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Published: September 10th 2007
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Okay, so seen about enough of New York now. We are truly worn out from so much walking. We decided to hit lower Manhattan on Friday morning, grabbed a nice breakfast with the commuters at Andrews Deli on 7th Ave before hitting the subway at Penn Station.
We found the train to the World Trade Centre site and jumped on. Unfortunately, the train was heading in the opposite direction to the WTC but had the wrong signs on it, we were in Queens before we realised and jumped off to get a train back the right way. It took us 50 minutes to do a 10 minute trip! Very frustrating!
Had a look over the site of the twin towers, construction of the new Freedom tower plaza is well underway. There will be a permanent memorial in the footprint of the old towers and 5 new towers are being built, gradually increasing in height up to Freedom Tower which will be something like 1770 feet tall. It will have two viewing levels around the 1300 feet mark ( the viewing platforms mark the top of each of the original WTC towers ). So that makes this new tower a
staggering 400 feet taller than the old towers.
From WTC we walked down to Battery Park and along the Hudson River, we walked right the way round to the East River side, passing by the Statue of Liberty and on to Pier 17 with Brooklyn Bridge as a backdrop.
From there we carried on walking passed the end of Wall Street, through China Town and Little Italy - passing through Federal Plaza where the supreme court is, ( fans of Law and Order will instantly recognise that building ), from there we walked to Union Square for a superb deli lunch before hiking back along Broadway to our digs for a rest, not before a brief stop for a look in Bloomingdales.
It was very hot and muggy, so a rest and clean up in our air-conditioned room was lovely. We grabbed the laptop and headed to a bookstore where we bought some Wi-Fi time to check e-mails and upload the NY Part 1 blog.
On to Channel 4 Irish bar from there for a cracking tuna steak dinner and New York cheesecake.
It’s difficult to find things to do later on unless you want
to spend a fortune propping up a bar. It’s too expensive to stay in the bars all night, and the coffee shops tend to close around 9pm. So much for the city that never sleeps. So far, the only things we have found that are open late are MacDonald’s and Burger King ( both are open 24 hours! ).
Saturday was our last day in New York. Breakfasted in another deli, superb - big bowl of fresh fruit salad, couple of large muffins and two large coffees for about £4.00. We then walked down to Greenwich Village and spent a few pleasant hours strolling around the streets. It’s the gay capital of New York, and you certainly know it once you are there. Lots of ‘adult’ stores with DVD’s in the window with such titles as ‘Truck Stop’ etc. It was a nice area, certainly one of the nicer, cleaner parts of New York. Although, there was still that now familiar New York smell, the kind of smell you’ll remember from playing down your local beck as a kid. It was very hot again today, and very humid - it’s a nice break to call into a shop now
and again just to get a blast of the air-con.
There was a small park called Washington Square in Greenwich Village, where there were some excellent buskers. There was a jazz group and even a guy with a piano and his mate on drums belting out some great tunes. There was also some evangelists preaching to a crowd of no-one.
On the way back to our hotel we picked up the tickets for tomorrows bus to Philadelphia, we leave on the 9am bus.
Got back to the digs and packed before heading out for a nice dinner at - you guessed it, The Hard Rock Café, again. We did look for somewhere else, but to be honest, there isn’t that much around and we were so tired and hungry that you get sick of searching for somewhere. We looked around for somewhere different but only really found the quick stop delis for a slice of pizza, or expensive restaurants, so before we knew it we were back at the Hard Rock. A tip though, the queues are usually huge for the Hard Rock if you want a seat in the restaurant. The best thing to do is
say you are just going for a drink at the bar - once in there, the bar menu is almost the same as the main menu, but the atmosphere at the bar is better anyway. So, you get a great night sat around the big bar and a good dinner but don’t have to queue for an hour!
We left the Hard Rock and headed for the Empire State building, as the guy on the door said the views were actually better at night, and there is no queue. It took about 15 minutes to get from the lobby to the viewing area. You walk down miles of taped off queue areas, I should think it would be at least a 1 - 2 hour wait if you were at peak times. The main elevator takes you from the lobby up to the 80th floor and took exactly one minute. There is then a second elevator for the last 6 floors to the viewing platform on the 86th floor, ( 1000 feet ). You can pay extra to go to the 102nd floor but the guy at the door said not to bother as you cannot go outside, so
Supreme Court.
Fans of 'Law and Order' should recognise this. the platform on the 86th is better anyway. It’s weird being that high, from the ground most buildings around New York look similar heights - once you are up there you realise how much higher you are that anything else around you. Only the Chrysler building seems to come anywhere close to you. The WTC towers must have been unbelievable to look out from.
Anyway, that’s New York done. We’ve been away a week today and it has absolutely flown by. New York was exciting, but it was also dirty and crumbling, everywhere seemed to be covered in scaffolding for repair. It’s been a great place to visit to see the main sights, but I doubt we will ever return.
Onward to Philadelphia next…..
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Gary
non-member comment
New York
Sounds like you are both having a great time. Why didn't you use the stairs in the Empire state building you lazy boy. Don't forget your grey sweat shirt for the Phili steps.