Here's the moment you've all been waiting for.. hummmm... at least I have been waiting for: Pictures of my trip to New York
My first few days in New York were based on purposely getting lost and running around the city like an Energizer bunny and often finding myself next to well known landmarks by pure mistake. What I didn't expect was that the city would be THAT big... I walked from downtown Battery Park (pictured below)and continued walking until I reached the Hostel where I was staying at on 104th street.... So ya.. walking 104 blocks is not for the faint of heart... my legs were already pretty shaky by the time I was at Union Square around 40th street.
Battery Park
On that walk I passed by Ground Zero, had a flash visit to Times Square, had lunch around Wall Street and managed to get some pictures in the process.
Chrysler Building
Grand Central Station
I guess you could call this a "reconnaissance" mission of New York. I would later plan on returning to see these places in more detail and get better pictures. The problem was, I had one week to see New York and I wanted to get up close and personal with the city, getting away from the beaten path and seeing New York as
New Yorkers see it. I wanted to go into the little neighbourhoods and escape the tourist traps. Well, my problems were solved when I saw a sign in the hostel. I wouldnt need a week to see New York.... I could see it ALL IN A DAY with Jerry's famous New York tour!
Saturday morning I got up from just a few hours sleep (I had met some people outside the Hostel and we spent the night on the patio chatting over drinks - see previous post). 8.30am we departed with Jerry.
Jerry talks about the Brooklyn neighbourhood where we started our tour
Well, I take back my title as Energizer bunny and give it to Jerry. He's got a certain age on him but the whole tour (which lasted 17 hours and spanned roughly 30km) Jerry was ahead of the pack, walking and walking while us "youngsters" had trouble keeping up. Let's just say that we started the tour with a considerable amount of people.. but at certain points, our group started dropping like flies and before we knew it, we had a smaller bunch.
Our large group follows Jerry
We passed by a World War memorial on our way to the Brooklyn bridge where we paused for a
brief lecture by Jerry about the needless death of young people and purposelessness of war... I think Jerry's a Democrat ..lol.. (so am I).
Pedro on the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge in B&W. The group listens to Jerry speaking of September 11th and the reduced Manhatten skyline
Rebuilt World Trade Center station
Ground Zero
We passed by the Chapel across from the World Trade Center where round the clock workers had a short rest and food. We saw New York City Hall and the park in front of it where Mayor Michael Bloomberg often comes to greet the citizens of his city. We wondered around Wall Street
Wall Street
We watched a film nearby in rembemberence of September 11th. Just outside the theatre, we saw this infamous bronze bull statue which represents the prosperity and strength of the American economy.
Bronze Bull statue situated near Wall Street
We headed into Battery Park where we saw the globe that was located at the center of the World Trade Center plaza and survived the collapse of the towers, albeit quite damaged.
World Trade Center globe memorial shows its battle wounds
Next, we took the ferry at the foot of Battery Park to Staten Island passing by the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
Upon our return, it was lunch time! We were headed into China town. On our way there, we passed by New York's court district... there were historical courts everywhere, some of which we recognize from TV shows.
China Town
Lunch
We then headed North, passing through Little Italy where Jerry introduced us to some Italian friends. The neighbourhood was very small and inimate, full of people having lunch on patios and walking the streets. Live music was being played in some of the restaurants.
Little Italy
We then passed through SoHo where many high end fashion stores are located and the streets are lined with artists selling their wares...
We encountered this creative car depicting the famous skyscraper builders photo.
We walked through Greenich village and found this funny sign on a store window:
As it darkened, Jerry began showing us the distinctive lighting of buildings around the city.
Empire State Building
Chrysler Building
We walked along 5th avenue, checking out such famous buildings as the Trump Center, the Playboy Enterprises building (for those of us who noticed it..lol), Elizabeth Arden's Red Door, etc.
Soon we arrived in Times Square
Times Square
We went to the Marriott Hotel in Times Square to meet up with part of the group who had gone back to the Hostel to freshen up.
In the meantime, we tested the incredible futuristic elevators of the hotel going up to the 45th floor at a pretty high speed then dropping at an equally high speed down to the lobby and through the floor. The thrill of the "ride" was such that some of us went up and down a few times and returned later in the week to have another go!
Marriott Hotel lobby and elevators
Later we went to Rockefeller Center. It was closed at that late hour so I'm posting pictures of a previous day when I was there during the day and night.
Rockefeller Center
NBC Studios: The Today Show corner @ Rockefeller Center
We kept walking until we reached Central Park at which point Jerry announced that we had "survived" his 17 hour walking tour of New York. We took the bus up Central Park to our hostel and the day was finally over at nearly 2am.
Tommorow I'll post some more images of my trip including my visit to Madamme Tussaud's Wax museum, my Rollerblading trip to Central Park, photos of the Macy's Independance Day fireworks display, pictures from the Empire State building, the ferry ride to Liberty Island with great shots of the Statue of Liberty and more!
Stay tuned!
Pedro :o)
