24th - Looking for phantoms

We left the hotel around 1000 and went south to see the Flatiron building in daylight. To be honest apart from the design it’s an ordinary building; shops in the ground floor and otherwise apartments and/or offices in the rest. If it hadn’t looked like a huge wedge no one would have given it a second look.

The Flatiron building.

Continued and followed the northern half of the High Line and on the way north afterwards we stopped by a diner called Tick Tock to have lunch. I had waffle with eggs and sausages (which had turned into bacon when it arrived). Plenty to eat but realizing they had cheesecake on the menu I didn’t really have a choice. Despite what some parents might want you to believe the world does not end just because you have waffles for lunch.

We returned to the hotel around 1330 as we had tickets for The Phantom of the Opera at 1400 at the Majestic. The theater was located in the same block as the hotel which so it only required a walk of a couple of minutes to get there. Great show and worth the 75 USD per ticket we had to pay. It’s worth mentioning that a normal price for a show is around 150 USD for the cheapest tickets which admittedly was the main reason why I didn’t go to other shows. The Phantom was 2½ hours, and those I considered going were 1-1½ hours so the time/price ratio was not very optimal and price-wise therefore a bit too steep for my taste.

After the show we took the subway (my first subway ride – everything before this was walks which I started being able to feel at this point) just across East River to Brooklyn to get some shots of the Lower Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge. The weather wasn’t too good as the clouds were descending on top of the tallest buildings. We had a short walk to wait until it got dark to try and get some good shots both with the bridge in the foreground and of the skyline when walking across the bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge with Lower Manhattan in the background.

Crossing the bridge.

Back on Manhattan we went through Chinatown where we had dinner and walked home from there. The dinner started with 8 steamed dumplings which they are known for. The meat inside was bigger than normal and there was also soup wrapped inside the dough making the entire thing amazing. The 8 could have been enough for a small dinner but it was followed by crispy shredded beef which was at least just as amazing.

Like Burger Joint this restaurant was found in the Lonely Planet guide so it is fairly well know and there was also a queue here. As opposed to Burger Joint, though, we didn’t have to wait more than 5-10 minutes before they had a table for us. And the wait was absolutely worth it.