January 20th, 2010
‘Hop-on’ to New Yorks Best Sites
Our bus took us through New Jersey and what really surprised me was the farming land. I guess that’s why they call New Jersey the Garden State. We passed horse farms, produce farms, some very lovely trees and exquisitely kept yards. I do hope though, that New York is vastly different. We past Trenton, through the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan and onto the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which was perfect, because we had reservations with a boutique hotel in New York City and that was only a few blocks away.
After we cleaned up a bit in our hotel room, we headed out to Times Square, which wasn’t too far from our hotel either and purchased tickets to go on another bus! A tour bus that took us around New York City. Our driver, Mike, seemed really thrilled to be doing his job and Mark, our tour guide was an absolute joy and great guy. He was born in the Bronx, so we really enjoyed listening to him talk, his accent and attitude really made us feel like we were getting a genuine experience of New York. We were on the special bus lanes, right in the middle or rush hour, and Mark, our tour guide pointed out that most of the vehicles had one occupant. We just looked at each other, knowing that back home, we are the only ones in our cars too.
Later, we took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, and hopped back on the tour bus, let me explain, the tour bus is like a ‘hop-on and hop off’ bus, we can catch it almost anywhere in New York City. We took it to Ground Zero, which is still under construction, and we could feel the new energy surrounding this important project. We then walked to Battery Park, and to South Port docks. We ‘hopped-on’ a tour bus from there and went to the Empire State Building. ‘Hopped-on’ the bus again, but this time the traffic was horrendous and it took us almost an hour to get back to our hotel. What a terrific first day in New York City. We highly recommend purchasing the tour bus tickets to see New York, it’s really worth the cost.