I’ve been exploring Manhattan with Google Street View ahead of our short trip to the Big Apple at the end of the month. Big cities like New York can be overwhelming, so it’s fantastic that we now have a tool which enables the forward-planners among us to get some semblance of familiarity with a place well ahead of our arrival.
Indeed, just tracing the route from the subway to our hotel, I was taken aback by how many landmarks we’d be wheeling our luggage past. From Grand Central to 42nd Street and the Chrysler Building, hanging left on Second Avenue, turning right towards the UN headquarters — and all that before we’ve even checked in.
Thanks to GSV, they’re no longer just words in a book:
Would we have noticed such things in the hurry to get to the hotel and unburden ourselves? Not everything, I’m sure, and I doubt we’d appreciate them the way we should. But now that we can literally see where we’re going and know what awaits us before we even get there, it might encourage us to take things a little more easy and let the sights sink in. After all, that’s what we’re there for.