The next morning I was up early and decided to head first to the High Line - a park/walkway created from an historic raised rail line which goes along the West Side of Manhatten. It's fantastic to see the way the plants have been selected and seeing trees growing in between the old tracks with different sections having distinct settings from wild prairy to wooded sections providing a relaxed park atmosphere with a unique historic character to it. At the end of the line I headed to the Starbucks Reserve coffee roastery to have a coffee before heading back.
I then went back to my hotel and got changed for the warmer day ahead and headed down to the dock for my boat tour.
The boat tour took me right out past the Statue of Liberty with great views across the skyline along the way.
I then checked out the Drama bookshop and then took the subway up to Central Park where I sat in the park to have my lunch.
World Trade Center
Then in the evening I went to Hudson Yards which is a really interesting development built over the top of railway yards, making use of land that couldn't previously be used. There's some really innovative sustainability steps been taken in how water and energy are managed and growing trees in shallow soil encouraging their routes to grow horizontally for stability and nutrients.
I then went up to The Edge where you get stunning views across the city.
The next day was the AWS Summit which was the reason I was in town. This was a massive event and hugely popular, resulting in long queues for attendees to get in snaking across the entrance foyer and around the block. Fortunately being there as an exhibitor I'd been able to arrive early and prepare before the main entrance opened. IBM had a large booth with 4 demo screens and most of the day I spent here meeting people and talking about our new API Connect on AWS SaaS offering. I also got time to explore the other exhibitors and talk to some of the AWS team which was really interesting and useful.
In the evening we had an IBM Client appreciation reception at the classic car club where I met more people and chatted with them surrounded by the impressive car whilst watching the sun go down over the Hudson until it was time for me to head to the airport for my flight home.
In the afternoon Laura and I did a 'garden to glass' experience at the Hotel, just the two of us, where Diego took us first around the gardens of the hotel to see their sustainability at work and the different plants they grow and how they can be used. We took a basket around with us and gathered lots of sprigs of herbs, flowers and even wild blackberries.
In the gardens we also met Floriana who oversees the gardens at the Belmar who we talked to about natural pest control and composting.
When we got back to the bar, we laid out all the ingredients on a table and Diego showed us how to make a coffee rum cocktail from rum which he'd left coffee beans soaking in earlier - very simple but delicious!
We then got to make our own cocktail from some of the items we'd gathered from the garden - first selecting the spirit and then crushing the leaves together with a caramelised orange segment. We then added these to a shaker with Guaro, syrup and ice and shook it. Diego smoked the glasses on a pine smoker, added ice and then we poured the cocktails in and garnished with more findings from the garden - in this case some flower petals and a carrot leaf.
For the last cocktail we learnt how to garnish the rim of the glass and then could sit back and watch the expert at work in making the cocktails for us with cucumber and basil from the garden.
After a delicious breakfast at Belmar, this time I had the breakfast sandwich of pesto, avocado, egg and roast peppers, we were picked up by the Selvatura transport to take us to the hanging bridges tour. We got there early and were assigned to a guide to take us around the park. He took us backwards around in order to avoid the other groups which seemed to work really well! We started the tour with a Coati coming across a mini bridge to us before admiring more of the beautiful cloud forest flora. Then we reached the first bridge of ?, each of which gave us a different view of the forest - some in the trees and some above the trees, all at different heights.
We saw lots more interesting plants and small birds that flew into sight briefly and then off again busy with whatever they were doing in the forest, but also, we saw some that stayed around for us to photograph - such as the Quetzal and Toucanet.
Seeing the forest canopy from above was amazing, so much variety in colours and shapes across the trees it was such a magical place.
After the tour finished, we had a quick look in the shop and lunch in the restaurant - I wouldn't recommend these, just get the transport back.
I live in the south of England with my wife, two children and our dog Nova. I work at IBM as a Cloud Architect for API Connect cloud services. I enjoy running, walking, photography and spending time with my family.
