New York
At first I thought I was going to be able to upload this
page to the net but the connections here come and go, moving quicker than
a yoyo in motion. If you are finally able to read this then it means
I've found a stable connection, but if there are no photo's it's because
there's no high speed connection. It's getting rather cold in this
room, no central heating, I have control of my own heater. Turning
it on I thought a bloody freight train was running through my room, no
way can I leave that racket going, I'll get no sleep at all. Oh well,
hopefully being in bed will warm me up a bit.
Time for a good night's sleep now and a tour of New York tomorrow if I can book one at this late stage. Otherwise I'll be on Shank's pony seeing whatever I can.
Up and out to Joe's restaurant for a bite to eat before taking off on my sightseeing adventure of New York. Now, the sign for Joe's has a big O on it also but I'm not sure if it means O Joe's or Joe O's. The walls are covered in photo's of anyone and everyone with the name Joe or the female equivalent, Josephine. The only ones I can actually see from my table that I do know are Josephine (Napolean and), and Joe Namath.
Across at Penn station I book my ticket to South Carolina. Unfortunately I can do nothing about the early morning arrival as the trains leave at the same time daily. I have checked this with Gigi and she says it's fine by them. They can sleep a few hours before it's time to pick me up.
I purchase a ticket from the hotel desk for the hop on hop off sightseeing, open topped, double decker bus. The guide is a lot of fun and not only tells us the serious stuff but throws in some humour too. I won't bore you with all the details but we did see the apartment where Katherine Hepburn lived. A couple of places that you may recognize from tv shows are the courthouse steps from Law and Order and the Medical Examiner's office from Quincy MD. We went past all the famous places, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller centre, Brooklyn Bridge etc. As we were passing St Paul's the guide told us to look behind the church and we will see where the construction is going on at ground zero. This is as close as we can get by vehicle, but we can get off and walk to it if we wish and catch another bus later. I stay on the bus as I want to do the full round trip this morning so I know where I want to get to after lunch. By time we get back to the beginning and I've had my lunch it's getting on for 2.30 and I want to be at the Rockefeller centre before dark so on to the next tour bus and a new guide. He was great fun, he was impressed that 5 of us were braving the cold upstairs. I told him I'd already done a tour this morning and had experienced the cold up here. This chicken had gone back to her room and put on all her thermals, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, beanie and scarf before venturing out for her 2nd bus tour. I was the only one left upstairs after a while, so he said I was the winner, did I want to know what I'd won.... nothing.....smart arse.
On arriving at the Rockefeller centre stop it is starting to get quite dark, although the sun hasn't fully set yet, with all the skyscrapers around it looks quite late. They are skating on the ice rink at the centre, but my feet are so cold I'm not taking my boots off for anyone, plus it's not cheap and I want to buy some souvenirs from here. I do get to the Top of the Rock, and have a couple of photo's taken, which of course I have to buy, I might never get this chance again. After the Rockefeller Centre I wander down to Times Square to catch the night tour bus that will take us across Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. Apparently no buses can go over the Brooklyn Bridge, they are too heavy.
This really is the city of lights, just about every building has some sort of video being played on one wall, be it a video for the store itself i.e the M & M shop has some cute M&M ads being shot, pity I didn't find this place earlier, I could have had some fun buyiing all sorts of M&M products. The Toys 'R' Us shop is massive, didn't get to get in there either, but there is a huge Ferris wheel in the foyer, did get a pic of that though. It's probably a good thing I didn't get in there or the kids would have had more toys than you could poke a stick at, and I figure they've got enough of those already. Some they don't even know about yet.
The tour bus arrives and there are 7 of us that brave the cold wind to sit on the top deck. The 2 young girls in front of me are travelling the world also, they have arrived from Europe, where they had a non-white Christmas in Paris and are making their way up through to Canada. They are definitely not dressed for the cold of New York but our driver, an ex-pat Pom, is well equipped with hats and gloves for anyone not prepared. On our tour around it actually started snowing, not enough to stick but enough for us to say we've been snowed on. The tour this time is very different from the day ones, they all stick around the main downtown areas and don't venture over the water.
Once again I won't bore you with the details of the whole tour but the driver showed us some interesting places where many stars started out, Jimi Hendrix, James Cagney, Jimmy Durante, Barbra Streisand are some that I can remember.
We could see Lady Liberty from a couple of places but not as close as if I'd taken the Statue of Liberty tour. Again, there is just not enough time to fit everything in so some things had to be left off the agenda.
All in all, this impromptu tour of New York has been fun. As the bus gets back to downtown the guide tells us as we are getting close to hotels in case we wish to leave the tour. As we get close to Penn Station I opt to leave, it's already 9.45pm and time I headed back for a good night's sleep ready for my train trip to South Carolina.
I have to pack the bags again so that is done before I go to bed. If I feel like a sleep in now that's ok.
