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Hello again at around 6.30pm Tuesday 1 July NY time.
Another very hot, muggy day in the Big Apple with the current temperature at 31C with a reasonably high humidity I think, judging by the amount of perspiration we have both lost today!
Today was all about a pre-booked 5 hour ‘walking tour’ of various parts of Manhattan Island that Joy booked some time ago so we got up a bit earlier than the bodies told us they wanted to as we had to meet our tour guide at 8am in front of the hotel.
We did set an alarm for 6.45am but as is usual, we were both wide awake way before that and had the emails checked etc. etc. by the time it was time to hit the shower.
We met our guide Rob out front at the appointed time and then entered into a discussion with him as to just exactly where we would be going for the day. Joy had intimated some preferences when she booked the tour but after the discussion we changed a lot of it basically due to our lack of knowledge
of the city. A lot of what she had suggested were places we had already been to on our last trip, we just didn’t realise that!!!
So we set out and used buses and the metro to get around the city.
As I’ve probably said before they have an incredible public transport system in NYC and it is not that expensive to use. Our $30 weeks pass allows us to use the metro and the commuter buses as much as we like in the 7 days.
We headed out on the ‘express metro’ right to the northern tip of Manhattan Island to a place called the ‘Cloisters’ which is part of Fort Tyron . The fort is an old Revolutionary War fort featuring some more modern stone walls and gardens etc. The Cloisters is in the Fort park and is a magnificent set of 3 or 4 old stone European buildings purchased by Rockefeller after WW1 in Europe and shipped to NYC and rebuilt on this location with uninterrupted views. It is like a museum now and although it wasn’t open when we were there we were able to wander around
the outside of the buildings and take in the gardens. While we were up that way we walked down an old road and looked at a magnificent set of stone archways that formed the entranceway to one of the very early settlers mansions on the hill…..can’t remember his name now but it was a site to behold.
We then bused back down and stopped for breakfast in a lovely little diner in the Washington Heights (we think) area where we had a cheese omelet and a cream cheese bagel and tea before getting back on the bus and heading down through to Harlem.
We then wandered along the Riverside Drive beside the Hudson River, a wide expanse of green belt running the whole length of Manhattan along the Hudson. It was full of trees, grassy areas, recreation parks, children’s play areas and was a real oasis in the midst of the maddening traffic and sheer numbers of people BUT man was it hot. Joy even got a pinkish tinge to her shoulders and arms!! Towards the midtown area was a whole lot of new residential towers that were built by Trump a few years
ago and as part of the deal with the city done to do the development, he had to do up the riverside area so there was heaps of new areas and walkout piers etc. It was a really lovely walk.
We then headed over to Bryant Park, another incredible oasis in the middle of the city where they do outdoor concerts and film festivals as well as serving as a great place for the local people, and tourists, to eat their lunch etc. We stopped and had a well needed diet coke here and listened to an author telling everyone why she wrote a book about ‘Green Cities’ or something like that as part of the ‘entertainment’.
Bryant Park is at the side of another magnificent building, the New York City Library. I do not use the term magnificent lightly because it truly was breath taking inside and outside. I think it was built in the late 1800s and is now used as a research library, you can’t actually take books out. But the books are all stored underground under Bryant Park and moved to the reception and research areas by compressed air conveyor
belts sort of system. Some of the rooms we went into were just incredible. It appeared to be built inside and out of solid marble and there was tons and tons and tons of it. If anyone is coming to NYC make sure you go and see it, it is well worth the visit.
We then headed back up to the bus routes and headed right down through to midtown and ended up taking the bus to the United Nations buildings. We didn’t get here last trip so wanted to make sure we saw it this time. Have to admit that it didn’t really look like the photos etc. I’ve seen in the past but we found our flag flying proudly with the hundred or more others and took the necessary photos.
And that folks was that. It was now 2pm and we were an hour over our allotted 5 hours and quite frankly, knackered.
We said goodbye to Rob and headed back to the hotel to recharge our batteries etc.
The rest of the afternoon we took the metro down to the Penn Station/34
th Street area and
wandered around some of the shops etc. Joy picked up a few bits and pieces of clothing etc. and we eventually headed back to the hotel to get ready for our evening ‘City Lights Tour’ where we will be going with a tour guide in a vehicle after dark to take in the lights of Manhattan.
We did however make one stop on the way back. Robyn and Trevor Plunkett gave Joy some $US and said she had to buy a birthday cake with it so we finally found an excellent cake bakery and did the deed. The photos to prove it are at the end of the blog as promised!!! YUMMY so thanks for that Robyn and Trev.
It will be a late night but I’ve got this blog to a stage where I can complete it after we get home tonight and add some photos from the day and publish it.
It’s now half past midnight and we have just got back from our 3 hour ‘City Light Tour that actually went for nearly 4 hours so we well and truly got our monies worth. The man who owns the guide
company we used, Scott Piedmont, took us in his Dodge Ram SUV himself and he was amazing.
Not much to tell except we drove over to New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey and started with some great views looking back at Manhattan in the dusk. As it got darker the views became more colourful and picturesque and we drove around parts of NJ looking back before crossing over to Manhattan again and continuing to be driven to spots where we could get great photos of the lights and buildings in the city.
Scott even gave us some very useful tips for how to set the GPS for when we drive to Watkins Glen on Saturday so that we get to take the most scenic route!!
It was a fantastic evening and gave us another very different perspective of this amazing place.
I’m going to post this blog and download some of the photos from the day.
Another big day tomorrow using the ‘Hop on – Hop off’ bus to see the sights and finishing the day with a
Harlem Gospel Tour which includes an hour ‘service’ of gospel singing at a local Harlem Church.
Bye until tomorrow.
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