The next day, first we went to Empire Estate building. It is currently the tallest building of New York after WTC fell down. To reach the top of the building you need to have a ticket and of course a long waiting queue. At the 86th floor there is a deck which gives view of the city. Also there is an observatory at the 92nd floor with some extra fare - I didnt opt to go to that floor. The view of the city from the place was magnificent; however we went there in early afternoon; and probably the best time to visit the place would be around sunset (which is true for visiting every tall building). Reach the observatory/deck about half an hour before the sunset and stay there till a few minutes past the dusk. It took us almost 2-3 hours to have this trip.
The next destination was the Madame Tussauds museum of Wax effigies. Of course the Indian stars - Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai were not there, as they stay somewhere in the London Museum. The Tussaud's center have come up with a museum somewhere in China or Taiwan too. It takes around 2 hours to visit the whole place and of course depending upon your interest in the life-like wonders, its may take longer or lesser duration.
Of course all along we kept hopping on and off the tour bus; and after lunch the destination was towards the South end. From the South end of Manhattan, one gets ferry to Staten islands and to the statue of liberty. We decided to go to the Statue of liberty only to find that the queue for the ferry tickets was too long to wait. We saw the statue from that point itself and returned. The ferry ticket only covers the ride to and fro the Liberty island. To climb the statue you need a another ticket, and book it in advance. Of course one can book the ferry ticket too :)
On our way back to the Times Square, we visited the famous Bull of the Wall street of New York. I managed to tame the Bull within minutes as I danced all around and over the Bull :)
We then headed towards the other ferry point at the cross of 42nd street and 12th Avenue. We were late for the 75 minute ferry ride; so we asked for the 30 minute beast ride. this 32 minute ride is also the same distance, but in a speed boat :) and it was more fun in this ride rather than the conventional ferry ride. The boat took us to a spot within 200 meters of the liberty island and we took some pictures of the statue. It was a ride to remember and i'd suggest the people with a good (strong) heart to go for this ride rather than the slow tortoise paced ferry ride.
To end the day we went for the night tour. It takes you to the Brooklyn district of NY and the point where George Washington first landed in NY with his troops. From there one can get a wonderful view of the NY skyline. And if you go there around at dusk, the view is even wonderful, as the Sun sets behind the skyline of the NY. This tour also covers trip across the Brooklyn bridge, which is wonderfully lit during the nights.
We still had over a couple of hours to reach out boarding point for bus to Washington, so we headed to the Ground Zero, where once can find a huge pit in place where once stood the tallest building pair of the World - the World Trace Center of New York. It is planned to create another set of skyscrapers at the same point, even taller than the earlier one.
This was the end of the tour and we headed toward the point where we would get our bus to Washington :)
To visit NewYork completely one would need at least a week's time. There was always a lot of crowd in the Manhattan. The place almost never sleeps. It reminded me of my homecity of Mumbai. The Times Square is a sight to see at night. This is the same place where a count down to the New Year is seen on a digital screen by millions of people; and the hotels in the vicinity are booked months in advance by the people who want to see the countdown amongs the hundreds of thousands of crowd. Times Square - the place where an empty "Times" building annually earns millions of dollars just to host advertisings on billboards on its walls :) Times Square, the heart of New York, which does not sleep and is a treat to watch specially over the weekends and at occasions !!
Watch out for the next log describing the tour to the city that I'd call the Monument city of America.
Monday, July 31, 2006
NY Trip Day1
The day we landed in NY, the forecast mentioned thunderstorms and rains. However it was as if Shri Varun, the God of rains ,knew this would be my first outing in the country; kept a tight rein over the showering clouds. It was overcast throughout the day, but it never rained :) during the trip.
We landed at the Newark air terminal, which is about half an hour drive from the main city of New York. A bus from the air terminal took us to the Manhattan area (of course there was a fare to be paid). We had booking for 3 beds in a shared dormitory from 1100 that day to 1100 hours next day, so the first decision to be taken was to dump the luggage at dorm or roam around in the city with the luggage !! We decided to go by the latter option. (Man my bag was really heavy!! :))
The start of the actual visit was at the Broadway, where we got into the touring bus. We had booked three seats for 48 hours tour of the city (of course there are different packages), with a local touring agency; there were at least two prominent touring companies and we were in one of those. These touring companies have buses running around the Manhattan (and they also have such facilities in other major cities of the country) as we have those in major cities of India too. But these companies have hop on and off facility; as in you can get down at any point on the tour, and get on in another of their buses. The buses run at interval of 15-20 minutes and follow the same route. There are 3-4 routes depending upon the city. NY had 3 routes, including one night tour route.
