If we can make it here, we'll make it anywhere
Tuesday, July 3 (Day 8) I'm in heaven. I've just had a slice of real New York cheesecake from Roxy's Delicatessen on Broadway and I'll swear to my grave that it is the best dang cheesecake bar none. Chocolate and peanut butter, with big chunks of chocolate on top and soft nuts in the center. A subtle blend of sweet flavors that leaves you longing for the next bite. The sort of treat that leaves you feeling full yet satisfied rather than bloated and sick. That was the highlight of a day filled with the sights, sounds and tastes of the Big Apple.
Our sightseeing excursion to New York City began at 8:30 this morning, when the maid knocked on our door to see if we had vacated our room. We hadn't, and it really sucked that we must have been the first stop on her cleaning list. We westerners aren't used to rising at the crack of dawn to do anything, and having to rise three hours earlier with the time change is doubly difficult. We'll start hanging the "Do not disturb" sign from now on. But it wasn't all bad that she woke us when she did, because we really had overslept if we wanted to have any sort of day in New York.
Roni had convinced me that driving into the city was probably a bad idea. Not only would it be a stressful experience to fight all that traffic in the rental car, but we would pay a king's ransom for a parking spot or spend hours driving around in circles in search of a place to park whenever we found an attraction we wanted to visit. Better to leave as much of the driving to someone else as possible. That was why we made our first task finding an all-day parking lot near Newark Penn Station, where we left the Taurus for $8 and then hiked a couple of blocks to the station to catch a commuter train across the Hudson River. For $21 round-trip fare for the three of us, we were able to ride New Jersey Transit into New York's Penn Station in about 30 minutes. It wasn't quite 11 a.m. when we got off the train and wandered into the maze of people waiting for their trains or heading toward the street level.
The train station is directly under Madison Square Garden. We emerged from the exit and out into the sunshine of a bustling Tuesday morning, surrounded by an instant wall of sound. The city is literally alive with people, traffic, horns honking, and a general roar that never goes away. It's like no other major city I've ever been to. Ben and I stood mesmerized while Roni consulted her city map. We had talked about how we would get to see all the many landmarks that New York has to offer tourists, and her plan was to put us on a tour bus that would save us the hassle of trying to do it all on foot (and failing, because there is no way you can walk to everything within the day we had available.)
We walked up 8th Avenue to 42nd Street and hooked up with Gray Line Tours. For $49 per person we were treated to a red double decker bus that covered the entire downtown loop and took us to most of what we wanted to see in about two hours. We sat in the top seats, our heads narrowly clearing such things as tree branches and traffic signals, and listened to our tour guide Bismark point out the attractions and make wisecracks while we snapped photos and shot video like crazy. Our guide asked us where we were from and how long we'd been in New York. We said we had been in town since 11 a.m., and he said, "These folks have only been in town half an hour and the first thing they did was get on one of these stupid red buses." With such a ringing endorsement I wondered if perhaps we should have stuck to walking.
One of the benefits to our tour was that we were allowed to hop off the bus at any point along the route, then catch another bus later when we were ready to leave. However, our guide noted that some spots were more crowded than others, which could mean a long wait to hop back on. The other fear we had was losing the good seats we'd found. Everyone naturally wants to sit in the upper seats because they are really the only way to get a good view of anything. Even so, it is tough to shoot good pictures from a moving vehicle, and most of my photos were quick point-and-shoots of building tops.
We saw the Empire State Building, and the throng of people waiting for a ride up to the top for a panoramic view of the city. It and Rockefeller Center are the only games in town since the World Trade Center was destroyed, and both charge hefty rates for a ride up the elevator. We decided not to get off the bus and kept riding, passing such significant sights as Rockefeller Plaza, Macy's, NBC studios, the South Street Pier, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Ground Zero.
Seeing the site of the World Trade Center was an awe-inspiring experience, even nearly six years since 9/11. Our tour bus didn't stop there, but it passed within a block of where construction work is still taking place. Behind St. Patrick's Cathedral you can see the space the Twin Towers would have occupied, and you come to realize the enormity of the loss. I listened to the sounds of the city, watched the people passing on the street, and tried to imagine what it must have been like to be there on that day in September 2001.
We went through the Five Points district, Soho, Times Square, Wall Street, Greenwich Village, and eventually wound up back at Rockefeller Center where we disembarked. Having seen the entire downtown loop, our goal was to grab some lunch then catch another tour of the uptown loop. Alas, that never happened.
We went inside Rockefeller Center and found some restaurants. The first was a kosher delicatessen where we bought a potato knish to sample. Then we went a couple doors down to a pizzeria and each bought a slice. Roni is on a quest for the perfect New York-style pizza. We figured that you couldn't possibly go wrong in New York City, but we were mistaken. The pizza was OK, but just OK. The knish was awful.
The main reason we'd stopped at Rockefeller Center was because Ben wanted to find a store he'd heard of that had lots of Poké mon merchandise. The place was actually called Nintendo World, and yes, there was plenty of Poké mon stuff for sale. Ben wasted no time checking it out. I joked about how we had traveled 3,000 miles so our son could have a Poké mon battle. But really it was true, as within a few minutes of our arrival he had his Nintendo DS out and was battling some other kid. We spent $61 on stuff there. But it was worth it so Ben could spend a few minutes enjoying the one activity he most wanted to do on our vacation.
Once we left Rockefeller Center, our journey continued along 6th Avenue where we stopped at a bunch of souvenir shops. They were high-end camera shops in reality, with racks of postcards out front offered at 10 for a buck as a loss leader to get people in the door. I didn't buy a camera, but I did pick up 50 postcards and a magnet. Ben and Roni also stocked up on cards, and why not at that price? By the time we reached Central Park it was getting on toward 4:30 and if we were going to take the uptown loop bus then we'd have to hurry. Our parking lot in Newark closed at 8:30, and if we allowed a minimum hour for the train, that left us with three hours max for the bus tour. We still had time. What we didn't have was a bus.
The Gray Line tours end at 6:30, which meant we had perhaps one more bus we could take on the uptown loop. To catch it, we had to find the right stop. By the time we found it, we decided we couldn't complete the loop before we had to be back at Penn Station, so we gave up on the bus and walked to Times Square.
While in Times Square, I found Roxy's bakery. We bought up the store well, not quite ordering a slice of cheesecake for me, a cookie for Roni and a brownie for Ben. It would be dessert for later. They serve sandwiches there that look big enough to choke a horse. I read somewhere that they use a pound of meat on them. I read somewhere else that to buy one costs 20 bucks. We returned to Penn Station and took the train back to Newark without incident.
We were back at the hotel by 7:30, easily the earliest we've been in for the night any day of this trip. Roni, unsatisfied with her pizza slice in New York, had the front desk recommend several pizza places that delivered. We wound up ordering from Sopranos Pizza, and after nearly 90 minutes got our pizza and three salads. We were all glad Roni had convinced us to order out, as the pizza was excellent. The bakery items to chase it all down were excellent as well.
It is 2:15 as I write this. Tomorrow we have a short drive to King Of Prussia, Penn. I can't believe our trip is already halfway done.