Weather: Hot, hot, hot!! Steamy hot!!
If you're wondering, I didn't write a blog of Monday 28 May as this day was spent travelling from Vancouver to New York City. I got up late and I was at the airport at 9:30am for a 2pm flight. Lucky I was early as when I arrived, there was a huge queue at the Air Canada check-in counters.
I finallly made it through all the security and was at the gate at 11:45am. Then, my flight was delayed for 1 hour. We finally took off at 3:05pm and landed at Newark Airport, New Jersey at 8:15pm Vancouver time - which made it 11:15pm New York time - and it was stinking hot and humid. I finally arrived at my hotel at 12:10am on Tuesday 29 May after waiting for my luggage forever. When I go up to my room, I discover that they have given me the disabled room. Which is a little weird.
So today, I slept in until 9:00am and went to join the rest of the world for breakfast at 10am. There were only 5 people in the dining room. I'd missed the early morning rush.
After breakfast, I got myself ready to take on New York City. I asked the concierge for a map (not that I needed one but thought better to be safe than sorry) and she was kind enough to show me where I had to go to meet my tour group for my New York tour.
It didn't look far, and it wasn't really. She advised that it would take me about 20 minutes to walk it. I took 10 minutes.
One step outside the hotel and I was already sweating. Hot and humid - yuk! My walk took me past the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefelly Center and Radio City Music Hall. There was a huge queue outside Radio City.
When I finally saw my destination, one look to my left and I discovered the lights of Time Square. As I now knew where I had to be at 12pm, I wandered over to experience Times Square. And what an experience it was!
Lights, lights and more lights. People, people and more people. Sailors, sailors and more sailors! That's right - the Navy's in town! Lucky me!!
I went into every gift shop down the street not only looking for souvenirs, but also to get some relief from the heat! The stores had their air conditioners up full!
Before I knew it, it was 11:55am so I made myself to the Winter Gardens theatre to meet my OnBoard tour group.
I was the only one travelling alone - surprise, surprise. Our guide, Bronx Jim, was fantastic. Witty and very knowledgeable.
Our tour started with a cruise from Pier 84 to Battery Park for our 9/11 Memorial part of the tour - and I did not get sea sick, even though it was slightly rough. Before you enter the memorial, there is a separate memorial to the fire fighters who were killed in the attacks. There is also a memorial keeper who keeps the memorial clean and shiny.
We then made our way across the road to the main 9/11 Memorial. As can be expected, there is major security - not as bad as the airport but there are police everywhere.
The memorial was a little disappointing as it was more tourist attraction than a memorial. I, of course, was also one of these tourists taking photos of the memorial fountains, the callery pear tree that survived the attacks and the new World Trade Center buildings - the finished ones and the ones still under construction.
Originally, before I went in, I didn't realise that they were rebuilding the World Trade Center - with 7 buildings like the original set up. 1 World Trade Centre is almost completed, 2 World Trade Centre is already finished and construction on 4 World Trade Centre has begun. 1 World Trade Centre will be taller than the original as a show of defiance to those who attacked on 9/11. It's a pretty spectacular building.
We did a walk down Wall Street, saw the bull which was surrounded by people so it was pretty hard to take pictures, saw the original American Stock Exchange (as it was originally called), the New York Stock Exchange and the place where president Washington was inaugerated.
Then it was off to the Seaport Pier for a small snack break before heading for a boat cruise back to where we started on Pier 84. On the way, the boat captain stopped the boat for photo opportunity of the Statue Of Liberty. Pretty hard to take a clear picture as we were shooting into the sun and the boat was rocking like crazy.
Our next stop was to see the Flatiron building then we drove over to the Dakota Building, across the road from Central Park, which was the home of John Lennon and where he was killed. We then crossed the road to the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park and were given a talk by "The Mayor of Strawberry Fields" who also sees himself as the keeper of the "Imagine" mosaic. He looked like a homeless guy to me.
If you're wondering, I didn't write a blog of Monday 28 May as this day was spent travelling from Vancouver to New York City. I got up late and I was at the airport at 9:30am for a 2pm flight. Lucky I was early as when I arrived, there was a huge queue at the Air Canada check-in counters.
I finallly made it through all the security and was at the gate at 11:45am. Then, my flight was delayed for 1 hour. We finally took off at 3:05pm and landed at Newark Airport, New Jersey at 8:15pm Vancouver time - which made it 11:15pm New York time - and it was stinking hot and humid. I finally arrived at my hotel at 12:10am on Tuesday 29 May after waiting for my luggage forever. When I go up to my room, I discover that they have given me the disabled room. Which is a little weird.