Well we got into one of the buses and our plan was to just enjoy the tour - not getting down anywhere and listen to the host-guide on the bus. The tour went through main places of the city and the guide kept describing the importance of the place. It was a wonderful experience traveling on the upper deck of the double decker bus with open ceiling. (Well the lower deck is not meant for the visitors in the bus :) ).
At the end of the two hours tour, we went for route 2 and followed the same thing. We simply enjoyed the places of importance; noting down the places we would visit the next day. :) And then followed the night tour too :)
Since I am a vegetarian, I survived on pizzas both the days. I ate Sbarro's pizza and found it quite good - a nice Italian taste and pizza at its simplest and best form. And thankfully there were a lot of Sbarro outlets in NY (have seen only one so far in Chicago).
There were a few points which may interest some people, depending upon the time they have for touring NY, like the ferry to Staten Island (NY has 5 districts/zones as they are divided and Staten Islands is one of them) which is free and you have a ferry every half an hour going there. But the wait time for ferry is quite good, depending upon what hour of the day you plan to go there.
The Statue of Liberty. If you visit the place, the best thing would be if you can reach the top of the statue. you need to reserve a trip to the top a couple of days in advance and of course booking in a ferry from mainland to the Liberty island is also required.
Well at the end of the day, we decided we would have to visit the Tussaud's museum, Ferry ride (around the statue of liberty), the zero ground, where WTC once stood and the Empire estate building. Of course the rest of the places were part of the knowledge tour in the bus :) (means the other places didnt interest much).
We landed at the Newark air terminal, which is about half an hour drive from the main city of New York. A bus from the air terminal took us to the Manhattan area (of course there was a fare to be paid). We had booking for 3 beds in a shared dormitory from 1100 that day to 1100 hours next day, so the first decision to be taken was to dump the luggage at dorm or roam around in the city with the luggage !! We decided to go by the latter option. (Man my bag was really heavy!! :))
The start of the actual visit was at the Broadway, where we got into the touring bus. We had booked three seats for 48 hours tour of the city (of course there are different packages), with a local touring agency; there were at least two prominent touring companies and we were in one of those. These touring companies have buses running around the Manhattan (and they also have such facilities in other major cities of the country) as we have those in major cities of India too. But these companies have hop on and off facility; as in you can get down at any point on the tour, and get on in another of their buses. The buses run at interval of 15-20 minutes and follow the same route. There are 3-4 routes depending upon the city. NY had 3 routes, including one night tour route.
Well we got into one of the buses and our plan was to just enjoy the tour - not getting down anywhere and listen to the host-guide on the bus. The tour went through main places of the city and the guide kept describing the importance of the place. It was a wonderful experience traveling on the upper deck of the double decker bus with open ceiling. (Well the lower deck is not meant for the visitors in the bus :) ).
At the end of the two hours tour, we went for route 2 and followed the same thing. We simply enjoyed the places of importance; noting down the places we would visit the next day. :) And then followed the night tour too :)
Since I am a vegetarian, I survived on pizzas both the days. I ate Sbarro's pizza and found it quite good - a nice Italian taste and pizza at its simplest and best form. And thankfully there were a lot of Sbarro outlets in NY (have seen only one so far in Chicago).
There were a few points which may interest some people, depending upon the time they have for touring NY, like the ferry to Staten Island (NY has 5 districts/zones as they are divided and Staten Islands is one of them) which is free and you have a ferry every half an hour going there. But the wait time for ferry is quite good, depending upon what hour of the day you plan to go there.
The Statue of Liberty. If you visit the place, the best thing would be if you can reach the top of the statue. you need to reserve a trip to the top a couple of days in advance and of course booking in a ferry from mainland to the Liberty island is also required.
Well at the end of the day, we decided we would have to visit the Tussaud's museum, Ferry ride (around the statue of liberty), the zero ground, where WTC once stood and the Empire estate building. Of course the rest of the places were part of the knowledge tour in the bus :) (means the other places didnt interest much).
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