New York

“There are 13,000 cabs in the city that never sleeps, but only one pays you”. We took three of them and didn’t find the “Cash Cab” from the Discovery Channel! What are the odds? We tried, knowing that our trivia knowledge combined would lead to a big payout. Instead, we spent $75 going from the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal to the South Street Seaport, from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to the Cathedral of St John the Divine in the upper west end and from Harlem back to the Cruise Terminal. Riding a New York cab is like learning to drive a car with a stick shift. Jerk followed by jerk. These cabs all have automatic transmissions, but the cabbies are on and off the gas at all times. Lane changes willy-nilly, but without horns honking. We saw fine announcing a $350 fine for honking.

We left the ship around 8:15am and took a cab to the South Street Seaport, a farmers market located below the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we walked up to Broadway, past Wall Street where we took pictures of the Wall Street Bull and on to the Federal Reserve Building. We had a tour scheduled at 9:30 with 22 others. It houses the world’s largest accumulation of gold, mostly owned by foreign governments. There was somewhere near $200 billion in gold bars, and we saw a large amount of them. The vault is 80’ below street level and 30’ below the subway system.

From there we walked down through Battery Park and went onto the Staten Island Ferry, a free ferry that goes by the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and gives great views of the Manhattan skyline. As soon as we got off, we went out and right back in and got on the same ferry and headed back to lower Manhattan.

We got a cab ‘uptown’ as they say here to 110th and Amsterdam. We split a turkey pastrami sandwich from a small deli and ate it on the street. No seats in the deli. (We’ll watch John’s weight closely for the next day or so. It has been stable.) Then we went through the Cathedral of St John the Divine, considered the largest cathedral in the world, and one of the most infamously drawn-out construction projects in the country. It has been under construction since 1892.

We walked through Central Park from west to east and from the northern end of it at 110th down to 96th in Harlem. Up and down and no path goes in a straight line. John was whipped, just worn out, so we got a cab in Harlem and told the driver to take us to the Brooklyn Cruise terminal. Like last year, the cabbie didn’t know where it was. Manhattan cabs must not leave Manhattan often! Co told him to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and turn right. It worked! Actually the cabbie could see the ship, all 950’ long and 19 decks high, from the bridge.
So, busy as it was, it was the most fun we have had on this trip. Co researched and planned the trip with the help of a book “1001 Things to do in New York”.

John & Co