Sunday
May212006
Day 3 – Let the bus tours begin
Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 2:17PM
For day 3 we had planned on going on some of the bus tours that are available – I was anxious to go to the Natural History museum but most of the museums are shut on a Monday so we decided that the bus tour would be a good idea.
The grey line bus company offers a number of tours, but by far the best value is the all loops ticket which is $49 each but includes all4 of the tours that are offered and is valid for 2 days. While this sounds expensive it is one of the best ways to see round New York, and learn about the history of each area.
Following the previous days large cooked breakfast we had decided that we should have something a little lighter and stopped off for some oatmeal before heading out to brave the cold. The oatmeal was great and warmed us up nicely. There are lots of small places to go for breakfast around Times Square. If you are there you should stop in at some of these smaller places as the food is often great.
All of the grey line tour buses are the double deckers with the op floor open to the elements. This is by far the best place to sit as it means you get a good unobstructed view of everything as you go. The first tour we decided to take was Uptown. We had a great guide called Paul and a driver called Jean who took us around the uptown areas and talked about the various sites as we passed. It is strange to think that once upon a time New York was all trees.
Uptown
Paul was great at telling various stories about what had happened in the different areas of uptown as well as sharing general New York info with everyone. Apparently Broadway is the only street in the whole of New York that runs diagonally. It was originally a deer track that the Native Indians used to hunt on. On this tour we got our first view of Central Park. The park is man made from the positioning of the trees to the hills that are there – which is a bit odd. It is also one of the few places that you will find a lot of green space in New York.
On the uptown tour you will also pass the building where John Lennon was shot. It is right next to the park and is where John and Yoko staged their love in. Yoko apparently still lives in the building, though she has a different apartment. From the building you can see the imagine peace garden which was built as a memorial to John Lennon following a donation being made by Yoko.
How Much!!
On the journey was passed the Natural History museum and trump towers so we now at least know where to head when we look to go there later in the week. The uptown tour covers a lot of areas, including Grants tomb and you can get off at any of the stops to spend some time there. We also got our first real view of New Jersey – The Garden State. According to Paul the only reason it is called this is because the oil and petrochemical refinery state would not fit on the licence plates of the cars. New Jersey has a lot going for it through if for no other reason that Orange County Choppers and Jay and Silent Bobs secret stash (though Paul did not mention them)
One thing we had not counted on was just how cold we would get on the tour. Before getting on the bus we had bought some tea from a Starbucks, and were really grateful for it as on the top of the bus, when you took into account wind chill it must have been about -4.
in order to warm up a bit at the end of the uptown tour we went and had more tea (it was starting to look like most of the spending money would go to Starbucks at this rate) and then made the decision that the purchasing of a scarf and a hat would be in order to survive the next tour.
Following the successful purchase of additional warm clothes we went for a walk along 9th avenue. 9th is a really good place to go if you are looking for something to eat. They have all kinds of food at reasonable prices. Today we went for burritos which were huge but warmed us up and got us ready for the next tour – next stop down town.
Downtown
New bus, new guide and new driver. This tour took the same format as uptown but for me it was not as interesting. A lot of it went through the shopping areas and I was not as impressed with it though the guide made it as interesting as he could, His favourite line was – have you seen film X, well then you will recognize this from it. I have to say that it was quite interesting but there is only so much that you can take. The downtown tour takes you through/past Ground Zero, and this was a but odd. They have started re-building now but you can still see the blast damage on a lot of the surrounding buildings. One thing that I found odd was the fact that there were a lot people there taking photos- that did not seem right to me. There was however one nice story that we told to us.
As you go through the ground zero area, heading towards Wall Street – you will see all of these building that are battered and scared. Right in the middle of it all is a small church. It is not a remarkable looking building but it has some nice stained glass windows and you will know it when you see it. On September 11th when the towers fell almost all of the buildings in the blast radius were damaged structurally and had all the windows blown out. When the dust settled this we church stood in the middle of all the desolation and there was not a mark on it. All of the windows were intact and the walls/roof etc were just as they had always been – strange but true.
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel to warm up before doing anything else. While sitting on the top deck of the buses gives you great views it is not the warmest place to sit. The evening was taken up with a trip to the pictures to see Ultra violet – a new scifi vampire film that is out. It was mindless pap – but a good way to pass the time and the picture house had the worlds most comfortable seats which has to be a good thing.
