This past week, we had a friend in architecture from Germany visit us in New York City. He's been here for 11 months and on his last hoorah before he heads back to Munich in a week. So I took the opportunity to tag along as he visited the must-sees on his NYC list.

This is also when we got scammed by the street performers.

The first thing on his list, since he's also an architecture major, was the One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill -

It's really nearing completion. We're still not sure about the round thing at the top which was probably done more for potential profit than design, but we will note that it looks better from further away.

Cornelius wanted to see the museum, but we realized by the time we got tickets and through the long line, it would be late in the evening, so we wouldn't be able to do everything. He looked at the hotel adjacent to the site and suggested that instead, we go inside and see if we can't get a better view from above. I wasn't sure if this plan was going to work, but we were able to go to the fifth floor of the hotel where they have a public lounge/bar, and see the site from there.

We walked from the World Trade Center to Battery Park. It's a short and simple route, and there are maps along the street.

Then took the subway to Times Square.

We got a little lost trying to find Rockefeller Center, but realized that we just hadn't gone far enough - what did we ever do without smart phones (umm... ask someone)?