Day 11 - Tuesday

We have had another amazing day today. We had another slow morning. Kathryn had some work to do and I had some reading too. I had noticed that the United Nations Headquarters was on the tourist brochures and had a look online. I noticed you could book tours, and we were interested in doing something indoors as it was cold and wet outside.

I booked the tour for 12:30pm. We needed to be there an hour early, to get through security, and so we left at about 11am. Thankfully it wasn't too wet, but it was cold. We got the subway straight to Grand Central station. The UN was built on the East River in the late 1940s after the Second World War. So we just had to walk a couple blocks to the river. The large 39 storey Secretariat Building was easy to spot from the street and so we just walked towards that.

Following the Secretariat Building

Headquarters of the United Nations

We found the entrance, but had to wait for about 20 minutes in the cold whilst we got a visitor pass to enter the headquarters. Security was quick to get through, there was no-one there basically. It was about 12:15pm by the time we were at the tour guide desk, so it was just a short wait.

Waiting outside for a visitor pass

General Assembly building

Lobby inside the General Assembly building

We were called for the tour at 12:30pm. We had a really nice guy from Egypt who did the tour. It lasted about 45 minutes and he was really insightful and knew pretty much everything about the history of the UN. We got the see the Security Counsel chambers and the General Assembly room.

Security Counsel Chamber

Security Counsel Chamber, showing muriel donated by Norway.

General Assembly

General Assembly

At the end of the tour, I had read that there was a special post office that we visited. The UN headquarters is actually under the jurisdiction of the UN and not the US. Therefore they have there own postal service and issue their own stamps.

Post Office inside General Assembly building

After a few photos outside, and getting to see a touch of snow in the air. We headed back to the subway and back to the Financial District. We went back to the Hole in the Wall for a late lunch. We had coffee and scrambled eggs on toast. We then went back to the apartment, Kathryn finished up her work and I had a quick snooze.

View outside

Passing through Grand Central Station

We then went out for pre-drinks before dinner. We went back to Manhatta, this time before sunset. We were treated to the most spectacular sunset. The forecast was for clear skies and falling temperatures. But what we saw was the cloud clearing and a dramatic sunset across the bay to the South of Manhattan.

Spectacular views of the sunset

Closer shot of sunset

View uptown

Uptown view of Brooklyn Bridge

Manhatta restaurant, we'll probably dine here next time visit

Cocktail

We sat in a booth and had some drinks, before leaving for the Mexican resteraunt we went to the other day. Thankfully, it was really cold when we left, but it was only a short walk back to the apartment to finish the day.

Dinner

A cold walk home