainier side. Nevertheless, my city exploring continued, I just took the opportunities to stay inside and dry.
First stop was right across my hotel: St. Patrick's Cathedral. I continued through East Midtown, where I spent some time in the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel and Grand Central Terminal. There I continued shooting some video sequences. So stay tuned for a hopefully nice time lapse/tilt shift video of typical NYC scenes! Right now I'm working on it ;)
Not far away the New York Public Library waited for me to come in. Nice place to be and study!
Later in the evening I met my former boss on Ellis Island for dinner in Chelsea. I was excited seeing her, since it already has been a while. It was an exceptionally pleasant night with great conversations and Italian food ;)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 2

I started the second day of my trip in Downtown, visiting Ground Zero (the first pics show the new Freedom Tower which is almost halfway done) and the Battery Park. At the South Ferry Terminal I ran into a movie set. The people there were actually at work, so I made my 200mm lens ready to see who to catch. Well, it paid out... I could catch Robert de Niro working!
I countinued on Wall Street and the Pier 17 to take some shots of Brooklyn Bridge and shop at A&F (like the rest of people in the shop, who were 50 percent German ;) ). Then I made my way to Chinatown, where I could enjoy delicious fusion thai food for lunch! I spent some more time in SoHo, the East Village and the neighborhood of Washington Square. The latter is just great for people watching: students, alternative people (well, what is actually alternative in such a culturally diverse city...?!), street artists, dating couples and dog walkers.
The highlight of the day was the hockey game New York Rangers versus Florida Panthers. It was my first hockey game in the city, couldn't make it during my time in NYC some years ago... However, the game itself was a bit disappointing. I believe the statistics of only 2min penalty time tells alot! Fortunately I could make friends with some Long Island people next to me. Their state of drunkenness let them talk like a waterfall ;)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

New York, Boston & New England - Day 1

The first day of my fourth trip to the US started early. I needed to be at Dresden International Airport at 7am to catch my flight to Frankfurt. There, a really handsome aircraft waited for me (and the other people): Lufthansa's second Airbus A380 headed to JFK!
I've already seen the big bird during the Berlin Air Show last year, but actually travelling with it is something different. I was pretty excited, even more as I could see that it will be flying half empty... So I had a pleasant 8h flight with the three seats next to me completely empty ;) Sleeping in Business Class though will still be more comfy.
After going through Immigration and Baggage Claim I took the subway to Midtown to get rid of my suitcase. Fortunately, the weather calmed down after some rain showers during the day. I used the evening to explore the sights of Rockefeller Center, Times Square and 5th Avenue. See yourself!

As always: Click on the first pic and use arrow keys to browse through the photos!