Watching the New York City morning news we were shocked to hear of the severe storms, including two tornadoes that passed through the city last night. Several people were killed from falling trees. If we had stayed at the Liberty Landing where we were a few days ago, it would have been a frightening night.
The morning was cloudy but no rain. We rode out bikes to the train station and bought round trip tickets into the city for $22 a piece. A bargain when you consider parking in the city is $7 per half hour!!! Makes you understand why the majority of people ride the train.
Once again we pulled into Grand Central Station, bought a day pass on the subway and headed across the river to Brooklyn. The sun was out by this time and we followed the signs to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The bridge is a bit over a mile long and the view is magnificent! You need to be careful to walk on the left side or you may be run over by cyclists or joggers.
We could see the Statue of Liberty, the Staten Island ferry running, and the Manhattan Bridge.
View of the Manhattan Bridge.
Here's a close up of one of the tops of the supports.
The bridge design is art. I don’t know how old it is, but it sure is beautiful.
At the end of the bridge is a building with this statue on the top. I never found out what the building was though.
Across the street from that building was the city hall. They were evidently cleaning or doing something to the statues as they had scaffolding up.
The people who created these buildings were amazing craftsmen!
We had to find the subway at this point and make our way to Times Square. We got lost and took a short cut through a park. Lots of what I felt was bizarre art.
I did love the fountain though.
We made our way to the visitor center at Times Square where they offered a free 2-hour tour on Fridays. Times Square is named after The New York Times newspaper who built an office here back when it was an open market area. At first they laughed at the paper, but soon many others followed.
This wall was covered with confetti. Writing your wish on the confetti is an annual New York ritual.
All the wishes will be released on New Year’s Eve in Times Square when the ball drops.
Speaking of the ball. This is the ball that was made for the 100th anniversary in 2007 of the ball dropping ceremony.
It is made up of 672 Waterford crystals.
A different ball is now permanently in place on top of One Times Square. (the old New York Times building)
Times Square fell into pretty bad straights back in the 70’s. But a group organized to bring it back to its original grandness. Now, to have a building here it must meet certain zoning codes, such as having billboards on it and objects that move. Some meet the requirement by just having an LCD screen playing. This Hershey Building was neat. Lots of creativity here.
Our guide was a native New Yorker who was maybe 5 feet tall, max. She was full of information and sass! One of the buildings she took us in was a restored hotel, as many of them are. Check out the imagination going here. When the elevator goes up in the lobby, it looks like cartons of eggs underneath. Plastic of course.
After the tour it was back on the subway. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, not even an ice cream cone! Our plan was to find Little Italy, as there was a festival of some kind going on. We got a bit lost, but followed our noses to the food.
Pigged out and unfortunately didn’t save room for these desserts.
Or the chocolate dipped fresh fruit kabobs.
Our friend La Foote (a.k.a. Foote, Footski, Kevin Conner) has driven out from Minnesota and is waiting for us at the boat. He will travel with us the rest of this leg. Looking for the right subway entrance I passed these flowers for sale along the street. No time to buy any though.
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