My trip to New York city Day 1

      This trip was a dream that had existed from my childhood and     finally came true!!!

     Lets start with the airlines.Athens - Frankfurt with Lufthansa Airbus A321 and Frankfurt - New York with Singapore Airlines Boeing 747.The following photos were taken inside Singapore Airlines!!!

   We landed at JFK airport and we reached our hotel DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Times Square(by the way the welcome cookie was fantastic!!!) by taxi.This was our first amazing view of the city.The theaters of Broadway and the huge number of animated neon and LED signs have long made them one of New York's iconic images, and a symbol of the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan. Times Square is the only neighborhood with zoning ordinances requiring building owners to display illuminated signs.

    We left our luggage and we started walking around Big Apple.First stop was at Rockefeller Center and then we stopped for a cupcake at Magnolia Bakery. (We tasted Priscilla Cupcake , a pistachio cupcake glitzed up for Broadway)

 

    Afterwards we visited a part of Central Park and we took some nice photos in front of historic and beautiful  Plaza Hotel and grand army plaza.

The French Renaissance Château-style building was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh and opened to the public on October 1, 1907. 

The Plaza was accorded landmark status by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1969; it was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1986. The Waldorf-Astoria is the only other New York City hotel to be designated as a National Historic Landmark.Long the site for famous performers and guests, it has also been the meeting place for important political meetings. The nationally known singers Eartha Kitt, Liza Minnelli, Kay Thompson, Andy Williams, and Peggy Lee played the Persian Room; unaccompanied ladies were not permitted in the Oak Room bar; and women favored the Palm Court for luncheons and teas. The Beatles stayed at the Plaza during their first visit to the United States in February 1964.On November 28, 1966, in honor of the publisher Katharine Graham, the writer Truman Capote hosted his acclaimed "Black & White Ball" in the Grand Ballroom.

It was a setting for some movies and tv series: Funny Girl , The Way We Were , Scent of a Woman , Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York , Sleepless in Seattle , Almost Famous , Bride Wars , Gossip Girl , Sex And The City , Friends.

   We continued with a short route in 5th Avenue.First stop was the famous Apple store.The very minimal entrance is a crystal cube with a structural glass spiral staircase , winding around a cylindrical glass elevator that leads to Apples' underground store.It was manufactured  by  Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects.It reminds to me I.M Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre , Dominique Perrault's Hotel Industriel in Paris and there is a similar structure in Shanghais' Apple store.

5th Avenue is characterized as a definite must for prestigious stops and as the most expensive street in the world.Some shops that we managed to visit were 

• Saks 5th avenue
•  Juicy Couture
• Tiffany & co
• Abercrombie and Fitch
• Sephora
• Gucci
• FAO schwartz

This first and tiring day finished with a great taste adventure  at Shake Shack!