A rainy day greets us already in the morning - and that on our Sideseeing Day! World Trade Center is the destination, ground zero and shopping in NYC. Armed with umbrella and jacket we set off. Finally we want to see NYC from above. We are surprised, no queue at the World Trade Center (WTC). And the ticket seller will explain to us fair and square: The top of the tower with the viewing platform rises into the clouds. No view! Frustrated we leave the building again.

Ground zero! Gigantic holes in the ground. Actually quite a small area for such high towers. Beautiful artificial waterfalls. And 3000 names lasered into the border. In some names there are roses. So simply these people were washed away by life. A shiver runs over my skin. So many innocent people ... just torn out of life. A collective dying for a worldwide shaking symbol.

The weather does not invite you to linger at the two fountain giants for a long time. So we make our way to the 9/11 Memorial-Museum. We are not the only ones who push into the rain-protected interior in this weather. We have to queue for 20 minutes. Then a security check like at the airport. I ask the officer where the flight goes. He laughs heartily.

First you see bent steel in various places, foundations, destroyed fire trucks, an unrecognizable rest of the satellite top of the North Tower, the rest of an elevator motor and tons of objects and photos. We wonder where all the photographic material comes from. What at first feels like "well, quite nice" becomes more and more oppressive. The room with the photos of all the deceased already leaves a certain goose bump.

And then it's off to the preserves, to a separate room where photography is forbidden. The room is overcrowded, but you would hear a pin drop if you didn't hear the firemen's radio messages or other sound recordings. Nobody talks, it is quieter than in a church. The oppression is omnipresent. The whole process of the event 9/11 is represented with films, pictures, objects, last mailbox recordings of passengers in the airplanes. Actually, we feel like all the people in this room now: There is nothing to say! The event speaks for itself.

I personally didn't even find the event much more impressive - we saw the burning towers 1000 times in all media at that time - it was rather the pictures of the destruction during and after the collapse. The scale is simply unimaginable if you haven't experienced it yourself. It was a war in the middle of NYC. And with this rather superficial idea of how it really was, all the visitors quietly came out of this room again.

Shopping afterwards was rather difficult for me, but it was a welcome distraction from the rousing impressions.