Touring New York

Friday 3 August – New York Downtown, River Cruise Tour and Manhattan at night.

Day 112 and 48 to go

After a later evening we slept through til 8am. We watched a bit of the morning news before getting up, showered and down for breakfast. It was packed this morning but we were squeezed in thankfully.

After breakfast we returned to grab our things and then made our way to the NY City Bus tour stop outside Carnegie Hall to begin our tour. We were intending on doing the Uptown tour, but realised we had jumped on the downtown tour instead so we had to make a quick change to what we thought we would do today. It wasn’t too big a deal.

We drove through the theatre district, passed the time square ball drop and onto the large department store Macys.

We alighted at this stop that allowed us to wander passed Madison Square Gardens, home of the New York Knicks. We walked west down 34^th until we made it to 12^th Ave that runs along the edge of the Hudson River. We walked on to Pier 28 where we joined other tourists waiting for the sightseeing boat to arrive. At 11 we began our sail down the Hudson River where we could see the skyline of Manhattan and New Jersey. It was a great way to see the lay out of the city and with the running commentary we had different points of interest pointed out to us along the way, like Leonardo Di Caprio’s unit, the twin tower site, Empire State.

We rounded passed Battery Park passing between Manhattan and Ellis and Liberty Island, we then entered the East River. From here we could see Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

Once the boat made it to the UN headquarters it retraced its steps returning this time to Liberty Island so that we could take plenty of photos of the Statue of Liberty. From here we had a great view and seeing you can’t go inside the statue at the moment due to renovations we decided there wasn’t much point doing another tour out to the island.

15 minutes later we had returned to the pier, the point where the plane had made a miraculous landing a few years ago. We got off the boat and walked back to where we had jumped off the bus and found another one to get on to. This time we travelled through the Chelsea area passing the famous Flatiron building. We moved into the Greenwich Village the area known for Sex and the City. This is quite an upmarket residential area with many tree-lined streets.

From Greenwich Village we continued through SoHo, skirting passed Little Italy and China Town and the Tribeca area.

We were intending on getting off a the World Trade Centre stop, but seeing we couldn’t go to the memorial as there are limited tickets that go early in the morning we didn’t bother wasting our time. From the bus we could see the Trinity church and St Paul’s Chapel that survived 9 – 11 as well as the first of four new skyscrapers that are being constructed. The one being completed currently has just become the tallest structure in NY. They lifted some of the last steel beams in place yesterday, including one that has been signed by Obama, survivors of 9-11, emergency personell and other dignitaries.

We decided to get off at the next stop in the Financial District on the edge of Battery Park. We found a cheap Chinese place to eat in and take a break. I was feeling tired and decided to give the Brooklyn tour we were going to complete today a miss and just catch the Downtown tour back to the hotel.

With lunch complete we got back on the next bus. We drove on along Wall Street before we passed South Street Seaport. It was quite a busy and vibrant area down by the water of the East River. We continued the drive on past the east side of China Town and Little Italy. We drove through East Village where 1 bed apartments rent for $2000 a month. There were 110 multistorey complexes built for returning WW11 vets.

Once we made it to the UN headquarters we followed 49^th street passing the famous hotel Waldorf Astoria. Unfortunately we couldn’t see much as there was scaffolding covering it at the sidewalk level. The next stop was the Rockefeller Centre where we opted to get off and make our way through the streets and back to our hotel, making it back just after 4pm.

We were both hot and sweaty and couldn’t wait to cool down in our air-conditioned room. We watched some TV while I worked on the blog and loaded the photos.

I then had a shower and got organised to head out on the town again. This time we were going to jump on the bus and do a night tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn. We were one the bus by 7 and it was still light but as we began moving dusk set in turning the sky a beautiful pinky orange colour.

We travelled the familiar streets of the downtown area checking out the familiar buildings and parks but then we made a left, passing Little Italy and made our way over the Manhattan Bridge. By now it was dark and the lights of Manhattan were beginning to twinkle. It was very pretty.

Once over the bridge we entered the borough of Brooklyn. We passed people playing basketball on outdoor courts, interesting buildings and parklands. All the while we were being given a running commentary of the things we saw.

We stopped briefly on the waterfront to take photos of Manhattan. From here we could see the Statue of Liberty all lit up.

It was then back over the Manhattan Bridge to travel through China Town and the Village before returning to our starting spot on Broadway. This centre now being all lit up and so lively. It was 10pm and it felt like everything was just getting started. Perth really is sleepy.

We made our way to a pub for a drink before walking over to the Rockefeller Centre so we could complete the ‘Top of the Rock’. The line of waiting tourists was not as ridiculously long as that at the Empire State and here we were given a time to go in. The general set up was a so much better.

At 10.30pm we were ushered into a lift that had a clear Perspex top on which they projected images of the centres creation. It was very cool. Once out we went through the rigmarole of having a photo taken against a green screen and then it was out on the roof for a look at the view of the city at night. It was so worth doing as it was really beautiful and now I think we have scene every aspect of this city.

With our 360 degree view complete we returned down the lift and made our way back towards our hotel. We stopped at Angelo’s Pizza next door for a pizza to take up with us. Finally home by 11.30pm. We ate the pizza that was delicious and then it was time to sleep.