We then hopped onto a NY Manhattan tour bus. It had stopped raining, and the sun came out, so we sat on the upper level, which was open air. The bus took us through all of the various neighborhoods in Manhattan, all around Central Park, through 5th Avenue, Madison Square Garden, and Times Square. I was quite impressed with the breadth of the tour. You could hop on and off anytime, but we stayed on. As it was, that took 4 hours to do the whole route. I was amazed at the huge number of high rise buildings, of all types of architecture, all stuck together in a row. I was amazed at the huge numbers of people just walking around everywhere. I was amazed when told that this group of buildings along Central Park, or the ones in Tribeca, were the highest rent district, and that the wealthiest people lived in them--and to me they looked like all of the rest of the tall, old buildings everywhere else. We were told that the population of Manhattan is 1.5 million at night, but during the day is soars to 3.0 million.
Times Square was a experience in American materialism at its peak. Building-sized advertising all over, costing from 1-4 Million dollars. The electronic overload is mind-blowing. Wall-to-wall people. Wow.
I couldn't get over looking down from the Empire State Building, how every square foot of land is completely covered with buildings. On the other hand, Central Park was impressive in how big it is, and how pretty. I am not surprised that this environment is not for me. I can't figure out why ANYONE would want to live here. And, I wasn't surprised that Peter loved visiting here. He just loves the energy of all of the people.
We met a high school buddy of Peter's, and his wife, for dinner in SoHo. They were very interesting folks. It was a little local, packed Italian restaurant--very good. We walked around a bit in Greenwich Village. Then took the subway back to New Jersey. It was packed, even at 9pm.
Empire State Building photos:
Central Park bus tour photos:
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