New York Day 4

This morning it was pretty quiet in Times Square so decided to do some shopping so it wasn't such a fight to get anywhere; we dropped this back to the hotel before heading off to have a look at Grand Central Station.

On the way to Grand Central we stumbled upon a street market on 6th Ave, this stretched from 42nd Street right through to 59th Street (17 blocks) up at Central Park, you could pick up knock off bags and sunglasses, cheap watches, clothes, cell phone covers etc. etc. we had a good look, bought nothing and carried on to Central Station. Grand Central is right in the middle of Park Ave as is another building in front of it (a hotel I think) so cars drive around it and then through archways in the other building to carry on.

Jude and I caught a shuttle train over to 42nd Street and then transferred to another one to take us to 14th Street so that we could walk the High Line. On the way to the HL we came across Chelsea Markets so had a look and some lunch. The HL was great and very good use of a disused freight rail line. This area used to be called the Meat Packing Area and the lines were used to easily get the meat to the areas where it was stored and sold, now it is a walkway frequented by 10's of thousands of people each year.

When walking back to Times Square we decided to take the train to Coney Island. The good things about the Subway is that no matter where you want to go it only cost about $2.50; out to Coney Island and back cost us $10.00, the ride takes about an hour. Coney Island was great. The station is just about on the beach so it wasn't far to walk. The beach was golden sand and packed. We found Luna Park and all the rides, sand sculptures, kites, cruise liners, tugs and barges. We had dinner at the beach then got back on the train and headed for the hotel.

Back at Times Square it was again a fight to get back to the hotel but after finding a couple of pictures we managed it.

Tomorrow we are being picked up at 1000hrs for our ride out to JFK for the start of our long flight home. This is the last blog entry so I hope you have all enjoyed it as I have writing it to share our experiences with you - see some of you soon.

New York Day 3

Well it was back on the bus today so that we could get dropped off at City Hall and walk the Brooklyn Bridge; of course City Hall is where Mayor Bloomberg has his office. The walk across the bridge to DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) was easy and not too scary plus it gave us some pretty good views of both Brooklyn and Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Governor's Island.

DUMBO was primarily a manufacturing district, housing warehouses and factories that made machinery, paper boxes and Brillo soap pads. The cardboard box was invented in the Robert Gair building on Washington Street here. With deindustrialization it began becoming primarily residential, when artists and other young homesteaders seeking relatively large and inexpensive loft apartment spaces for studios and homes began moving there in the late 1970s. The acronym Dumbo arose in 1978, when new residents coined it in the belief such an unattractive name would help deter developers - yeah right!

From DUMBO it was onto the ferry back across the Hudson River to catch the bus back up town so that we could go back and have a look at The Cathedral of St John The Devine. This is a massive gothic church (the Statue of Liberty can comfortably fit under it's dome)that began life in 1892 and in 2001, after a fire, it underwent restoration and reopened to the public in 2008 but is still unfinished; it had a lovely feature in it's grounds.

From here it was a walk back down the 103rd Street Subway to catch a train back to Times Square. The Subway is hot. The trains are hot. Jude and I were very pleased to finally get above ground even though it was very humid it was way cooler!

We found a nice Irish Pub for dinner; went a did a little shopping at the Disney Store and then headed home to rest our feet. 

New York Days 1 & 2

The first two days in New York has been very busy. Before we left NZ we purchased NY Passes which included three days use of the Hop on, Hop off bus.

The first day started at around 0800hrs with a walk up to catch the bus for the Down Town Tour. The tour takes around three hours but is a good way of checking out what you want to do as it goes past all the top attractions and the tour guides give you good ideas as well.

Other than Times Square, which we did on the first night we were here, out first attraction was the Rockefeller Centre, Top of the Rock, which tested our fear of heights. This building has 70 floors, the 70th, 69th and 68th floors are all observation decks. The 70th floor has 360 deg views of all the Boroughs of New York and was just amazing! The lift takes 45 second to reach the 68th floor.

Then it was a walk back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and to have lunch. We then walked back up to the bus to take the Up Town tour of Upper East and West, Harlem and Central Park. Upper West Side we saw many very expensive properties including the building where John Lennon was shot and where Yoko Ono still lives. On the way back down Madison Ave (Upper East Side), at around E 72th Street Jude and I got off the bus and walked back through Central Park to the Brooklyn Diner for dinner then it was onto Madame Tussaud's to get up close with some celebrities.

After all this we were bloody shattered and headed for home and a cup of tea and then bed.

Day 2 started a little later at around 1000hrs. Again we headed for the bus at around 1100hrs to go down to Battery Park to catch the Staten Island Ferry for a close up look at Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and Govenor's Island.

Back on terra firma we headed for ground zero. This is the memorial to all those people that died during 9/11 and Feb 26, 1993 terrorist attacks and has been erected on the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre stood. The queue here was long and the security the same as the airports but it didn't take long to get inside the park to have a look. The one thing that Jude and I have both noticed is the amount of police about the streets and the amount of security cameras. We have been told that NY is now the safest city in America; we certainly feel safe and not afraid to move about the streets during the day or night.

After the WTC Memorial it was a short walk back to the bus to return to the hotel and put our feet up for a well earned rest.