New York City

Oct 23
Friday

Driving the 80 miles to the Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City went smoothly until I was almost thru the George Washington Bridge and Gypsy quit on me. Just froze up with the route still on the screen but nothing moving, in very heavy traffic.  Got off at the first opportunity and tried unplugging, etc. but she wasn't having it.  She was taking time off, and I couldn't blame her as she has been on the job every day all day, since June with  not one day off.    Poor thing!

It was 1pm with only 3 hours before the RV park office closed and I was still 30 miles away in the heaviest traffic around NYC and Jersey. Got driving directions from Google but didn't know how to make it talk to me so wrote it out by hand.  An attempt to follow written directions on freeways with many exits only lasted 2 miles and I was lost again.  Decided to try Gypsy again and she worked!  I didn't get mad at her, only told her welcome back (and don't do that again).  That night Bobbie gave me a tutorial on how to have Google talk directions to me.

Jersey City is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and Liberty Harbor RV park is, like Philadelphia's park, without ambiance but lots of convenience.

  Car commuters also park here and take the ferry into NYC. I explored the mildly seedy neighborhood around the park and spent the evening planning tomorrow in the Big Apple.

With only two days  here, I took a bus tour of the city first to orient myself.

Being the first pickup stop at the RV park, I got the best seat on the bus right in the front by the big window for excellent photo ops.

First stop,  Statue of Liberty.

No, I didn't get out and go up.

Don't like heights.

Lots of sights on every block our local guide, Christy, told us about.

A bonus was listening to our driver, Dave from Joisey, curse the other drivers just loud enough for me to hear. Especially the "idiot Uber drivers" who don't know how to drive offensively.  According to him if you only drive defensively in Manhattan traffic you are a danger. 

Watching the traffic up close as I was, I believe he was right.

The timid ones cause the traffic problems.

Now there are more Uber cars than the 13,000 cabs and business is down 60% for the cabs.
They aren't happy.

Got off the bus many times:

for a walk in Times Square,
 looking for the naked cowboy,
 but it must have been his day off

a walk in Central Park

thru John Lennon's Memorial
Strawberry Fields

with a busker performing some of John's songs for us.
He was very good.
If you closed your eyes you could almost Imagine it was him.

Amazing outcroppings of rocks all thru Central Park.

Rockefeller Center is smaller than it seems on the Today Show.

Like the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

Visited St. Paul's Cathedral

lunch in Greenwich Village at a good burrito place

World Trade Center
Ground Zero Memorial

The butterfly wing building is the new subway station entrance that was also destroyed.

On the site of each of the twin towers there is a square with waterfalls that pours into an opening in the center to symbolize infinity.

No one knows how deep the hole is.

In all there will eventually be six new buildings on the site.
This is the Triangle.

Day Two

My head was swimming with all I had seen yesterday, but I still had two places on my list to visit on my second and last day in NYC.

Took the 8:30a.m. ferry across the Hudson River with the rest of the commuters.

Off at Pier 11, I had intended to get on the Hop on/off bus, but a map told me it would be better to walk the 8 blocks to the Brooklyn Bridge while I was in the neighborhood.

So I did, passing this graveyard where Alexander Hamilton is buried, fittingly near Wall Street, since he was our first Secretary of the Treasury.  Love there is a graveyard near Wall Street to remind the movers and shakers of their mortality.

Yesterday and today I noticed so many New York women walking with big purses and lots of jewelry, very unconcerned about being robbed.
Is that a myth perpetrated by small town folk?



I decided to be a local and just went with my cross body bag and didn't meet one threatening person all day.

My theory holds that 99.9% of the people in the world are good.



You see so much on foot when your eye is moving slower.
Wait, am I in England again?!

Arriving at my destination I walk the pedestrian path in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, a lifelong dream of mine.

And another dream is realized, that of finally taking a pretty good selfie.

The bridge path is divided into pedestrian and bike lanes so you have to be careful or you could end up on someone's handlebars!

Now on the hop on/off bus I am getting frustrated because it is taking 45 minutes to go 8 blocks in this traffic.

So I get off near Times Square and walk the last 20 short blocks along 5th Avenue to the Met.
So much for using the hop on/off bus as a taxi!
Take a short detour into Central Park to sit and pretend to be a New Yorker.

Arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is already almost 2 p.m. and I must get back to Pier 11 for the ferry to NJ before dark.

Inside I'm asked at the ticket counter how much I want to pay. What a concept. Pay what you want. Since I had only 2 hours to see the museum I thought $10 was a fair price for the $16 ticket. Great!

Spent the time wandering thru the galleries, and sitting for a rest to contemplate the meaning and trying to understand some of the art in the Contemporary exhibit.

Outside on the steps I join the crowd for a bite of lunch from the hot dog vendor as I people watch and wait for the hop on/off bus to take me back to Pier 11.

This was a first.
 A juggler with a dog on his head in Chelsea.

Back on the ferry to Jersey City after a wonderful day on my own in New York City.
It's a great big friendly (really) city with lots to see and do.

I will be back to do some evening things when I come back to stay in the city, some theater, maybe see Woody Allen play his clarinet at the Carlysle Hotel on Monday nights.......
I love New York!!!!