NYC Trip - Manhattan in a Half

Manhattan

It was quite a tall task, to roam Manhattan in a half-day but we did it anyway.

The tour had arranged for a local guide to help us navigate around Manhattan and give us a brief overview of what's what, who's who and where's where. And although I heard the names of the places, such as Hell's Kitchen, Columbus Circle, Soho et al, I can't remember much in the flurry of the tour that we got.

It wasn't the guide's fault, nor anybody's fault really. This tour was not a proper detailed one. It was just enough so that you could familiarize yourself with your new NY surroundings.

We were on the bus when we went by Hell's Kitchen. I remember seeing some funky graffiti on the wall, plus the tour guide's mention of Trevor Noah perked my attention a bit. Although he did not say much else about Mr Noah, it left me wondering if I should ever accidentally bump into Trevor himself, I think it will be in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood. After all, the Daily Show studio is based in the area. If I remembered it correctly.

Up next was getting to see a Trump building. This one had a massive globe outside. I think the building may have been at Columbus Circle but that was what all I remembered there.

Trump Tower

Next we were treated for a brisk walk at Central Park. We saw some cyclists gathering up as we walked up to Central Park. We did not tour the whole park. It was humongous. The local guide gave us a bit of history about Central Park, how it was built so that New Yorkers would have a quiet place in the middle of the city and how they loved it.

Central Park

On our way out of Central Park, we stopped by Strawberry Fields, which was an area at Central Park. Strawberry Fields, named after the song "Strawberry Fields Forever", was a tribute to the memory of John Lennon. It was a circle with a giant, mosaic paving in the middle with the words, Imagine (from the song of the same name). And as can be expected being an homage to a legend, music filled the air as some live musicians gathered around the area.

Don't know how fast time went by but it was time for lunch. We were dropped at the Grand Central Station and had our lunch there.

Grand Central Station

After which we were taken to see the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. We only had three quarters of an hour to spend and so did not really get the chance to visit the Museum. There were many visitors that day and it would not really have been possible to be in and out of that place that quick.

World Trade Centre 

We walked back to meet our tour bus on the street. Our day tour ended at around 3pm. The bus driver was kind enough to drop us off to the places where we wanted to visit and so we asked to be dropped off around Macy's in preparation for the Top of the Rock visit.