Take the Tour...

(NYC, 16 April 2010) After our tour guide, Big Bill P, gave us a thorough orientation to the ferrys, subways, trains, and taxi's of NYC...essential survival skills for the Big Apple, and the 3 of us inhaled our way through a big lunch at Carmine's Italian Restaurant in the heart of the Theater District, we were on our own. We took the advice of someone we met earlier in our travels, a full-time RV'er who spent 9 months doing what we're doing. We asked him if he had any advice for us, "take the tour" he said. So we have, and we did. We got a "3 fer" with the NY Citywide tour 2-day pass. A boat ride around half the island and a night top-deck bus tour starting in Times Square going downtown and over into Brooklyn and back (both of which we did Friday); and an Uptown bus tour around Central Park, into Harlem, and back to Times Square which we did on Saturday after seeing a Broadway show. The Boat Tour was cold, but we got the water view of Manhattan that really makes you appreciate how many buildings are packed into this small island sitting between the Hudson and East Rivers. The highlight of the Night Tour of Downtown was crossing the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and stopping at Fulton's landing right under the famed Brooklyn Bridge. This is the historic site where General Washington miraculously escaped the British capture of NY when fishermen ferried his troops across the East River from Lower Manhattan at night. Our Uptown tour guide was into where all the movies stars and famous people live, so I suppose that was the highlight of that tour. One of the things we appreciate about "taking the tour" is the anecdotal information you wouldn't get on your own. Did you know that the tenants in the famed Times Square skyscraper---the building you see on New Year's Eve when millions gather in NYC to see the ball drop from it's top---did you know that they don't pay rent because of the revenue they generate from selling the electronic ads you see on the outside of the building? Did you know that if it weren't for a woman the Brooklyn Bridge (the largest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1883) would not have been completed? Her husband's father and her husband where Chief Engineers on the project. Both sustained injuries that kept them incapacitated at home. Using a telescope from the Brooklyn side they would watch the progress of the work and write notes to the foremen which she would carry to them and explain!
So, you should "take the tour"! You never know what gems of trivia you will pick-up to impress your neighbors and amuse your friends!