New York City, Day 3

Empire State Building

 

New York is amazing!  A friend of mine just made a statement that fit so well (Hope you don't mind, Linda) it Vibrates!  It is big and very densly populated, but a very walkable city, so we have walked and walked and walked.  My feet hurt, my neck hurts from looking up!  There is a subway station just 5 blocks from here, and once on the subway, we are 15 minutes from the Empire State Building.

Wednesday morning, we got a Hop On - Hop Off bus tour and saw many sights around town.  We took the uptown and downtown tours, with lunch in between.  The guides were entertaining and informative.  Very good tours.  New Yorkers that we have met are very friendly and upbeat.  There are alot of hustlers on the streets trying to get you to buy tickets for tours or whatever, but they are pleasant enough and leave you alone if you say no thanks.  I don't know how these folks make it in this city, probably 14 per apartment.  We have never felt unsafe.  We have been walking the streets until 10 at night.  No problem.

Some facts we found out.  Average monthly rent in Manhattan - $4000;  Average price of an apartment - $1.46 million.  Parking signs-  Special - $8.45 / 1/2 hour.  $46 per day.  Subway, $2.25/trip - cheap

Flatiron building

The new Tower One, World Trade Centre, almost completed.  Is the tallest building in the United States.

 Neat looking building, Looks like twisted metal.

Diana Ross once lived here.



United Nations

 

 Rockerfeller Centre

 We then had dinner in a little brewery close to Time Square and then got on the night tour bus!

 The financial district at night, and the Brooklin Bridge as we are driving over the Manhattan Bridge.

 Time Square at night is actually daylight!  very bright and full of people.  This is an area that never sleeps. The subway runs 24 hours a day.

Empire state building

More Times Square

 

The next day we started with a harbour cruise.

 Note Empire State building

 Tower One, WTC

 Two Canadians in New York

The Statue of Liberty.

 

Then last night we went to a wonderful musical,  The Jersey Boys, all about the Four Seasons.  Great music.  We will probably stand in line, if our feet work tomorrow, and see if we can get tickets for another production.

 

Today we visited Ground Zero. It is quite moving.  The memorial is very tasteful.  A fountain for each building that is the size of the footprint of the towers, water runs down around the perimeter and then disappears into infinity.On the rim of each fountain is the names of the victims of 9/11.  It is surrounded by White Oak trees.  The lower building behind the fountain in this picture is going to be the museum, which isn't open as yet.

 The new Tower One, behind the memorial

 The Surviving Tree, a Pear tree that survived 9/11 and has been nurtured and replanted at the site.  It's stump was found in the rubble, about 8 feet tall, burned and broken.  It sat on a garbage pile for a month, and a worker noticed it had buds on it, so he took it to a nursery in Brooklin and they nurtured it and it came back! 

 

 

 Memorial to the Firemen and Police

 

Then we walked past city hall to the Brooklin Bridge

 



 On the steps of the Court house.  We see this building every week on Blue Bloods.

 

 

 We then walked across the Brooklin Street Bridge.  This bridge was built 130 years ago, unbelievable.  You walk above the traffic in the middle of the bridge, not on the edge.  It was quite neat.

 

Then we went to Central Park and spent time just sitting as we couldn't walk any more.  At 6 pm we met some very dear friends from Penticton that are in New York as well, and went to a pub for dinner.  It was so good to see someone from home again!  We had a lovely visit, then walked past Times Square (Again) to the subway (about 20 blocks) and home. 

This are the beams from the 9/11 memorial as seen from the campsite, our front window!

 

Goodnight.  I'm pooped.