The City That Never Sleeps
Our last full day in New York, we would need to be strategic to see everything that we wanted to see. Maybe the best way to move from landmark destination to landmark destination is to become a traditional tourist and use those big red double decker tour buses.
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
For a moderate fee you get taken on a circle around the main sights of New York, where you can get off, do your thing, and get on another bus later in the day. We knew how long it too us to walk the entire island of Manhattan, so this would be a great alternative to save us some time. And we get a play-by-play tour as we go. The first tour guide was hilarious, a typical Bronx bomber, with his heavy NY accent, and strong opinions about everything. "Their Hot dogs do not taste lake Filet Mignon", "Yellow Rat Bastard... that's my brother's store, well he doesn't own it, but they named it after him". "I hate pushy people, have some courtesy for your fellow tourists"... the last one directed at some people that got a bit impatient while boarding the bus.
We start right by our hotel, and work our way through Greenwich Village, Soho and Tribeca to Wall Street and Battery park, we're going back on the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty in the daylight. Even our tour guide recommends "the ferry ride that comes free with every bus tour, well it comes free regardless of the bus tour".
Battery Park
Since we have to walk through Battery Park to get to the Ferry, we take a few minutes to appreciate some of the monuments there. The first is a rather sad looking ball, until we discover that it is a piece of art called "The Sphere", and it used to be installed at the center of the plaza at the World Trade Center. It was damaged but not destroyed, and the firefighters brought it here, where it was installed beside an eternal flame as a memorial to those lost on 9-11.
STATEN ISLAND FERRY
Back we go to Staten Island, for our mid-day view of Lady Liberty... you know I really thought she was a lot bigger than that. Funny how TV and movies can make things bigger than life.
As we leave the harbour it is much easier to see the famous Ellis Island where millions of immigrants streamed through into the new world. It's almost a forgotten landmark sitting abandoned beside the big green statue holding a golden flame.
Since we had come to Staten Island twice now, it only seemed fitting that we should at least check out the main area, and have a bite to eat at a traditional New York/Staten Island restaurant. Ruddy & Dean is a short walk from the terminal past the City Hall, it has amazing food, and an even better view of Manhattan, even if it's view was quite smoggy for some reason today.
As much as we enjoyed our lunch, we had stuff to see that wasn't on Staten Island, so we headed back to the Ferry terminal. Of course, we did have to stop and say 'hi' to the horses guarding the concourse. Once we were back on the water, and admiring the old lighthouse, we noticed what was causing all the smog, a huge black smoke fire is burning on a freeway behind the city.
The dark sky creates an interesting backdrop to the Green Statue of Liberty, and orange Staten Island Ferries. Turns out a huge tanker truck has crashed on the New Jersey turnpike.
2 free trips to see the Statue of Liberty... seriously, this is the best tourist deal in New York.
Once we are back on dry land, we head to the pick up spot for the Hop-on Hop-off bus... it has really dropped in temperature now, and the wind is blowing, must be -15 (5 Fahrenheit) with the wind chill. We are approached by a french couple who have been waiting for the bus for 30 minutes, and they suggest sharing a cab, just before the bus comes into sight. Sucks to be a french tourist waiting in the freezing cold for 30 minutes, we only waited about 5 minutes. The nice thing about the cold temperatures was that we had our choice of seats on the top deck.
Back on the bus, we work our way around the corner of Lower Manhattan, and into the South Street Seaport area, where there is great views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
The Seaport is a classic Fisherman's Wharf style area with tall ships, shops, restaurants and tours.
More scary than the projects or the brownstone collection of apartments is the Bellevue Sanitarium, it's dark bricks with climbing ivy leave a grim reminder of how much torture and death must have occurred here... our tour guide emphatically states that she believes it's haunted.
After winding our way through China Town, Little Italy, and the East Village, we go past the United Nations again, our next stop would be in the heart of Midtown.
TOP OF THE ROCK
Almost smack dab in the middle of Midtown is the immense Rockefeller Center, home to the Christmas tree, skating rink, and NBC Studios where they film Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Today Show, Saturday Night Live, and is the fictional home of the new Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin comedy series 30 Rock. Turns out 30 Rock is actually filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
The views at the top of the 70 floor GE building is amazing, probably more impressive than the Empire State building, mostly because, well, you can see the Empire State building.
Central Park and the Upper West side, the George Washington Bridge in lights
FIFTH AVENUE
Enough sightseeing, time for some serious business, it's a short walk from here to the trendy Fifth Avenue shopping district. As it's getting closer to Christmas, the lights are coming out. The Rockefeller tree may not be ready, but many more trees are twinkling, Cartier has wrapped their store with a giant light bow, and Tiffany's snowflake brings a real holiday feel to the area.
It seems everyone has some type of festive window display a week before Thanksgiving, Tiffany's has covered their famous storefront with pine garland and lights, don't even ask me to explain what this window display at Bergdorf Goodman was trying to sell.
The traditional light displays at Louis Vuitton and the Apple Store cube fit right in. The Apple store is a glass cube in a square that has an escalator that leads down into the store below ground.
We did some investigating at Tiffany & Co., but the old adage "if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it" was in full play. Maybe Gucci and Cartier weren't right for us, but Disney was. Besides the Disney New York store, there was one more stop on Fifth Avenue we had to make, the infamous FAO Schwarz. In 1862, the four Schwarz brothers operated their first shop in Baltimore, Maryland. From there, three of the brothers ventured forth to each open their own Schwarz "Toy Bazaar" in Philadelphia, Boston and New York. Today, FAO Schwarz is not only the oldest toy store in the United States, but one of the oldest retail establishments of any kind.
Multiple floors of the widest variety of Toys, stuffed animals, and games. The centerpiece on the second floor is the Big Piano that was featured in the Tom Hanks movie "Big". The Piano and the lifesize Lego characters are impressive but nothing compares to the Muppet Whatnot Workshop. You can create your very own Muppet using a huge variety of options... so cool!
Jersey Boys
It was our last night in New York, and since our last Broadway play was a little dark, we decided to splurge and go see the hugely popular Jersey Boys. Tickets weren't available at TKTS because it was too popular, so we had to pay a premium, but the musical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons was the best show we saw. Almost every song they played we recognized... "They sang that too?". The performer was bang on with Frankie Valli's unmistakable voice on hits such as "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Working My Way Back To You". Oh, What a Night as we enjoyed "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)".
One more night in our Pennsylvania Hotel, the last 2 nights we have a group of teenage boys in the room next to us. Apparently they are part of a huge group of kids in town for some cheerleading competition, and they are making the most of their nights in the Big City... Even after complaining it's another night of drunken teens and honking horns, maybe we'll sleep in Philly.
I almost go into hysterical laughter on Friday morning, as we cross the street to the train station, and pass the "Don't Honk" sign... that may be the funniest sign in all of New York.
3 Broadway Shows - $600
2 Canucks Games - $400
1 Letterman TV Show - Free
0 Lineups
A week in New York in the middle of November... Priceless!