New Jersey/New York Trip - Part 5

What do you think about when someone says New York!!! Hold that thought and read on my post to see if you witness all the phrases you had thought about :).

Day 7: New York Adventure!!!
We started our New York adventure from Hicksville around 9 am and caught a 9:15 am LIRR train to Penn station.  We reached there by 10:05 and got out of station around 10:30 am (w/ restroom break in between).  Btw, don't underestimate Penn station by any means because it's huge!! And it stretches from 7th ave. to 8th ave. and to at least 3 or 4 streets!!  We got out of the station towards 7th ave. and started walking towards the Gray Line visitor center to pick up our tickets.  It was about 15-20 minutes walk but the best thing you encounter on the way is Times Square.  So lively, so crowded, and of course, so yellow...:P...haha.  You don't believe me....here is a proof!

See what I mean by ..."So yellow"...Over 90% of Manhattan is covered in Yellow :P

We reached the Gray Line center and got our tickets within few minutes (maybe 5 minutes) and first tour we wanted to take was downtown tour.  The downtown tour was going to leave from just across the street from the center at the corner of 8th ave. and 47th street.  The bus came in about 10-15 minutes and it was empty so we got good seats on the top.  Actually, you have to sit on the top to see otherwise there is no point in taking double-decker bus. Note that the downtown tour has about 20-22 stops that you can get off or hop on from. 

The tour started around 11:15 am and reached the ground zero site in an hour and 5-10 minutes.  We got off at the ground zero/world trade center stop which was about 10th stop on the way.  Before world trade center, there were stops like Madison square garden, China town, SOHO (South of "Houseton"...trust me..that's how they pronounce it), etc. but we didn't really want to go to any of those places, so that's why we made our first stop to be ground zero site.  We started walking towards the new freedom center that's currently being built.  On the way we stopped at the 9/11 memorial service center where we realized that we need passes to actually visit the ground zero site.  They are free, and the passes are timed, so you have to go at/after the time listed on your pass.  After getting the passes, we had to walk down 5 blocks and across 2 blocks to actually get to the site where the line began to visit the ground zero.  Even though you could see the freedom center straight from the 9/11 service center, you had go all around to get to the entrance due to all the construction that was going on and of course due to tight security they had at the entrance.  There was still some time before we could visit the ground zero, so we decided to have lunch in between at one of the places around 12:35 pm and then head to the location.
We come to the entrance where they have airport-like security where you have to put your stuff through scanner (except shoes), walk through the scanner and get your pass checked at like 3 different places on the way.  All this security must have taken about 15-20 minutes and to get to site.  Once we get to the site, we see these 2 beautiful fountains where the twin towers used to stand. 

We walked around and spent about 15-20 minutes there.  After that we started walking to go towards Wall street where the famous "Bull" is located (after exchange street).  That Bull was crowded with people, so if you want to get a picture with it, be quick and sharp because no one is going to invite you to take the picture!! People just come to the bull one after another so you have to know when you just get in and get your pic clicked.  We took pictures of the bull, with the bull, and then headed towards the Battery park where the Brooklyn tour was taking off.

The Brooklyn tour bus was standing at a place which wasn't a regular stop, so it was hard to spot it at first but we caught it just in time before it left around 2:10 pm.  This was a non-stop 2 hour tour so you just sit in the bus and enjoy the tour.  This tour was fine but our tour guide was terrible!! He was loud and I mean really loud which would explode your ears out if you were wearing headphones sitting on the first floor of the bus!! And strangely for one of the other reason, he would either bring up his wife or his mother-in-law in whatever attraction he was talking about!!  We came back from the tour around 4:10 pm and got on another downtown tour bus to continue on the remaining stops of the downtown tour.  There were a lot of people in front of us waiting for the downtown bus but since there wasn't another bus coming and the brooklyn bus that we were just on was all empty decided to take us on to the downtown tour....lucky us that we get the same tour guide as the brooklyn tour and we get to hear his loud and clear voice all over again!!!! Not Fair!!  Ok, now I was starting to get a headache from his high pitch and screaming volume that I wish someone would have just told him to calm down!!  The guide was from Brooklyn, so he kept bringing up brooklyn in  the downtown tour...seriously!!! Why??? It was unbearable!  We finally got off at Rockefeller center which is stop #18 on the downtown tour and went to the Top of the Rock.

We got there around 5:30/35 pm and exchanged our Gray Line tickets for top of the rock.  we got to the top and it was beautiful!!! They have 3 decks that you can go through and they have all glass walls so that you get 360 degree view of the downtown.  Very pretty!! 

View from Top of the Rock

We got down and started heading towards 7th ave. and 47th street to catch the night tour bus.  Before that we stopped by M&M store and checked out few flavors and then headed for night tour.  The night tour is also a non-stop 2 hour tour which basically shows you the night life of New York, so you can just sit back and enjoy.  Unfortunately night tour covers some of the Brooklyn tour places so we had to go back to Brooklyn on the same route that we had gone on earlier in the afternoon which was boring and waste of time!  The main night tour should be within the Times Square area and around it because the rest of the stuff was not worth watching and nothing important, so I was kind of disappointed with it!!  Nevertheless, We had started night tour at 7:30 pm and got done around 9:15 pm.  Once we got off the bus, we made a run to the Penn station to catch our 9:42 pm train so we had to walk from 47th street to 34th street on 7th ave. (it feels like long walk after you had such a tiring day).  We got to the Penn station in time to catch the train and took about 50 minutes to get to Hicksville, and by the time we got home, we were really tired, really sleepy, no energy at all!!  But we freshened up and ate some homemade indian food and finally headed to bed around midnight hoping to finish the rest of the adventure the next day :)

Phew!!! I just revisited the entire route with you again while writing this post :) and it was tiring!!!  So I am going to take a break and write the Day 8 adventure in the next post!!