New York Chronicles - Part 2

Okay.. It has been a long dirty wait for the second part and I apologize for the delay. Just incase you have missed out on part 1, do read it here.

Day 2 was another interesting affair. On the top of our list for the day was the visit to the statue of liberty and it was not meant to happen that day, thanks to the scores of people who had lined up to catch a glimpse of the mighty monument during the long weekend. Well, as you would have guessed, it was past non when we arrived at the Battery park after lifting our lazy bums from bed. We were greeted with one hell of a queue which meant a ghastly wait time of 2-3 hours. But, Thanks to our New York Pass we were able to bypass the ticket queue and collect our entry passes. More about NY Pass later in the post. So we decided to come back early the next day and take the ferry.

Hat Tip: 4

The access inside the Statue of liberty is limited. There is a museum at the pedestal for which the tickets are given out at 8 AM every day and the tickets are in huge demand. Also, the “access inside” is not to be confused with entering the torch or the crown of the statue. The official site clarifies that the entrance to the torch has never been open and the crown has remained closed to the general public since 9/11. Your best shot at getting a pass is if you are at the queue by 7.30 in the morning. And it was near impossible for us..!:-o)

The remains of The Sphere which used to stand majestically outside the twin towers have been placed here, just outside the battery park. An eternal flame has also been lit and it serves to memorialize the victims.

The sphere and the eternal flame outside the Battery park.

Then we went for a long walk through the Financial District via The Broadway passing the famous Wall Street Bull, The Trinity Church, of course the Wall Street and other attractions and finally reached the World Trade center. There is nothing much remaining there. A monstrously huge new structure is slated to be up by 2010. There is a very small Information center at one end which carries posters remembering the attacks.

Trivia: The Broadway is one of the 2 streets in Manhattan that doesn’t have the suffix street to its name. The other is “The Battery”.

Above - WTC Site. Below - 9/11 Memorial.

Any visit to New York City is physically very exhausting for even a person with the strongest of builds. With the condition of my leg, it was near impossible. Having covered this much during the past day and a half itself was a personal high for me. Anticipating this is advance while planning the tour, we decided to go for packaged tours through the city. After going through a couple of web sites we zeroed in on New York Pass and bought a 3 day hop in - hop off package, online.

Hat Tip 5:

Learning to face reality...! We hoped to find a huge business in the company we chose aka New York Pass. Instead, we found that it was not the major business operating in the area. But it was not a let off though. New York Pass had some kind of a collaboration with NY City Sights which operated most of the fleet. But the problem was with getting around and finding offices where they gave away the passes and the tickets. As an afterthought, we realized that our life would have been easier had we carefully planned our itinerary.

In addition to sightseeing tickets for most attractions, cruises and others, they offer you tours on a roof top bus. Well, the rain gods chose to open up many a time during our visit. In spite of that, these buses proved to be worth while saving us from a LOT of walking. Some of the guides that we encountered during the tour were good enough and gave a lot of trivia...

Hat Tip 6:

One thing that is very hard to find in NYC is restrooms. Unlike the rest of the US, there are almost no public restrooms. With every square inch costing millions, most businesses don’t have huge ones too… So, you eventually end up standing in yet another queue for that too…! Ironically, this queue is longer than the queue for the actual business…!

Back to where we were…

We hopped on to one such Downtown tour and had a nice ride through the Brooklyn Bridge and the UN Building. The United Nations building was a pleasure to watch. I drove past the building thrice during my visit and each time the windows were of a different color :-o). Although it is located in the heart of Manhattan, NYC it is considered to be “International territory”. Interesting, huh? We reached Times Square via Chinatown, Rockefeller center and others...!

The UN Building. It is International Territory...!

Well, I didn't leave the US. This is somewhere in Chinatown.

Rockefeller Center. The Home of the NBC Studios.

From Times Square, we then boarded an Uptown Tour. The uptown is really an “upscale” residential area with skyrocketing real estate prices. They mean it when they say Residential. There were almost no businesses in most of Uptown. A lot of hi-profile celebrities have their homes here. The statement Money can’t buy everything takes an interesting dimension here. A few celebrities like Madonna were denied a home in here as the paparazzi would create a nuisance and the others – who are equally rich would lose their privacy.

A few old buildings from Uptown

We also took a little break and strolled around the American Natural History Museum. This is my first visit to a Natural History Museum and turned out to be quite interesting. Hard pressed for time, we checked out the Dinosaurs and the African Mammals. The displays were quite surreal and the presentation was superb. Savor a few of these for yourself.

A Huge Dinosaur - Reconstructed.

The section on African was both informative and beautifully set. Who would believe if these photos were taken in a building in the center of New York City!

The rest of the tour took us on a complete circle around the Central Park. The idea of having such a huge garden around in this concrete jungle is amazing. What is more astonishing is the fact that this park is designed by architects...! This means that every rock and every tree has been artistically placed in that location by a team of professionals! Wow!

The uptown is also where The Plaza hotel is..! It costs $1550 for a night's stay here.. Yes, you read it right...! Off late, the hotel is being converted into condos and sold to individuals. So If you are wealthy enough, do buy one and don't forget to invite me for a sleep over!

A view of the plaza hotel.

Post dinner, we decided to go on a Night tour on the roof top bus. Queues. Waiting. Same old story. Half an hour later, we boarded one…The 3 hour tour was really enjoyable with the City glowing in lights…! We crossed the Hudson and entered Brooklyn to get another awesome view of the city down from a pier. And the view of Times Square bustling with activity and flocking tourists would never cease to amaze me for eternity.

And there we called it a day…! It was another helluva day with a lot of interesting sight seeing…

I leave you to relish a few images of New York by night...!

The Famous Coke Sign in Times Square

One, Times Square - This is where the New Year countdown happens.

The Chrysler Building. IMHO, This is beautiful than other skyscrapers in the city.

Above and Below: The Empire State building lighted up in USA's colors for July 4th. Read more about how the building is lit up for different occasions here...

The Grand Finale - A breathtaking view of the Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn.

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