round and round the boroughs

26/08/11

A nice sleep in this morning, actually slept more soundly, was followed by a trip back to our favourite haunt – 42^nd station – Times Square to locate the hop on and hop off ticket sellers. We couldn’t find the guy from yesterday, when you don’t want them hanging around and offering you something they are everywhere and when you actually want to find them you can’t! We grabbed a 3 day all loops pass and hopped on the down town loop. The cloudy weather chand to searing heat once we got a seat up top. We passed the flat iron building, some churches, Empire State Building, World Trade Centre complex – with some towers completed and some under construction. The plan is to build a tower 1776 feet high to represent Independence Day. We stopped off at the Statue of Liberty stop and grabbed some Star bucks for lunch. We followed signs to Statten Island Ferry and went straight on. Had some great views of the Statue of liberty and then I realised we weren’t actually going to the island  but past it – woops. We got off the ferry, had a 5 minute walk around Statten Island and headed back to get the right ferry. This time we checked the signs to the Statue of Liberty and grabbed a ferry that said ‘Liberty Island Ferries.’

We should have noticed something was up with the bag checks and so many people with David Matthew Band gear on. We ended up this time at Governor’s Island and walking to the concert – concert, what concert. Utterly confused we retraced our way back to the ferry and were told we better hurry to catch the last ferry back 15 minutes away. We attempted to run but my leg wasn’t interested and we made it back easily enough anyway.

Disillusioned with our efforts to get to the Statue we decided to get back on the hop on and off and headed to Central Park for a carriage or bike ride. We decided to go for the bike tour for 45 minutes. We saw some famous parts of the parks from movies, the ice skating area, the Bolto statue, 5 diamonds and the fountain from friends. As well as Strawberry Field, the John Lennon memorial area and apartment where he was shot and where Jackie Kennedy lived and passed away. After giving our tour guide quite the exercise workout carrying all three of us we headed back down town for dinner at a diner.

After some homely lamb chops caught the night hop on hop off. From the Empire State we headed into Brooklyn and back. Along the way we saw many  

Sites from movies and TV shows, especially from Carrie and the girls although I didn’t know what he was talking about. Had great views as we crossed over on the Brooklyn Bridge of Manhattan and the Statue at night . Heard the story of George Washington against the British Army on the hill before heading back to Times Square.

From Times Square we journeyed towards The Empire State Building – luckily for us open till 2am as it was now around midnight. We decided to pay the extra money to jump the queue and see the Imax simulator ride over New York. Then straight up to the 86^th floor and observatory. The views at night were breathtaking on all sides and our cameras all decided to die as well. Thankfully I had my i-phone handy to get some pics. After being on top of Manhattan we decided to call it a day, well technically morning and headed home. We have heard mixed reports about Hurricane Irene, I just hope it doesn’t cause to much damage or downgrades over time and doesn’t wreck all our plans for the weekend