The grey line bus company offers a number of tours, but by far the best value is the all loops ticket which is $49 each but includes all4 of the tours that are offered and is valid for 2 days. While this sounds expensive it is one of the best ways to see round New York, and learn about the history of each area.
Following the previous days large cooked breakfast we had decided that we should have something a little lighter and stopped off for some oatmeal before heading out to brave the cold. The oatmeal was great and warmed us up nicely. There are lots of small places to go for breakfast around Times Square. If you are there you should stop in at some of these smaller places as the food is often great.
All of the grey line tour buses are the double deckers with the op floor open to the elements. This is by far the best place to sit as it means you get a good unobstructed view of everything as you go. The first tour we decided to take was Uptown. We had a great guide called Paul and a driver called Jean who took us around the uptown areas and talked about the various sites as we passed. It is strange to think that once upon a time New York was all trees.
Uptown
Paul was great at telling various stories about what had happened in the different areas of uptown as well as sharing general New York info with everyone. Apparently Broadway is the only street in the whole of New York that runs diagonally. It was originally a deer track that the Native Indians used to hunt on. On this tour we got our first view of Central Park. The park is man made from the positioning of the trees to the hills that are there – which is a bit odd. It is also one of the few places that you will find a lot of green space in New York.
On the uptown tour you will also pass the building where John Lennon was shot. It is right next to the park and is where John and Yoko staged their love in. Yoko apparently still lives in the building, though she has a different apartment. From the building you can see the imagine peace garden which was built as a memorial to John Lennon following a donation being made by Yoko.
How Much!!
One thing that was astounding is the price to real estate uptown. For a 1 bedroom apartment near central park the starting prices are about £3,000,000.00. Oh and if you are interested – it is cash only!
On the journey was passed the Natural History museum and trump towers so we now at least know where to head when we look to go there later in the week. The uptown tour covers a lot of areas, including Grants tomb and you can get off at any of the stops to spend some time there. We also got our first real view of New Jersey – The Garden State. According to Paul the only reason it is called this is because the oil and petrochemical refinery state would not fit on the licence plates of the cars. New Jersey has a lot going for it through if for no other reason that Orange County Choppers and Jay and Silent Bobs secret stash (though Paul did not mention them)
One thing we had not counted on was just how cold we would get on the tour. Before getting on the bus we had bought some tea from a Starbucks, and were really grateful for it as on the top of the bus, when you took into account wind chill it must have been about -4.
in order to warm up a bit at the end of the uptown tour we went and had more tea (it was starting to look like most of the spending money would go to Starbucks at this rate) and then made the decision that the purchasing of a scarf and a hat would be in order to survive the next tour.
Following the successful purchase of additional warm clothes we went for a walk along 9th avenue. 9th is a really good place to go if you are looking for something to eat. They have all kinds of food at reasonable prices. Today we went for burritos which were huge but warmed us up and got us ready for the next tour – next stop down town.
Downtown
New bus, new guide and new driver. This tour took the same format as uptown but for me it was not as interesting. A lot of it went through the shopping areas and I was not as impressed with it though the guide made it as interesting as he could, His favourite line was – have you seen film X, well then you will recognize this from it. I have to say that it was quite interesting but there is only so much that you can take. The downtown tour takes you through/past Ground Zero, and this was a but odd. They have started re-building now but you can still see the blast damage on a lot of the surrounding buildings. One thing that I found odd was the fact that there were a lot people there taking photos- that did not seem right to me. There was however one nice story that we told to us.
As you go through the ground zero area, heading towards Wall Street – you will see all of these building that are battered and scared. Right in the middle of it all is a small church. It is not a remarkable looking building but it has some nice stained glass windows and you will know it when you see it. On September 11th when the towers fell almost all of the buildings in the blast radius were damaged structurally and had all the windows blown out. When the dust settled this we church stood in the middle of all the desolation and there was not a mark on it. All of the windows were intact and the walls/roof etc were just as they had always been – strange but true.
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel to warm up before doing anything else. While sitting on the top deck of the buses gives you great views it is not the warmest place to sit. The evening was taken up with a trip to the pictures to see Ultra violet – a new scifi vampire film that is out. It was mindless pap – but a good way to pass the time and the picture house had the worlds most comfortable seats which has to be a good thing.
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