7.30am and I'm wide awake and figure I'll have one last walk around close to the hotel, look for somewhere for breakfast and some prepaid postcards. Unfortunately, none of the shops carry the postcards and I don't have time to find a post office to buy stamps.
I make it to the station on time, get the bags checked in then it's just a matter of waiting for the boarding call.
Time for a good night's sleep now and a tour of New York tomorrow if I can book one at this late stage. Otherwise I'll be on Shank's pony seeing whatever I can.
Up and out to Joe's restaurant for a bite to eat before taking off on my sightseeing adventure of New York. Now, the sign for Joe's has a big O on it also but I'm not sure if it means O Joe's or Joe O's. The walls are covered in photo's of anyone and everyone with the name Joe or the female equivalent, Josephine. The only ones I can actually see from my table that I do know are Josephine (Napolean and), and Joe Namath.
Across at Penn station I book my ticket to South Carolina. Unfortunately I can do nothing about the early morning arrival as the trains leave at the same time daily. I have checked this with Gigi and she says it's fine by them. They can sleep a few hours before it's time to pick me up.
I purchase a ticket from the hotel desk for the hop on hop off sightseeing, open topped, double decker bus. The guide is a lot of fun and not only tells us the serious stuff but throws in some humour too. I won't bore you with all the details but we did see the apartment where Katherine Hepburn lived. A couple of places that you may recognize from tv shows are the courthouse steps from Law and Order and the Medical Examiner's office from Quincy MD. We went past all the famous places, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller centre, Brooklyn Bridge etc. As we were passing St Paul's the guide told us to look behind the church and we will see where the construction is going on at ground zero. This is as close as we can get by vehicle, but we can get off and walk to it if we wish and catch another bus later. I stay on the bus as I want to do the full round trip this morning so I know where I want to get to after lunch. By time we get back to the beginning and I've had my lunch it's getting on for 2.30 and I want to be at the Rockefeller centre before dark so on to the next tour bus and a new guide. He was great fun, he was impressed that 5 of us were braving the cold upstairs. I told him I'd already done a tour this morning and had experienced the cold up here. This chicken had gone back to her room and put on all her thermals, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, beanie and scarf before venturing out for her 2nd bus tour. I was the only one left upstairs after a while, so he said I was the winner, did I want to know what I'd won.... nothing.....smart arse.
On arriving at the Rockefeller centre stop it is starting to get quite dark, although the sun hasn't fully set yet, with all the skyscrapers around it looks quite late. They are skating on the ice rink at the centre, but my feet are so cold I'm not taking my boots off for anyone, plus it's not cheap and I want to buy some souvenirs from here. I do get to the Top of the Rock, and have a couple of photo's taken, which of course I have to buy, I might never get this chance again. After the Rockefeller Centre I wander down to Times Square to catch the night tour bus that will take us across Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. Apparently no buses can go over the Brooklyn Bridge, they are too heavy.
This really is the city of lights, just about every building has some sort of video being played on one wall, be it a video for the store itself i.e the M & M shop has some cute M&M ads being shot, pity I didn't find this place earlier, I could have had some fun buyiing all sorts of M&M products. The Toys 'R' Us shop is massive, didn't get to get in there either, but there is a huge Ferris wheel in the foyer, did get a pic of that though. It's probably a good thing I didn't get in there or the kids would have had more toys than you could poke a stick at, and I figure they've got enough of those already. Some they don't even know about yet.
The tour bus arrives and there are 7 of us that brave the cold wind to sit on the top deck. The 2 young girls in front of me are travelling the world also, they have arrived from Europe, where they had a non-white Christmas in Paris and are making their way up through to Canada. They are definitely not dressed for the cold of New York but our driver, an ex-pat Pom, is well equipped with hats and gloves for anyone not prepared. On our tour around it actually started snowing, not enough to stick but enough for us to say we've been snowed on. The tour this time is very different from the day ones, they all stick around the main downtown areas and don't venture over the water.
Once again I won't bore you with the details of the whole tour but the driver showed us some interesting places where many stars started out, Jimi Hendrix, James Cagney, Jimmy Durante, Barbra Streisand are some that I can remember.
We could see Lady Liberty from a couple of places but not as close as if I'd taken the Statue of Liberty tour. Again, there is just not enough time to fit everything in so some things had to be left off the agenda.
All in all, this impromptu tour of New York has been fun. As the bus gets back to downtown the guide tells us as we are getting close to hotels in case we wish to leave the tour. As we get close to Penn Station I opt to leave, it's already 9.45pm and time I headed back for a good night's sleep ready for my train trip to South Carolina.
I have to pack the bags again so that is done before I go to bed. If I feel like a sleep in now that's ok.
7.30am and I'm wide awake and figure I'll have one last walk around close to the hotel, look for somewhere for breakfast and some prepaid postcards. Unfortunately, none of the shops carry the postcards and I don't have time to find a post office to buy stamps.
I make it to the station on time, get the bags checked in then it's just a matter of waiting for the boarding call.
