The last leg of our USA trip is New York.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about the Big Apple, but it’s got a lot to live up to compared to the other cities we’ve been too.

 

Let me start by saying that I have been greatly surprised by the politeness and friendliness by Americans in general. I will talk more about this in a later post. Californians in particular were courteous, friendly and always happy to have a chat. People in Las Vegas are all tourists in party mode – or in the service business – again all happy and nice. Then we hit New York – impatient, grumpy and rude. It doesn’t feel like we’re in the same country. I’m making generalisations of course, but that’s the vibe I get. Brooklyn seems to much friendlier than Manhattan.

But with that out of the way, New York is a great place. Lots to see and do. We only had five days here. We could have had another five days for sure – although Jane is getting homesick.

Our first two days were quite difficult. We had to navigate the subways and organise tickets for activities. Once we worked out the subways and what streets were what, we got a good feel for the city. We had a New York City Explorer pass that gave us access to 10 activities. Choosing those activities was quite difficult. First one was the “hop on hop off” bus tours. There were Five”loops”. Downtown, Uptown, Brooklyn, Bronx and ferry. We only had time for uptown, downtown and half the Brooklyn tour. They were all very long and packed full of information. Some of the streets were blocked because of a police shooting, which made the traffic worse than normal. There seems to be police, ambulance and fire engine sirens endlessly blaring. There are police everywhere, some carrying assault rifles.

Other activities were Liberty Cruise to see the famous lady; Top of the Rock observation deck; 9/11 tribute tour; Bike ride around Central Park.

 

 

We saw “Aladdin” on Broadway. Great show. James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie stole the show.

 

Today was the best day weather wise and we spent some time around the Brooklyn bridge. I took some photos of the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges – one of my “must dos”.

We did some shopping in Macy’s.

 

Our last night will be spent in Times Square to get one more look at the mesmerising lights.