New York City: Day Two

We packed a lot into a day yesterday. We had a plan and an agenda, but it was still hard not to think we'd sort of bumped into our destinations by accident. Here's what we did.

Our first stop was to be Central Park. We were to take PATH to the New York side, then walk to another subway station where we would board the C train to Columbus Circle. That was all well and good, but it was here we discovered a weakness in Google Maps. For some reason, it had us walking to a different station when we could have boarded the C train from the same location we'd left the PATH. None of this is really important to the story, but it describes the day. We'd look at the directions on Google Maps and then ask ourselves, well, do we *really* have to walk a half mile, or can we do that right from here? Or, do we *really* have to take the 4 train? Or will the 5 train get us to the same place? And don't even get me started on the Express trains. Well...we did make our way to Central Park via the C train, but only after exiting the station, going above ground, checking the directions and then going right back to where we'd disembarked from PATH. When we got off the C train, we were here:

From there, we looked around for some indication of where we should go next, and then asked a hot dog vendor..."Which way to Central Park?" He smiled and indicated...it was just across the street. Duh. And sure enough. We crossed the street, and then I looked back and up. It was just as I imagined it...a green oasis right in the middle of this city of skyscrapers.

Right away, we met up with the residents of the park, gathering nuts at a furious pace.

We ambled along, looking this way and that way. There were thousands of pink-shirted people, there for a march against breast cancer. One of their t-shirts said, "We Love Boobs." Here are some other things we saw.

This next one is going into my sketchbook.

My word for this One Word Wonder: "Romantic." And romantic or no, these rides were very expensive. It was something I wanted to do, but even the cheapest of the tours was north of $40 per person. I noticed one driver with a tag that said $4 per minute. I really hate being gouged as a tourist, and so we decided against the ride out of protest, if nothing else. Still, I was glad to have seen them. No charge for looking.

Several of you recommended we find the John Lennon Strawberry Fields memorial. There it was.

A sign nearby designated it at "quiet area" and specifically stated there was to be no amplified sound nor street musicians. Apparently the street musicians didn't care because there was someone there playing John Lennon music. We didn't mind the music, but the sign amused us.

A little farther on, we took a seat on a bench and looked out over this small lake. There were folks in row boats. You can see one just under the bridge.

From there, we decided no visit to New York City could be complete without purchasing a hot dog from one of the many carts at the street corners. A friend advised us to find one that served hot onions and sauerkraut. We found one on the 4th try. It was a hot dog like any other hot dot, and it was good.

After that, we decided to move on to our next destination, The New York Highline.

Have you ever wondered what a subway station looks like? Wonder no more. Here's a picture of the one where we waited for our next train. It's the 72nd Street station.

Most are dirty, crowded, extremely noisy, and they smell like....well, let's just say there are no public restrooms anywhere in the system. On the other hand, there are lots of good musicians and art such as these mosaics.

When we came up above ground again, we had about a half mile walk. One can get on the Highline at quite a few places. I'm not sure where we got on, but it looked like this from a distance.

Up quite a few stairs...

and we were there. Cool. If you've never heard of the Highline (and we hadn't, until we started reading up on sight-seeing in New York City), you can find a good article about it right here on Wikipedia. It's a former railway turned public walkway and green space, and it was very interesting. Here's how it looks to walk on it.

Off to the side, you can see the former rail line.

If I'm remembering right, this is the "Chelsea" neighborhood. To our right were structures like this one:

When I turned directly around 180 degrees, I saw this:

Also, blooming things growing right next to the rail lines.

We followed the line for some distance, eventually coming upon some informational signs.

Just above the right side sign was this image.

At this point, we'd reached the Hudson Yards.

Walking on just a little ways, we could see the Hudson River.

We sat there for a bit watching the river traffic.

From there, we went back down to street level, found a restaurant where we could get a brick oven pizza, drank some refreshing beverages, used the restrooms (which was the whole reason for going in the first place), and rested our aching feet. Our next and final stop was to be Grand Central Station. We plugged the location into Google Maps, and then took yet another subway train to the designated station. When we came up above ground, Holy Sh*t! We were in Times Square!

This was where we really felt the hustle bustle of the crowded New York City streets. Check out this next sign.

Keep Moving...and yet, I stopped there to take a picture of the sign. Always the rebel. And the city seems to draw your eyes upward at the incredible structures, both old and new.

We had about another half mile walk to reach the station. We just followed the folks dragging suitcases behind them, and there we were. We'd intended to come back up top and cross the street to get a better image of the front of the building, but then we forgot, and so this is the only one I have.

Going inside...what a treat. It seemed to house every train in the world. All kinds of trains going this way and that and to all sorts of destinations. Passing through this tunnel

Up some stairs to go back down some more stairs, we made our way into the Main Concourse. Even though we'd never been here before, it all looked very familiar. We've seen it in hundreds of movies and television shows.

The ceiling is painted dark sky blue with the constellations painted (tiled?) in glowing gold.

We spent some time looking up, gazing in awe at the splendor of this old place. From there, we boarded our final train back to the PATH station and for home. We arrived back at the RV at around 3:30 and sat for a while resting our aching feet. Our Fitbits tell us that in the past two days, we've walked nearly 14 miles.

After icing my knee and my feet, I took on the important task of adding the states of Connecticut and New Jersey to the side of the RV.

That pretty well takes care of the New England states.

We had plans to see Times Square on a night tour bus, but after yesterday's visit, we're kind of done visiting the city. Today, weather permitting, we're planning to walk to Ellis Island...a distance of about 2 miles one way. There's also a nice park on the New Jersey side, Liberty State Park, which appears to be lovely. The weather has been overcast, but quite warm because of the humidity. It's supposed to be a little cooler today. It occurred to us just this morning, that we can actually drive to Ellis Island if we're tired of walking. It doesn't require going into the city, and so we may do just that. When today is finished, our visit to New York City will also be finished. I'll say more about our next destination in my next post.