We left Baltimore on Monday and caught the Greyhound bus to New York. This is by far the cheapest way to get around if you don’t have your own vehicle. We got a return ticket each $70 (about £35). Train was over $200 and plane nearly $300. But you can’t be choosy about where you sit, just grab a seat! Jen sat next to a Martin Lawrence look-a-like New Yorker called Shawn. Sounds like he was a bloody nice chap who gave loads of really helpful advise. Me… well, I got some overly camp bloke! He was ok actually, but he was very loud and insisted on shouting “oh my gaaaaad!” everytime I said anything (Shawn and I found it most amusing - Jen).
We are staying at the Milford Plaza on West 45th street (1 block from Times Square and Broadway… it’s not too bad, but the maids aren’t overly good at cleaning… there are bogeys on the bed side table! And the wi-fi internet access is $11/day! But, mustn’t grumble, its cheap, comfy and we have air con (even if it is the loudest in the world!)
So anyway, here we are in New York, with a few days to kill. It’s manic here, think of London on a busy Saturday night, multiply the buzz by 10 and you still ain’t quite there!
We bought sightseeing bus tickets (thanks for the tip Eric! Jen) that included entry into various attractions and headed Downtown. These buses are frequent and you can hop on and off as often as you like so are a great way to get around if you are new in town. The guides on the buses are full of useful local knowledge, not just about the usual attractions, but about things that you probably wouldn’t normally try.
Downtown is the lower half of Manhatten Island, where the twin towers used to be. It’s a really weird feeling being there, kinda hard to describe. I know we never knew anyone there or that was directly affected by 9/11, but we both still left the area with big lumps in our throats!
We then got another bus and did the “Brooklyn loop”. Jen really liked the brown stone houses that typify this area of New York. (but then I would, they sell for over $1million and that’s just the ones in Brooklyn!)
Finally, in the evening we ventured up the Empire State building while it was still light and stayed there until it got dark.
Next day we headed “Uptown”, the area north of Central Park. Checked out the American Museum of Natural History… very cool. Everywhere we go is like walking in a movie set, the Natural History museum from that Tom Hanks Film and in Friends, the subway from various movies, times square, empire state, Ellis Island from Hitch… We then walked back to Time Square via Central Park. Luckily we missed the Steam Pipe explosion on 41st St, only a few blocks from us, apparently there was flames and mud and street flying everywhere! Some impressive pics in the paper and one lady died of a heart attack, but luckily no more deaths.
Today was the day for catching the Circle Line ferry over to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, we started well by walking to the wrong port! 2miles later and we were back in times Square to catch the subway downtown again, still, it was good as it meant I got to ride the subway. Statue of Liberty is bigger than you think! Ellis Island was interesting and again some fabulous old buildings.
Tomorrow we are having a “shopping day” interspersed with Grand Central Station and another visit to the Library – we went on Tuesday, but didn’t get time for a proper look around and it looks excellent! (and is the one in Ghostbusters which is just cool!)… then on Saturday we head back to Baltimore to meet up with Bridget at Dartrans and hopefully get Charlie Camel out of his container. The news here is that the boat maybe ahead of schedule. A last minute hiccup with paperwork not being sent through from Kingstown was sorted (hopefully).
I will be speaking to Dartrans again tomorrow to make sure that everything is tickerty-boo. When we get Charlie back, this is when the proper holiday will start!
Thanks to everyone for the text messeges and posts on the blog :-)
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