Empire State of Mind

There are many songs about New York, starting with the evergreen by Sinatra. But for the last couple of years my favourite is the one by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

To celebrate it, I decided to devote a separate post to my visit in the Empire State Buidling. It has 102 storeys and from its completion in 1931 it was for 40 years the tallest building in the world.



It is not easy to catch it in full from the outside but luckily inside there is a nice relief that shows the building. Looking at all this gold I could not help thinking that the architect was not the most modest guy in the world.

On top of the building there is an observation deck. You can see from there the entire Lower Manhattan.

Here you can see a bit closer the Chrysler Building. You could say it is "the second best" - it was the tallest in the world for 11 months, until the Empire State Building was completed.

And here comes the Williamsburg bridge (connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn) and the East Village.

When leaving the Empire State Building I turned my back again to see its height.

It is when I felt a hand on my shoulder. To my surprise, I saw an officer of the New York Police Department. Apparently, horses are not allowed to circulate in this part of the city! Luckily, my personal charm quickly allowed us to become friends.

He even agreed to drive me back to the airport. Very nice of him.

* * *

I really enjoyed this trip to New York. I hope to see more of USA one day. Now it is time to move on to new adventures.

Taipei 101

Now it is time to reveal the ultimate goal of my Asian trip - Taipei! Taipei is a very nice city. I particularly appreciated its great metro network that allows travelers to move around the city smoothly.

Taipei is best know for its tallest building (actually it is now the second tallest building in the world) called Taipei 101. "101" is a reference to the number of floors above the ground.

Taipei 101 includes offices and a shopping mall. But the best part of it is of course the Observatory.

You will need to wait in the queue for some time but when you finally reach the lift, it will take you to the 89 floor where you will be able to admire the panorama of the city. You will see the buildings ...

... and also the green hills surrounding Taipei. Actually there is a surprise regarding the hills as well but I will come back to it in due course.

Taipei 101 is nicely illuminated at night. I could not take pictures after dark but I can show you what it would look like.

Those of you who are really brave can take the staircase and go a bit higher.

You will find there the outdoor part of the Observatory.

To be honest the wind there was quite strong so I did not spend much time outside. I wonder how people on top floors feel about this heights.

Speaking of wind. As you surely know, Taipei is in the zone where typhoons happen regularly. To protect the building, the architects have placed between floors 87 and 91 the so-called Tuned Mass Dumper. It has 5.5 meters of diameter and wights around 660 tones. It is suspended on huge steel cables and reduces the movement and vibrations of the buildings during typhoons. It looks like this.

The dumper was the inspiration for the mascots of Taipei 101, the "baby dumpers". You can see them everywhere in the building.

Finally, my last stop - the special post office with boxes designed for different adressees.

Dear friends, watch out for my Greetings from the Sky!