Helping New Yorkers Breathe a Little Bit Easier

Set smack in the middle of Manhattan, in the midst of all the concrete and steel where nothing reminds of nature, there is a huge urban park - Central Park. It covers 843 acres and stretches along 51 blocks - if I counted correctly. When we walked from the Guggenheim Museum, which is across from the upper half of Central Park, to our hotel near the Empire State Building it felt like an endless stretch. But when you look at the "rock desert" around you, all those skyscrapers and multi-storied buildings, you understand that you need a huge area to get at least the feel you're in nature.

Except you aren't.

Central Park is a man-made park, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect/landscape designer Calvert Vaux. The construction of the park began in 1857 and it was completed in 1876. The site was originally occupied by free black people and Irish immigrants who had been living there in small villages since 1825. Approximately 1600 residents were evicted under eminent domain.

Central Park features lakes, many playgrounds, meadows and the Ramble, the only part were you find trails that are not paved. The trees in Central Park - more than 18000 - play the most important rule of  helping New Yorkers breathe a little bit easier. In one year, a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, converting it into oxygen. The trees also help to keep the city cool in the summer heat, working as natural air conditioners.

You can probably spend an entire day in Central Park, at least when the temperatures are a bit milder than on this December day. It was a sunny and brilliant day, but very cold. However, the bare trees and the partly frozen lake had its own charm.

Central Park is great for biking and jogging or just strolling along the lakes and through the Ramble. You can also take a ride in a horse carriage, but I would highly discourage that - firstly, it's hideously overpriced and secondly and more important the horses have a miserable life.

It's a beautiful, calm and restful place, definitely an oasis if you live in a place like New York City. But in the end, I do prefer "real" nature and wilderness.

Climbing Workout - the Vessel

One of the structures I was very curious to see in New York was the Vessel. At the end (or the start) of the High Line, both were features that weren't there during our first visit to the Big Apple. The Vessel - which still hasn't got its permanent name - was only opened in March 2019 and hadn't even made it into my travel guide. I only knew about it because I had seen pictures of it on Instagram and I was intrigued.

I'm not even sure how to describe it. Wikipedia describes it as a "elaborate honeycomb-like structure [that] rises 16 stories and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings for visitors to climb". That pretty much sums it up.

The Vessel was built as part of the Hudson Yard Redevelopment Project in Manhattan to plans by British designer Thomas Heatherwick. The steps are arranged like a jungle gym and modeled after Indian stepwells.

Well, I sure felt like being in a gym - there was a lot of climbing involved. I was determined to reach the top, and I did. It was actually quite fun to take the different stairs. I chose to climb the stairs in a circular way and thus rounded the entire structure more than once.

I liked the view of this hotel's outdoor space with cozy sofas, swimming pool and saunas.

The reflections in the copper were fantastic and, of course, upside down.

Back down on the ground I looked up - it looks so different from down there and truly interesting. You can see the elevator in this picture which, as far as I understand, was put in a bit later after the structure had received a lot of criticism because of its lack of accessibility for disabled people.

The look upwards from outside the structure:

We came back in the evening after dark because we were wondering whether there was some special light installed. There wasn't, but the decorated trees in front of it lit everything up beautifully.