One more...

... picture of the view from rockefeller center! the sky was just sooo beautiful! to me it looked like a painting.. :) to the right you see a black building with kind of a white frame around it; thats from the bank of america. here you cant see it, but this building is not entirely flat; towards the ground this building is shaped like a bell. or, as i prefer; this skyscraper is like a giant chute! behind you see central park. it is sooo huge! i still have not been to the far end of it, maybe next time... its amazing to imagine that manhattan once was entirely like central park.....

and i do agree with biebkriebels; the view from rockefeller is probably nicer than from the empire state building, and the line indeed was less long. or as someone else said; its better because you get to see the empire state building, rather than standing on top of it... :D

Rockefeller center

for 22 dollars you can climb rockefeller center. or rather, get into the elevator to the 67th (i think) floor to view manhattan from the observation deck. just like at the empire state building, this is a very streamlined process. you wait in line for tickets, you are led through security, you walk a little more, wait in line, get pushed forward, and at some point end up in an elevator that you cannot operate yourselves. then you are rushed out of the elevator and stumble upon many other tourists that are already blocking the view... when you are lucky, you get a small spot and can take some pictures... :) or pose, or will be asked to take someone else's picture. when you have taken pictures from every side, its time to go down again.... and then at home you realize you should have taken some more time to take better pictures. and wait, did i ever enjoy the view without looking through my lens? :)
right in front you see the empire state building, and to the left you see a small part of the chrysler, but its mostly obscured by the metlife building. the rockefeller center itself stems from 1933, and i never knew, but this famous picture was taken during its construction.

Brooklyn bridge

yup, we had quite some rain while in new york. just like in boston; the weather has not been that good yet, this year... :( here we were at the brooklyn bridge, and taking pictures with a big fancy camera and an umbrella turned out to be challenging! just like the couple above.... :)

this bridge is just so beautiful! we walked to brooklyn, which is named after the dutch city breukelen (just pronounced american). just read on wikipedia that brooklyn has the following motto "Een Draght Mackt Maght", which is old dutch for "in unity there is strength". haha, whats also interesting is how the name breukelen evolved into brooklyn: from Breuckelen, to Brockland, to Brocklin, to Brookline, to Brookland and eventually, to Brooklyn....

and thats it for today! good night! :)