New York City Day 3
Sunday 3rd July 2011
Woke up to thunderstorms and heavy rain which did not look too promising for our trip round Manhattan Island. Nevertheless we decided to carry on regardless and went down for our breakfast in the Starbucks on the fourth floor of the hotel. Whilst having my latte and biscuit I noticed a city gent having his shoes polished on one of those box seats. I have seen them in films and read of them in old books such as those by Charles Dickens but I had never imagined that they were still in use so I had difficulty in taking my eyes away. The well-dressed gent with his suit and tie was reading his newspaper while a coloured man was busy buffing his shoes ready for the day ahead.
We set off in good time to walk the short distance to the ferry terminal which happened to be not far away from where our ship had berthed but we got caught in a heavy shower of rain. This being New York however all we had to do was hand over $5 to an enterprising umbrella salesman who had appeared on the street as if by magic. Buying an umbrella is of course a sure fire way of getting the rain to stop and sure enough it turned to light drizzle after a few minutes and we were able to reach the seafront without getting too wet.
Our ferry was due to leave from pier 83 at the western end of 42nd street with ‘Circle Line’ cruises and although we arrived in good time there was still a long line waiting in the by now familiar cattle barrier formation. We had our photographs taken at the end of one line then re-joined another. Once the gate opened we all moved smoothly on to the boat and it was not long before we moved off. The boat was quite large and consisted of a lower fully enclosed deck with a partially open upper deck. Although the weather was still misty with a light drizzle we decided to stay on the upper deck under the shelter of a canvas canopy where we stayed for the whole trip.
The boat moved out of our berth and down the Hudson River to take an anticlockwise circuit of Manhattan Island but first it made a diversion towards Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island was where all the immigrants to America had to report before entering the country and looked quite welcoming through the drizzle. The Statue of Liberty looked smaller than I imagined but I suppose it is the significance that counts especially if you have been thrown out of your own country. After waiting for everyone to take photographs the boat then returned to Manhattan Island and joined the East River. We had a running commentary during the whole of our trip which was very informative whilst at the same time not too serious which made up for the poor visibility. Many of the larger skyscrapers are around the southern tip of Manhattan where the bedrock is particularly solid and we were able to see them through the gloom. A helicopter took off from a heliport near Wall Street as we passed by and we went under first Brooklyn Bridge then the Manhattan Bridge. We sailed past the Yankee Stadium on our right then the smaller old tower blocks of Harlem on our left before we turned to join the channel taking us round the north side of the island. This channel is not a regular route for boats and the bridges are much closer to the water level. We only just managed to clear one of the bridges and we had to wait for a train to go over a swing bridge before it opened to let us pass through. The northern side of Manhattan is not all built up and there is a fair amount of greenery in this area.
When we reached the Hudson River again we turned south towards our berth passing a small lighthouse that has been dwarfed by a new bridge. Many of the older tower blocks in this area have the circular wooden water towers on the roof which are a mandatory fire protection feature.
The weather slowly improved over the morning and the rain had cleared by the time we got off the boat so we took a leisurely stroll to the Empire State Building on the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. On the way we were looking for somewhere to have our lunch and walking past our hotel we noticed a place called ‘Juniors’ across the road. We had noticed this place as somewhere to have our breakfast but had been too busy to give it a try so we decided to give it a go for lunch. The café or restaurant turned out to be bigger than it seemed from the road and served all American food in all American portions but it was not cheap. We tried not to eat too much as we had booked a meal in the hotel restaurant for the evening but even so we were glad of the walk to the Empire State building to walk off some of the calories.
Our tickets for the Empire State building tour had been provided in advance as part of our Bath travel package but we could use them at any time. When we arrived the queues or lines were almost non-existent but it was a circuitous route to get to the elevators and by the time we reached them there were quite a number of visitors waiting. We had to have our bags checked and our photo taken for the purpose of selling us a souvenir copy even though we had no intention of buying one. We had already bought one from the boat trip earlier in the day. Eventually we got to go in the elevator which took us up to the 80th floor. Then we had to walk a short distance to another elevator which took us to the observation platform on the 86th floor. The sights from the top are certainly impressive but it was still a bit misty and the building is so high that most things seem small in comparison to the building you are on. Empire State was a slang term for New York before the building took it over and since the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Centre it is once again the highest building in New York.
When our visit had finished and we had found our way out of the building we walked back to the hotel and got ready for our evening meal in the revolving restaurant on the 49th floor. The revolving part actually consists of two floors with a buffet and bar on the top floor and a sit down restaurant on the lower floor. The Bath travel night time tour that was cancelled included a visit to the buffet floor but we had our meal in the sit down lower floor. The restaurant took just over an hour to do one rotation which is about how long it took us for our meal. Our meal was a ‘price fixee’ at $79 each which with the wine worked out about $250. The meal turned out to be very good but the waiter in common with many of the hotel staff were not very helpful which was a pity since all the other people we met were warm and friendly. The hotel at 49 floors is not the smallest tower block in New York but neither is it the tallest and as we were on Times Square several of the nearby towers blocked our view. We did however have a good view of the air conditioning plants and aerials on the roof.
After our meal we went up to the top buffet bar and had a drink sitting at a small bar stool table while the room did a further rotation. The buffet was an eat as much as you want type of place and we watched a group of four youths load up their plates to overflowing then go back to the buffet for a refill. We did not have far to travel back to our room on the 22nd floor and it was not long before we went to bed for a good night’s sleep.
