Touring NYC

                                

                                                        Empire State Building

We have finished the hop on, hop off bus tour. We ended it last night with a night tour of the city.  The trip did not start well because there was something wrong with the bus, I am sure that is a bus drivers nightmare.  Everyone was pretty patient though and I was okay because the later it got the more lights would be on.  Our tour guide was a scream, he kept going on about how great being in the Big Apple was and since we were on a double decker bus he would comment on the people he could see in their"pads".  The whole bus would cheer, he even got a street vendor to blow us kisses New York style, great fun.

The other day we went up the Empire State Building, the views were fantastic and so were the lines.  One fellow made a comment that they did a good job with the lines because you never knew how many times you had to stand in line. First of all there was a line to get in the bldg, and pass through security, then there was a line for tickets, then you had to walk all the wy around the inside of bldg. ,then there was a line for the elevator up to the 80th floor where all the windows were opaque and there was a history of the building and then you had to stand in line for the 86th floor where the viewing platform was and of course there was the line to go down.  I must say though that the wait was totally worth it.  The views were just stunning.  

This is looking north across the Hudson River, on the other side is Brooklyn. The building with the fancy spire is the Chrsyler Bldg, the tall black one is the Trump Tower and the flat long greenish building near the water is the United Nations. 

This is looking south across the east river is New Jersey, there is Macy's Dept. Store where the Santa Claus parade ends every year and on the other side of the tall black bldg. you can see Madison Square Gardens which is actually a circle. 

For those of you that have been to NY skip this paragraph.  The main part of NY is Manhattan, it is an island and is connected to Brooklyn, across the East River by the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and the Washington Bridge.  Brooklyn is on Long Island.  Harlem and the Bronx are on main land New York and you have to cross the Harlem River to get there.  Across the Hudson River to the south is New Jersey.  There are very few regular homes in NYC.  They all live in apartment buildings, and row housing called brownstones.  There are a lot of green spaces within the city because no one has a yard and today was a nice sunny day and everybody and their dog was out enjoying the walking/ biking/running paths.  

Vivid colour setting on the camera, takes an almost surreal photo.

We choose to go and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge today along with I am sure a thousand other people.  The only people to get as little cross were the poor cyclists who had tourists wandering into their lanes.  I heard a few angry comments but I did not see anyone being mowed down.  After that we hopped on the subway and took the free ferry over to Staten Island.  The Yankee farm team was in the field over there practising so we stared through a hole in the fence for a few minutes.  

This picture was taken from the Staten Island Ferry and that is downtown Manhattan, with the new World Trade Centre Bldg. or I heard it referred to as the Freedom Tower, at 1776 ft. tall it is the second tallest building in the world.  

I just have to add this picture for the grandchildren. 

It was awesome inside, Barry even insisted we should go in.  I have a Tim Horton's Ice Capp in my hand, we found a store just off of Time Square.