My brother and I recently returned from a quick trip to New York City!
General impressions? New York is one big friggin’ city!!! In fact, one of the locals was telling us that there are so many people trying to get so many places that it’s not unusual for a 20 mile drive (i.e. Uptown Manhattan to Brooklyn) to take 2 ½ hours.
There’s also been the perpetual rumor of New Yorkers being rude and obnoxious. However, the folks we dealt with couldn’t have been more hospitable. It’s safe to say that it was pretty obvious my brother and I weren’t from the area (the fact we were constantly looking skyward in awe of the tall buildings made that even more apparent). Nevertheless, more than a few people introduced themselves, asked us where we were from, how we liked the city, etc.
The main reason for our visit was to see historic Yankee Stadium in this its final season. We picked the Wednesday afternoon game where the Yanks were playing host to our Minnesota Twins. Yeah, the Twins lost but the fact we were able to visit that famous baseball cathedral in the Bronx made the entire trip worthwhile. And we dodged the torrential rain that had been forecast for the day.
Once the baseball game ended at about 4:00 pm, we hopped on the Subway and just went to as many tourist sites as we could get to before it rained. We were fortunate enough that the rain held out until about 10:30 when we were near our hotel. We ended up seeing The Dakota, which is the apartment building where John Lennon lived. We then went directly across the street to The Strawberry Fields memorial (laid out in memory of Lennon) in Central Park West. We also made the rounds to Ground Zero (site of the 9/11/01 attacks), The Empire State Building and Times Square.
One full day isn’t nearly long enough to see everything. But what we were able to accomplish in one day made the excursion all worthwhile!
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Sounds like a really fun expirience. I've been wanting to go to New York for a while but im not really sure what'd I'd go there for, it just sounds fun =]
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences, Brad. NYC is a lot of fun and it looks like you covered a lot of the best spots. What's most interesting about Manhattan is that so many of the key things to see are within walking distance of each in midtown Manhattan. If you go back, make sure to take the Staten Island Ferry. Gets you close to the Statue of Liberty and the round trip is absolutely free. Best deal in NYC.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are right - New Yorkers are, in the main, quite friendly. Much more friendly than people in Boston or Chicago, for example. You get more attitude in certain precincts 'round here than you do in Manhattan.