Neons and Advertisement Galore

We flew into Newark, New Jersey and from there, we decided to take a bus tour of New York City, as it had bus to/from the airport in the package. Since we only had 5 hours to spend, we quickly opted for this option.

The bus is a Double Decker, and although it was quite cold outside we sat on the top section as it’s the best way to see all the sights.

One can hop on and off at the different stops and the pass is good for 2 days. So it’s quite a good deal. The tour is quite complete, with a good nature and witty tour guide, who constantly picked on the driver to our great amusement. The guides are very knowledgeable, the ones we encountered anyway. We received a history lesson and assorted stars, sitcom and movie trivia.

This city is overwhelming by it contains a large amount of Neon signs and ads. It's all about who has the biggest and shiniest. They are one atop the other, clinging to the sky scrapers. There are so many that our brains just shut down, and we didn't see them anymore.

Quick Tips:

We let our camera go wild, and promised to come back. Five hours in New York City isn’t quite enough.

Please note that if you want to write/send postcards, that in the Newark airport you can buy them but there are no mail boxes.

pictures to be added soon.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking around is a good alternative as there are so many things to see that it's easy to drive by without noticing important landmarks. The bus tour we took was efficient and at a reasonable price.

The tour is quite complete with friendly, knowledgeable and professional tour guides. New York is overwhelming with all it's neon lights and advertisement, yet on this tour, one can actually single out the specific landmark. Also we were pleased that the tour guide while being knowledgeable in the City's history, also knew about other things. For example, she showed us where a few of Seinfeld episodes were filmed; How many elevators were in the empire state building (72); where Barbara Streisand made her debut; the first hotel to have television in each individual rooms and lots of other fun trivia.

All and all, this tour is a great overview of the city.

It’s the sea of yellow cabs that is amazing. In London, England the black cabs aren’t as noticable as the yellow here, although there are as many. The color makes all the difference. Perhaps I should propose that every major city in the world have a specific color of taxis. Wouldn’t that be amazing!

Of course, the buildings are amazing, sky scrapers are numerous and one can get quite a sore neck from looking up all the time. The tour guide told us that it was easy to spot tourists as they are always looking up. But even conscious of that fact, we couldn’t stop looking up anyway. We saw Macy’s the biggest department store, Carnegie Hall and the Post office; they each take a block to themselves. We saw the Empire State building from all sides and quite a few times. The court houses are quite impressive too. It is similar to the historical center of Berlin, by Check Point Charlie. Battery Park is where one can catch the Statue of Liberty Ferry, and it is also where the American Indians sold the Manhattan islands to the Americans for 24$ US. Close by is another very small park where the Declaration of Independance was signed.

I’ve been to Madame Tussauds in Europe and I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t visit this new museum in NYC. I’m hoping that next time we’ll have more time to spend here.

Pier 17 supposedly has the best fish, yet the odor is so strong one has to adapt before deciding to buy or visit.