On the Way to Iceland: A Day in New York City

Before our recent winter trip to Iceland, the last time we had been to New York City (Manhattan) was in late July 2001. We walked, used taxis, and rode on one of those hop-on-hop-off tourist buses to see many of the most popular tourist sites in Manhattan including Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park (now known as "The Battery"), the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building.

I recall the bus tour narrator pointing out the World Trade Center to us and reminding us of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured many more. We were trying to decide whether to ascend to the top of one of the towers and decided not to because we had already been to the top of the Empire State Building and were running out of time in New York City. We justified to ourselves that we'd go to the top of the World Trade Center towers on a future visit to New York City. Unfortunately, approximately six weeks later, those towers were destroyed on 11 September 2001.

For our trip to Iceland, we flew from Denver to New York City's John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport and stayed the night in an airport near JFK. We did not depart for Iceland until 7 pm that next night, so we took advantage of these extra hours in New York City to return to Manhattan with specific intent to see the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. After storing our luggage at JDK Terminal 1's storage facility, we took a taxi to Manhattan for the fixed price for all taxis from JFK to Manhattan.

911 Memorial and Museum

I had heard and read many positive descriptions of the 911 Memorial (although not all are positive) and it lived up to the hype I had built up in my own mind. There is a simplicity and elegance behind its beauty and the numerous engraved names remind us of the many lives lost. Images taken of it from above provide a nice overview of it and I've included a few of our own photographs from the ground level here.

There is no charge to see the outdoor memorial itself. There is a charge and tickets are required to enter the indoor museum next to the memorial. We got in line to purchase tickets for the museum, but I was able to order tickets online for the museum before we got all the way through the line and we got to exit that line and go directly into the museum. The museum was much larger than I expected because most of it is underground. We did not do the audio tour because the placards and signs were detailed and featured large enough letters to read from the typical distances we need to stand from the exhibits to allow others to see them at the same time. The memorial and museum had more visitors than I had anticipated on a New Year's Day morning.

The 911 Memorial Museum combines modern technology with powerful messages and access to original physical structures that were present in the World Trade Center towers to make for a poignant and deeply moving experience.

It was also interesting to see the numerous items people created or collected to honor victims.

These "World Trade Center By The Numbers" are staggering:

The entire museum is a powerful memorial and reminder, but the most powerful portion for me was the "In Memorium" section of the museum. It is one thing to see the number of victims. It is even more powerful and sobering to see the actual names of the victims. It's almost overwhelming to see the photographs of all these victims' faces and hear family members and friends reciting their names. The "In Memorium" section does just that in presenting photographs of the victims and having loved ones read off their names. It's very powerful and overwhelming to contemplate the lost lives. Photographs are not allowed in that section, but you can see one photograph of one wall of the section in the article "Visiting the 9/11 Memorial Museum."

This quotation on a wall in the museum summarizes what the museum achieves ("No day shall erase you from the memory of time." -Virgil), even if it's not the original context of the quotation:

One World Observatory

We had reserved a lunch spot at the restaurant in the One World Observatory next to the 911 Memorial and we headed there after the museum for lunch.

For lunch, we had reserved the "Prix Fixe Lunch - Peak" for $100 per person (can be a bit less in off-peak times). This reserved us a table and included entry to the observatory using priority lanes for security, elevator, and exit. We were happy with the appetizers, entrees, and desserts on the prix fixe menu and did not need to order any items that would come at additional cost. Note that an 18% tip is automatically charged on the $100 price ($18 tip per person). It was nice to have the restaurant reservation and priority access to the observation deck and film.

Here are the views from our table in the One World Observatory restaurant:

It was surprising to us how quickly the elevators went up and down the 102 stories.

It's difficult with the cameras we had to capture photographs of the views from One World Observatory that do the views justice, but here are some of my favorites:

Conclusion

The 911 Memorial and Museum and the One World Observatory were fascinating to see and provided a really nice way to pass the hours before our departing flight to Iceland.