The Staten Island Ferry is the best bargain in NYC as it if free. It's five miles across to Staten Island and takes about 25 minutes.
It's was lovely after a day of walking just to sit down and see the view. Always nice to get out on the water and the view back to Manhattan and across to Brooklyn is spectacular.
The above photo is Brooklyn Bridge, here we are leaving the terminal at the south end of Manhattan.
The Watchtower building in Brooklyn.
Sail Boat with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the background.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge again. We have taken two cruises out of New York City and the cruise ships all have to go out under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, those cruise ships are so high that when you stand on the top deck, you feel that you can almost touch the bridge.
Statue of Liberty on the left above.
In the above view of south Manhattan you can see that the sun is beginning to set.
Staten Island side. You have to get off the Ferry, walk around and re board another ferry to return, and this is what we did.
Somewhere something was on fire, don't know where.
Looking off the end of the ferry.
I love the colour in these photos as the sun set, just basked in a warm glow and of course you can see The Freedom Tower.
Above you can see the Brooklyn Bridge and right behind that the Manhattan Bridge.
Those big open doors are where the Staten Island Ferries dock.
As the sun set on our day, we wanted to make our way up town to see The Empire State Building. For this we had to work out the Transit system. Ya! that's a whole story in itself.
We disembarked off the ferry and would have taken the subway, which is right there, but unfortunately was totally destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, it seemed all the water rushed in and down to that area. So we thought well we'll ride a bus uptown. You must purchase tickets ahead of time and the machines only seemed to take quarters for a $2.50 ticket, that's ten quarters for one ticket. Eventually we came up with enough quarters for two tickets, we go over to the bus and he says not this bus, the one over there. We walk over to the other bus and he says yah! you can take this bus, but in this traffic it will take you well over an hour. You should walk over there and take the free shuttle bus to the nearest subway and catch the subway uptown. So we wait 20 minutes for the shuttle bus and eventually get to the subway.
We go down the subway and we had been told you can use those tickets on the Subway, not true. So we had to purchase two more tickets for the subway. Two swipes on one paper bar coded ticket. We try once, no, and again and we tried several times but the turn style would not swing round, so went back to the kiosk and told the man it would not open with the ticket. Another man in the kiosk comes out, he swipes it once for Jean and she gets through, he said now you try it. OK I try it once, he says "too fast" I try it again, he says "too slow" I try it again, he says "hold it straighter" now he has a go several times and decides that all the money has been swiped off. "Joe open it", Jean and I are in hysterics. She said people in London on the Underground system would riot if they had to put up with that.
If you have been on the NYC Subway most of it looks very Dickensian.
Onwards now to the Empire State Building at night, because by now it is dark.
Christy
Fantastic views from the ferry and your pictures as usual are amazing. I still can't stop laughing every time I think of that subway ticket. The public transport system is one thing I was not impressed with especially after the London tube. The stations could do with an overhaul as well. Shame because so much good stuff all around.
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