The Big Apple, NY, NYApr 30, 2011
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A day in the Big Apple! We got up and grabbed a bite to eat before catching a shuttle to the subway. We jumped on the purple “7” Line, which runs from Queens to Times Square. We’re actually getting pretty good at navigating on the public transit systems. Once we hit 42nd street (Times Square, and actually the same street that we rode through yesterday, quite by accident) we got bombarded by the Tour companies. The desk clerk at our hotel told us that the best way to see all of the sites, and at a cheaper rate, was to hop on one of the Double Decker tour buses. So, that we did. We started at Times Square, and from there went by Macy’s. Macy’s is open until 2 am, and covers 1 million square feet of retail space, which covers one solid city block and on 9 floors. Lucky for Turkey that I have absolutely no room left in my suitcase! From there, we rode by the Empire State Building, Union Square, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy, and then we disembarked at Battery Island. This is where we caught the ferry over to Liberty Island. They crammed about 800 people onto the ferry, and unloaded us at the base of Lady Liberty. She was quite the sight to see up close and personal. We couldn’t go up to her crown where there’s a lookout, as the tickets had sold out.
Once we were done wandering around the Statue, we boarded the ferry back to Manhattan Island, we walked over to Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Centre. Miraculously, nothing on either side of the twin towers were touched by this tragedy. They are now in the middle of constructing a new building which will be home to the National September 11 Museum.
We hopped back on our Double Decker bus, and visited the South Street Seaport, Lower East Side, East Village, the United Nations building, and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Then we jumped off again, to visit the Rockefeller Centre, and go up to the 67th floor to the Observation Deck. From there we could see the whole city. It was an amazing view! That was the end of the Blue Line City tour (Downtown). Now we had the choice of hopping on the Red Line City Tour (Uptown). Here we started at the Lincoln Centre, and drove by the American Museum of Natural History, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Grant’s Tomb, Guggenheim & Jewish Museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, and Central Park. That was a long haul. We didn’t visit the inside of the museums, due to a lack of time. Maybe next time! The sun was starting to go down, and was behind all of the large skyscrapers, and as we walked back down to Times Square, the lights on all of the buildings were amazing. Also, there was a camera which filmed everyone on the street, and we could see ourselves waving at the camera up on a billboard, along with loads of other people. It was too funny! Supper at D&B (Dave and Busters) and then back to Queens on the subway. Thankfully, we called our hotel from our subway stop, and they sent the shuttle over to pick us up.
And to sum up the day: 2 Coffee $6.00, 2 hot dogs $13.00, 2 beers $12.00, Touring the Big Apple………PRICELESS!
Note: No time to label any pictures. (Maybe tomorrow) Have a great day!!
