A short ride from 34th Street/Herald Square on the R train took us to 49th Street, then we walked to the Gray Line office at 777 8th Avenue and bought a double-decker bus tour of the "Downtown Loop". Todd has always wanted to do this, so he was excited. We walked over to Times Square to get on the bus.
Times Square
The Downtown Loop route started in Times Square and was to take us by Macy's and Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Flatiron Building, Union Square, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy, Canal Street, City Hall, One World Trade Center, Battery Park, South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge, United Nations, Rockefeller Center and Central Park. However, the traffic was still messed up from the parade, so we ended up going all over the place. We still passed all those attractions, but not on the mapped route. We also got day and night views since the delays caused the tour to drag on into the evening.
On a quick side note: on the tour we drove down to the financial district, but we didn't actually visit Wall Street on this trip. We did walk through in 2011 though, and I wanted to share this video from that trip. It's a video of the barricade system to keep unauthorized people from driving down the street near the New York Stock Exchange:
Now, on with the bus tour.
We're in the right lane. And....duck. This sign had plenty of clearance, but we actually did have to duck under a few trees on the route.
OMG, stop the bus!
Macy's
Macy's Christmas window displays
Empire State Building
I like this building's facade
Is that....?
Yes, it's Grumpy Cat in its very own Christmas special. God help us, it's the seventh sign of the apocalypse - we're doomed.
Constructing the World Trade Center transportation hub, called the Oculus
One World Trade Center. Tomorrow, two window washers will be dangling outside on a broken rig.
Rockefeller Center
Radio City Music Hall
One World Trade Center today...
...and on April 26, 2011.
The bus tour started at 3:30pm, and I think we hopped off around 6:15pm at Central Park. Needless to say, I was about ready to burst from all I had drunk before the tour started so we hoofed it back to the hotel for a pitstop and break. Ahhhhhhhh.
We got back out 20 minutes later at 6:40 for dinner. We walked around the corner of the hotel and down 53rd Street to 6th Avenue and the Halal Guys. After about a 15 minute wait in line, we each got a mixed platter, which consisted of chicken and gyro meat (lamb), orange-colored rice, lettuce and pita bread. We carted our precious treasure back to Mom's hotel room, stopping in the 53rd Street deli on the way for drinks. I got a cream soda.
Line for the Halal Guys
The food was indescribably good. A single platter was way too much food for one person, but I swear if I had been at home I would have gorged until I physically couldn't eat any more. The food comes with a white, tangy, ranch-like yogurt (I'm guessing) sauce on the side, as well as a hot-as-the-sun chili pepper sauce. I tasted both, which were good, but chose to eat my meal without adding either.
So simple and so good
After eating, we said goodnight to Mom and headed back to our room for the night. I split a Quaranta nougat and lemon bar with Todd (omg delicious) while we watched tv and surfed the web before going to bed around 10pm. Another great day drew to a close.
No comments:
Post a Comment