The Rock

For the past couple weeks a coworker from Brazil has been here in Shrewsbury, NJ for a training class we were attending for work. Last weekend I accompanied him on a whirlwind trip through New York City. I have to say that we did a good job of seeing the sights by spending the whole day moving through and across Manhattan.

It should be noted that in San Paulo, Brazil right now is the middle of Summer. The weather is in the 80-90 (F) temperature range each day although even in the Winter "cold" is relative and I suspect it is more similar to Florida.

The day started with a drive up the Garden State Parkway ($0.25 toll) from exit 109 to exit 127 changing over to Highway 440. That takes you across a small bridge ($8 toll) onto Staten Island. You drive past the beautiful "Fishkill river", past the swamps of the Sopranos and a landfill mountain, right into the neighborhoods before getting on the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn.

The Staten Island ferry is an interesting experience because of the scenery. You have the Manhattan skyline in the distance, Governors Island to the right and Jersey City to the left with the Statute of Liberty in between.

The day was sunny, the temperature was about 32 (or 0 degrees to my Brazillian friend) and the winds were fairly strong. My friend first learned about wind chill on this ferry ride. After snapping a few photo's of the Statute we snuck back into the warmer passenger deck of the ferry.

After disembarking we started to walk to the World Trade Centers but after about 100 yards my friend decided it was too cold, so we ducked into one of the many sidewalk subway openings to get a quick ride. A few pictures were taken there and my friend bought his first pair of gloves from a street vendor for $5 but passed on a $5 hat.

Next we took the train to Columbus Circle, at the Southwest corner of Central Park, which I learned is also at the foot of the Trump Tower. Don't get too imaginative with the tower, it looks just like any other 30 story or so black building except for the silver globe statute that sits out front. Deciding it was too cold to walk through the park we headed south towards Rockefellor Plaza (a.k.a. The Rock).

This involves several blocks of upper Broadway where there are a few hints of Broadway. Most notably, to me, was the Ed Sullivan Theatre where the David Letterman show is taped:

We finally made it to Rockefellor Plaza, the headquarters of NBC and many of its shows such as Conan Obrien, NBC Nightly News, and of course the morning show with Katie & Matt. It is also where the ice skating rink is located. After making about three trips around the interior we found the ticket booth for taking the elevator to the top. Oh yeah, this is not a free elevator ride and is not for those who are scared of hieghts. The ticket costs $17.50 for about a half-hour of time at the top. The main elevator takes you to the 67th story while another smaller elevator takes you to the 70th, the Top of the Rock. I didn't time the elevator ride but it took little more than one minute to get to the top. The floors were going by almost as fast as you could say the number-a great improvement over most hotel elevators that take that much time just to go one floor.

That is the view from the top, looking northward across Central Park. Across the bridge to the left is NJ, while the Bronx and midtown Manhattan are visible surrounding the park. To give you an idea of what downtown looks like, here is a cheesy picture of my friend and I with the Empire State Building behind us:

After hitting the streets again, we walked to Grand Central Station, then through Little Brazil (of course) and headed for Little Italy. A cab driver tried to sell us his music CD for $5 while he took the long way to where we were going, 'to get around' the traffic. Then we walked through Chinatown, past all the sidewalk markets... at one a lady was picking up a frog from a bucket of frogs. She was picking it up with cooking tongs. It was cold enough to keep them calm but you could still make out the breathing movements and could not miss the frogs eye blinking. I wonder what she plans on making with the frog... my friend was surprised to learn that they are edible. The frogs in Brazil may be poisonous but I'm not sure that I would eat one regardless of its country of origin.

We subwayed it back to Times Square just as darkness was creeping in. That is an interesting time of day to be there, as the normal city hustle is mixed with the flashing lights, and sidewalks crowded with tourists. A quick trip through the M&M Store and we headed back to the Ferry.

It was a fun day although being a little chaotic as any day in the city is. Just pick a city, it doesn't really matter which one, and you will be happy to go back to suburbia for the evening.

Thanks for coming along!