New York - The Big Apple (New York City Tour)

Friday, 12 August 2011

Up as early as we could, and in Time Square by about 9am..  That's not bad!  Ok, now the clock is ticking.  On the way into the city, Tom received a phone message that his bag had been located!  This was a huge relief to him and so he set off to retrieve it from the 'Lost and Found' in Brooklyn.  Tom is so very good with directions and so off he went by himself..

Meanwhile, we decided to go ahead and join the Downtown hop-on hop-off Bus Tour.  This really is the way to go, especially when we don't know New York!  Each bus has a tour guide, who knows everything there is to know about the city!  The tour was really informative and super relaxing! It took us through the Fashion district, SoHo and NoHo, the area where celebrities live, past Little Italy and Chinatown, passed the business district and Ground Zero, the ferry stop and back up to Time Square.  You see apartment complexes and all sorts of detail you would miss entirely if you drove yourself for a look!  The round trip took about 2 hours, and turned out to be perfect timing as Tom made it back to Time Square, bag in hand, just before us!

Downtown 'hop-on, hop-off' bus tour.



Nice of you to join us on the bus, Tom!

 From here, we had some lunch then hopped back on the bus to get to the Empire State Building.  It's an awesome sight from ground level, soaring high into the sky. 
 

The Empire State Building from the pavement, the top not visible from the ground..

Once inside, we soon realised that alot of other people had the same idea, and suddenly we are back to waiting in lines again!  We cleared security and then there was about a half hour wait going from area to area.  On the way, we stopped off and went on the 'Skyride'.  This was a virtual skyride tour of New York and surrounds.  It was included in our City Pass but otherwise cost $42.00 which I think was way overpriced.  It gave us a bit of motion sickness! Anyway, back to the lines, up one elevator, then change to another to get to the top!  Once there however, it was well worth the wait.  The views are very grand in all directions.  We had a hand held radio 'thingy', which was a narrated guide to the sights which was really helpful to pinpoint landmarks.  This is a huge city!!

Looking north toward upper Manhatten. You can just see some of Central Park, middle left of the photo..

On the viewing deck of the Empire State Building - I can't help think of 'Sleepless in Seattle!'

The Downtown Business district of Lower Manhatten, with the Hudson River on the right.  The tallest building now, with the crane on the top, is the new World Trade Center under construction filling the space where the Twin Towers once stood.  About 70 of 102 floors are finished

After seeing the Empire State building, we hopped back on the next bus and continued a short distance before hopping off again to shop at the famous Macy's store.  Here we split up, the men buying suits, and us girls to the make-up, beauty department!!  Sarah had a full eyebrow treatment, and I had a facial and make-up done!  This was sooo very nice! What a treat!  When we were finished, we met the boys in the mens department, and Tom had settled on two suits, of which he bought one!  So the missionary shopping has begun! 

Macy's in Midtown. 

 After this fun interlude, we saw a comedy show with local comedians eating dinner as we watched.  This went for an hour and half, with some being very funny and others having to work hard to get a laugh from the audience.  Good though! It was very much a New York experience.

From here, we went to Madame Toussand's Wax Museum (thanks to the City Pass!)  This is very impressive and we enjoyed recognising the many celebrities, rich and famous in wax.  We had fun posing with some of them, in particular the President of the United States! This finished with a 4-D movie of Happy Feet! 

Just a casual afternoon with the First Family!!!



Thomas R. Bennallack for President?



Oh! Edward!

Princess Diana always had a soft spot with me! (she was pretty tall..)

Tom, joining the baseball team..

Deckhand Sarah with Jonny Depp

As we headed for the subway station, there went screaming past us about 15+ police cars with their sirens blaring.  I don't really think anything was going on, but it looked intimidating.  Then as we headed down into the subway, standing in full battle gear including big guns (real guns!), were four policemen who looked like soldiers dressed in black, much like our swat team.  Again, very intimidating, but apparently they were only 'on patrol'.  Unfortunately, my camera had died by this point  so I couldn't take a pic, I'm such a tourist but we had never seen anything like it.  One of them talked with us, as we were staring at them! And then on they moved 'to patrol!'  Well, we ARE in New York!!  We missed our train, then later realised we could have caught the one that came along, so it was quite late by the time we got back to the apartment..  One thing is for sure, in New York, you do a lot of walking!!