So today, I slept in until 9:00am and went to join the rest of the world for breakfast at 10am. There were only 5 people in the dining room. I'd missed the early morning rush.
After breakfast, I got myself ready to take on New York City. I asked the concierge for a map (not that I needed one but thought better to be safe than sorry) and she was kind enough to show me where I had to go to meet my tour group for my New York tour.
It didn't look far, and it wasn't really. She advised that it would take me about 20 minutes to walk it. I took 10 minutes.
One step outside the hotel and I was already sweating. Hot and humid - yuk! My walk took me past the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, St Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefelly Center and Radio City Music Hall. There was a huge queue outside Radio City.
When I finally saw my destination, one look to my left and I discovered the lights of Time Square. As I now knew where I had to be at 12pm, I wandered over to experience Times Square. And what an experience it was!
Lights, lights and more lights. People, people and more people. Sailors, sailors and more sailors! That's right - the Navy's in town! Lucky me!!
I went into every gift shop down the street not only looking for souvenirs, but also to get some relief from the heat! The stores had their air conditioners up full!
Before I knew it, it was 11:55am so I made myself to the Winter Gardens theatre to meet my OnBoard tour group.
I was the only one travelling alone - surprise, surprise. Our guide, Bronx Jim, was fantastic. Witty and very knowledgeable.
Our tour started with a cruise from Pier 84 to Battery Park for our 9/11 Memorial part of the tour - and I did not get sea sick, even though it was slightly rough. Before you enter the memorial, there is a separate memorial to the fire fighters who were killed in the attacks. There is also a memorial keeper who keeps the memorial clean and shiny.
We then made our way across the road to the main 9/11 Memorial. As can be expected, there is major security - not as bad as the airport but there are police everywhere.
The memorial was a little disappointing as it was more tourist attraction than a memorial. I, of course, was also one of these tourists taking photos of the memorial fountains, the callery pear tree that survived the attacks and the new World Trade Center buildings - the finished ones and the ones still under construction.
Originally, before I went in, I didn't realise that they were rebuilding the World Trade Center - with 7 buildings like the original set up. 1 World Trade Centre is almost completed, 2 World Trade Centre is already finished and construction on 4 World Trade Centre has begun. 1 World Trade Centre will be taller than the original as a show of defiance to those who attacked on 9/11. It's a pretty spectacular building.
We did a walk down Wall Street, saw the bull which was surrounded by people so it was pretty hard to take pictures, saw the original American Stock Exchange (as it was originally called), the New York Stock Exchange and the place where president Washington was inaugerated.
Then it was off to the Seaport Pier for a small snack break before heading for a boat cruise back to where we started on Pier 84. On the way, the boat captain stopped the boat for photo opportunity of the Statue Of Liberty. Pretty hard to take a clear picture as we were shooting into the sun and the boat was rocking like crazy.
Our next stop was to see the Flatiron building then we drove over to the Dakota Building, across the road from Central Park, which was the home of John Lennon and where he was killed. We then crossed the road to the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park and were given a talk by "The Mayor of Strawberry Fields" who also sees himself as the keeper of the "Imagine" mosaic. He looked like a homeless guy to me.
 |
| Lady Liberty |
 |
| St Patrick's Cathedral |
Back on the bus and back to the Winter Gardens theatre and the end of our tour. We saw so many things, it was quite a lot to take in - Trinity church, Trump Towers, NBC Studios, the Today Show studios, Rockefeller Plaza, to name just a few.
 |
| Flatiron Building |
After our tour, I walked over to Time Square again in search of somewhere to eat. I thought I'd go to Planet Hollywood but this had a queue a mile long. Same story for the Hard Rock cafe and even McDonalds. I finally decided to have something at TGI Friday's. I got really quick service - I received my food withing 10 minutes and it tasted freshly made.
After eating it was time to go back to the hotel, clean up after sweating like a pig all day and relax. Boy, oh boy did we do a lot of walking. But it was worth it.
The walk was great but I did get a little scared as it was getting dark and, the further away from Time Square I got, the less people there were on the street. As I was waiting at the lights to cross over to the hotel, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. It was the Chrysler Building all lit up. Took a few photos.
Tomorrow, I plan to take it easy. I only have a night tour so I pretty much have a whole day free. The weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow - raining and 26 degrees - so I'm hoping the tour still goes ahead.
When I was finally back in my hotel room, I realised that I'm as red as a lobster. Sunburned nose, face and arms. I have a very white watch mark.
