Thursday, July 2, 2009
New York City - Larger than Life, June 28- June 30
Dodging an overloaded Ferry in NY Harbour
The Castle in Central Park from the Great Lawn
By one of the small Central Park Lakes
Larger than life. That’s what New York City has been like. We left the anchorage on Staten Island on Sunday morning and thought that the wind and the tide would help us along up the Hudson River. Wrong on both accounts. The wind was on our nose and the current was wanting to push us back out into the ocean. Good thing we didn’t have too far to go. As we approached the grand Verrazano Bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn, Lady Liberty came into view. This is the view that new immigrants or soldiers returning from war in years past would see as they approached the promised land or were finally returning back home. Even though we came by here in the fall it was still quite stunning. We sailed as close as we could, dodging the many tour boats as well as the fast Staten Island ferries going back and forth. To our right the skyline of Manhatten dominated our view and we slowly bounced our way past and up to the 79th Street boat basin to a take a mooring. In October we only had one night here before we blasted off heading south. This time we plan to spend a week taking in the action of the Big Apple.
Our first visit stop was to walk a few blocks up the road from the marina to Central Park. Shirley and I had both learned about Central Park back in university and how it was a model of park planning. Walking around the sections we had time for we both felt that it is even better than we had thought. We were there on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and so it was crawling with people, but we never felt crowded out. The park is so large and laid out so beautifully that it always felt relaxing. Apparently it was in disrepair in the 70s and 80s but now it is in fabulous shape. Everywhere we looked there were people walking, cycling, playing all kinds of games, rowing row boats, sailing toy boats, riding horse and buggies and just lying in the sun. And no one seemed to be in anyone elses way.
New York has done a good job of creating peaceful places in this busy city. Further downtown we came across Bryant Park in the business area. It is a nicely treed park almost full of little tables and chairs with people reading and talking everywhere. And then there is Time Square. Out on the pavement there are many lawn chairs scattered around, just there for people to sit on and gawk at the sites. The rest of Time Square looks just like it does in movies or commercials - surrounded by huge gawdy ads! But it is fun. Such a contrast to the peaceful and serene areas we have been used to. The other contrast is our experience of being on the mooring ball here. In the thick of the Hudson River with no protection we get bounced around in a wild fashion. It is hard to be on the boat in the day time when there is traffic on the river because we are constantly thrown around. It even makes getting in the dinghy an adventure in itself!
More NYC to come... (our internet connection here is very intermittent)
Relaxing in Time Square
The bustle and the lights of Time Square
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