About 45 minutes northeast is the Village of Beacon. Established in the 1700's it is now a quiet little bedroom community for people working out of the area (read NYC). It is also the nearest MTA Rail station that goes directly to Grand Central Terminal. We've been instructed not to call it GC Station, because only tourists do that…. We were fortunate to nab a parking place in the metered parking area ($3.50), and headed to the train station, where we met a nice young attorney going to court in New York and felt like helping out stray tourists get their tickets. Two one-way Senior tickets for off-peak time got us on the Metro-North Hudson Line ($10.50 each), and we boarded the 8:52 to NYC, some 60 odd miles south through the Hudson River Valley,
past West Point and Garrison, right into GCT and hour and 15 minutes later.
The opening on the left leads to the street, 42nd ave. The arrival/departure boards are on the left near the round lights. Below, the "tunnel" openings lead to train platforms. There are apparently 30 plus tracks. I say apparently because I didn't have time to scope them all out, but I did a quick calculation from the arrival/departure boards. There may be more, I don't know!
The balcony where you see the railing contains the largest Apple store in the world. It extends forever in all directions, it seems. Donna was either scheming on a new iPad or enjoying the air conditioning.
We took a side trip down one of the corridors toward Lexington Street to find Joe's Coffee. Jason, our attorney friend had recommended it, and our iced Mocha's and coffee were not a disappointment.
Then on to a level below the Grand Concourse to find the famous NYC Subway.
The preferred method of traveling the subway is to purchase a MetroCard, and put on it (at a kiosk) either an amount of money to be debited as you travel, or a specified number of trips. We didn't expect to return to the city, so we purchase single-fare tickets, which are a bit more expensive ($3 each trip), but allowed us a bit more flexibility. Our first stop on the green line (#6) downtown (because the street numbers increased) got us to 33rd St and Park Ave. Manhattan, if you didn't already know, is mostly laid out in Streets (east and west) and Avenues (north and south). Most are numbered, except for some (Park Ave). Sorta ok, but sorta confusing. Anyway, at 33rd, we exited the subway and began hoofing it west a couple of blocks to the Empire State Building.
We were met on the sidewalk by Abu, newly from Kenya, who enabled us to get tickets to the 86th floor observation deck. He made a point of saying that if we bought the "package" ($64 each), we wouldn't have to stand in line. Yeah. Turns out we wouldn't have to stand in line to get the "package" on the street level, but all the rest of the building was purely maddening with hundreds of people standing in Disney-like lines.
We finally got to the elevators, which are works of art in and of themselves.
Then zipped very smoothly to the 80th floor. We had to switch elevators (more lines) to get to the 86th floor observation deck.
View toward downtown with the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Chrysler Building, with it's ornate and unique decorative design.
The view down from almost 900 feet above street level is dizzying!
At the top, the 102nd floor observation deck is only 160 feet above us!
The magnitude of Manhattan is staggering. As far as the eye can see, the city continues to grow upward and in some cases, downward.
Apartments by the zillions abound to house the millions of people who live and work here.
To the north, Uptown, the Hudson River comes into view with Central Park in the, well, center.
And west….the rest of the world….
To the south, Lower Manhattan and the Freedom Tower with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island just barely visible.
Just a few blocks south is the world famous Flatiron Building. Built in 1902 after only one year of construction, it was, at 21 floors, one of only two skyscraper norths of 14th St. It is bounded by East 22nd, Broadway, and Fifth Avenue, and draws it's name from it's shape which resembles a cast iron clothes iron. During it's construction, the locals bet on how long it would be before it toppled over from the unpredictable winds it created! Due to it's steel framework and unusual design, the wind splits and creates an updraft around the building, actually strengthening the structure. The updrafts gave rise to the phrase "23 skidoo" as workmen would exclaim when the wind blew up a passing ladies dress!
The Flatiron Building anchors Madison Square, which has both endured and enjoyed a variety of good times and bad over the years, but is an appealing destination these days for a diverse selection of events in it's most famous venue: The Garden.
After we descended to street level and made it back to the subway, we found that different entrances place the traveler on different sides of the track, going uptown or downtown. Since that makes a huge difference, it is important to know where you're going. Unfortunately, the subway entrances are not laid out with great fanfare; you almost have to search for them. We asked a few locals for help, and everyone was very nice and informative. Not like we've heard about New Yorkers! While we deciphered the subway (again), we slipped into Little Italy and had a couple of slices with mushrooms and a soda. We marveled at the speed with which people in the city eat and move on. Got to talking to a young lady who ate two slices and drank two bottles of beer in less than 15 minutes because she was on her lunch break!
This time the #4 subway took us uptown to 59th street, where we got off and trucked west three blocks to Central Park. It was a lovely day, in the low 80's and it seemed that most of the city had the same idea: go to the park!
Tony and his horse Spartacus gave us a 45 minute tour of the park with running commentary. Tony is 39 years in America from Sicily, and has been doing carriage rides for most of those years. He is a wealth of knowledge about Central Park, and kept us involved all along the way.
Tony's passengers demanded a photo!
Central Park is the only thing that keeps most New Yorkers sane, I think. It abounds with statues, fountains and lakes.
And you know, even though the city that never sleeps is only a few blocks away, it is almost impossibly quiet in the park!
By then these country bumpkins were getting tired, so we made it back to Grand Central Terminal, figured out how to get our tickets, and boarded the Metro North, Hudson Line, to Poughkeepsie and settled in with a whole bunch of commuters for the long ride home. Then in the car and back to the rv park about 7:30 pm. What a day!
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