Early birds today since we had to catch the 9.00 boat to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We made it by 8.45 after some struggle with the New York metro System.

Luckily we had bought already our tickets on the internet and we were allowed to pass the already long waiting line and the only short delay was the security check.

At the statue of Liberty we followed the Park Ranger, a funny guy with a cynical type of humor. However I had to correct him a little when he explained the Threaty of GENT … in FRANCE. Wow when I told him this is the same kind of mistake as saying Washington DC in Canada he told me he would correct this in the future. (my contribution to the story of the Statue …)

After that, up to Ellis Island. Very interesting but now I don’t understand the big fuzz about it anymore. I learned that 98% of all immigrants were allowed in the US (that counts only for the 3th class passengers … I assume the 1^st and 2^nd were all allowed).

When in a not too far future, there will be a National Park called JFK AIRPORT people will see that entering the US in modern times not greatly improved from those days.

When we left the boat, Battery Park was full of people enjoing the free Sunday. Three little kids had BIG fun in the water fountain … I call that the picture of the day !

After the visit we did a long walk from Battery Park up to Chinatown and LITTLE ITALY. On the way buying the Garmin USA map for the GPS system.

I feared at first some problems but it worked fine and so I saved another 100 USD … for all who read this DO NOT BUY THE GARMIN MAPS IN EUROPE … they are half the price in the US.

Boy Little Italy is a cute place … and we had a great lunch.

But I managed to fall into the “old US restaurant trick”. When they notice that you are European they charge already an extra (too high) amount of tip … in this case 22%. Stupid me paid it this time … (luckily it was not too much) but it will be the last time. From now onward it is 15% when it was all-right, 20% when excellent. That’s it.

From Little Italy we went back up North to do TOP OF THE ROCK (upper deck of the Rockefeller Skysraper). What a nice interior ! Somewhere down the line from the twenties we lost some taste in design.

The sight high up was not so good, very hazy and we could not see past Central Park nor down too far South. A pity but the predictions for Monday were even worse.

As usual I did not feel very comfortable up there, that deep empty space pulls on me as if to say JUMP … very scary. Luckily I found a strong (metal) friend who gave me something to hold on to.

After that experience we went to Central Park … ML was a little tired but I was completely EXHAUSTED and drained. We sat on a bench and within 5 minutes I was deep asleep, guess I am starting to get really old or at least my condition sucks.

07-07-2008, 00:00 geschreven door koekjes  

OK you all, we made it to New york.

After a quite stormy and hectic day at work on Friday I rushed home to pack my suitcase. Luckily ML had already prepared a lot and by 21.00 (and also after a last killing raid on the ants in our front driveway) we were on the road to the Dusseldorf Airport Hotel.

On the way I received an SMS from my boss to “sleep on my 2 ears” (Thx Manu!), the job got already a little further away.

Hotel in Dusseldorf (I will add the name later) looked disappointing from the outside, but boy the interior was beautiful. Nice, clean & a real moden design. Staff was very friendly. We happen to notice that the front desk guy was a spitting image of the young TIGER WOODS. We were not the first telling him that.

Also our car seemed happy with his nice and “safe” spot.

Saturday after the normal hassle and the 7 hour flight, off we went to the “Big Apple.

At 15.30 we touched ground, and at 17 we were outside of the terminal.

Folks whoever reads this DO NOT TAKE the taxi from JFK to downtown! The trip will cost you 100 USD, but there is a better alternative … take the bus.

A big friendly African American driver asked us 15 USD each to bring us with the bus to Grand Station and from there to our Hotel by mini-van.

That’s already a saving of 70 USD … not bad for city where Dollars are clicking away at the speed of seconds ticking.

The Salisbury Hotel at 57^th Street is OK, not a real bargain at 220 per night but “hey this is New York” where “location” costs money. And the location is great … just 2 blocks from Broadway (across the street of Carnegie Hall) and a 15 minute walk to Times Square.

At 20.00 we were out on the street and heading to find a double decker bus to do the recommend Night Tour. This is my 5^th time in New York, however the first time as a tourist.

Despite the enthousiastic stories of Kim and Jurgen I was “sceptic”. NY was in my mind as a cool and somewhat dirty business town.

The walk downfown however brought me to other ideas and realy that song of THE VOICE BLUE EYES (Frankie Sinatra) is true … this city never sleeps. What an energy is present here and it is amazing to see everyone continuously busy to make more of life. As a foreign tourist you have eyes too short, and your mind is raging at top speed to capture it all, while Sinatra’s song is blasting in the background.

The bus tour (again 80 USD) was quite interesting, you get a good view on how the city is build and where the focus points are. However the guide got a little on our nerves with his “over enthousiastic” stories but even more by using the word “FOLKS” 6 times in every sentence (so 3 million times in the 2 hour trip). I believe he watched too many cartoons of Bugs “that’s all folks” Bunny.

I told you all to put every day “a picture “ of the day on this blog.

Well it is 5.30 Sunday morning here and I’m sitting in the Hotel Lobby. Just discovered that my laptop has no Compact Flash card reader, so the picture will need to wait a little until I solve this technical issue. But I can reveal already this, it will be the sign from the garage door on a Fire Station.

Although I promessed myself not to tough (the past is the past) the 911 drama, standing in front of the place were those true heroes left for their “last call” was truly emotional.

We recognized even some of their pictures and names after such long time and even as people who “lived it” from such far distance as Europe.

So to all firemen of ENGINE 54 and 4 TRUCK as to all others who served beyond duty that day, THANK YOU.

You proved that even when there are people in this world who let you loose all hope for the world and future, there is still a majority for whom the true sprit “Land of the free and Home of the brave” is more than a line out of the national Anthem.

Today, Sunday July 6, we are heading for Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty and after that SHOPPING !!! Let’s cross fingers that it remains dry, wheather prediction is BAD.

I already had this morning a “situation” in the hotel Lobby, but that story you will hear later.

06-07-2008, 00:00 geschreven door koekjes  

02-07-2008, 20:42 geschreven door koekjes