December 3, 2010 – See it All Tour

Today we took the train in to Manhattan walked around Time Square and then met our On Board Tour bus. It was a small little shuttle bus that held about 26 people. It was 5 1/2 hours but flew by and we saw practically everything. It starts off in Time Square and you get to learn a lot from the tour guide. Did you know you have to have so kind of neon light to have a store in Time Square? We saw the World Trade Center site where they are still building the memorial and only one of the new buildings has begun instruction. We also saw the church next door that survived with no stain glass damage because a huge tree blocked all the wreckage. We also saw a statue of said trees roots in front of one of the church’s. In Battery Park we saw The Sphere, a statue that once stood in the center of the Twin Towers plaza. It had been recovered from the wreckage and has a huge gash in it but amazingly wasn’t completely destroyed.

   

This is the Dakota Building where John Lenon was shot (in front of that door on the left side of building. Yoko Ono owns the entire 7th floor.


Rockefeller Center
  

The buildings down by Wall Street were SO close together. Cars couldn’t go down some of the alleys in between.  
We saw the New York Stock Exchange,  Wall Street, The Charging Bull, Trinity Church (Seen in National Treasure), World Financial Center, Federal Hall, Madison Square Park, Flatiron buildings; South Street Seaport where we ate lunch, walked around a mall, and then took a water taxi out past the Statue of Liberty (the torch is 300 ft above New York Harbor), Ellis Island, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge,  and under the Brooklyn Bridge and then up the East River to see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. We saw where Captain Sully landing the plane in the Hudson and the US Customs Building, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, NBC’'s Today Show set, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Strawberry Field’s (John Lennon) and Imagine sign in Central Park,  Yoko Ono’s penthouse in the Dakota Building (from outside of course) and the place where he was shot, Lincoldn Center for the Performing Arts, Woolworth Building, Met Life Building, Trump Tower, Noho, Soho, Central Park Zoo and Children’s Petting Zoo, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, Red Cube Statue, Love Statue, Trinity Church, Wall Street, Staten Island Ferry (which is free), Federal Reserve Bank (apparently a quarter of the world’s gold bullion is stored underground here), Washington Square Park, New York Public Library, Greenwich Village, Maci’s, Herald Square, the place where the horse carriage horses sleep at night (in a 4 story building they ride elevators up to), a huge battleship, and so much more.  I saw the helicopter landing pad along the water (I remember this from Fool’s Rush In) but apparently it’s where all the big wigs (presidents, pope, etc.) come and go from. 

  Pier 17 and the Brooklyn Bridge. They are currently refurbishing part of the bridge so a section of it was tarped off.                              
Brooklyn Bridge
Ground Zero. They are constructing the World Trade Center Memorial. Two huge fountains that just fall over walls into the ground will go where the two main buildings stood. You can see the hole of one of these fountains (blank granite). The names of all those killed will be written around the black granite. They are building 5 (I think) buildings but only one has begun construction. The tallest is going to be 1776 feet tall. Below is that 1st building under construction.

The subways were funny. Everyone pretends or is sleeping. I tried casually snapping this picture (see the guys sleeping in red hat). Seriously like the entire train car. It was so strange! You could tell how was not a tourist (sleeping and they also tend to wear black jackets).

Top of the Empire State Building Look at the glow of Time Square. There is actually a rule that if you have a business there you have to have neon on your sign.
 
Kept trying to catch a picture of a rat in the subway. Saw about 5 or  6 but always just a blur in the shot or didn’t get it out in time. Many colorful characters are hanging around or in the subway (and I’m not talking about the rats).