20080929 New York City

20080929 New York City

Mostly Cloudy, 70F, not much sun.

We asked the lousy and never smiling Super8 staff and manager to add another night against the $85 coupon-rate. Although $85 was already too much, as the unfriendly staff sucked, our room smelled like a pub full of cigarettes and had insects, holes in the sheets and during breakfast many items run out.
The fun part? The coupon rate was not yet available anymore and the rate now would be $185! If you want a hotel without customers... Just put dow a sign "closed" outside, lunatics.
We went back to the room to make a phonecall. Howard Johnson, only 1.2 miles further on the same road, confirmed their coupon rate room was available. When we arrived the friendly staff even provided their $72 rate for the rest of the week for us. So we were all set! The shuttle mini van to Manhattan was $6 instead of the $2.50, but we would try it anyway and decide the next day if we would drive by car near a big parking and take from there the $2.50 mini van.

In Manhattan we bought unlimited 7 day metro passes, so we could go anywhere we want by subway.
South Ferry was the destination.
A friendly man told us we had to move over to a cart more to the front with every stop it made, as the last 5 carts would not go to south ferry. Later in the afternoon we would be waiting at a traffic light to go to the WTC, we stand next to him. He tabs on my shoulder saying hi. :-)
We arrive at South Ferry at take the free ferry to ellis island. We enjoy the trip on the water and see Manhattan, brooklyn bridge, statue of liberty and more. As I have only a few days left and much memory for photos I take photos like a sports photographer, tons.
Back at south ferry we took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back to lower Manhattan via the Brooklyn bridge.
A typical NY hotdog(2 for only $3) was nice, as it was already past 2 o'clock.
In battery park we have some nice double chocolate Milk and enjoy the view on the grandiose skyscrappers in the tiny colonial streets. We walk a lot here; trinity church, st paul's chapel, financial district etc.
At NY stock exchange it is very crowded, with many satellite news vans making reports of the failed Bailout that should rescue the american financial and economical situation.
The world trade center site is impressive, so large. A lot of workers and machinery is working on the new WTC buildings, to be ready in 2012.
In the meanwhile I had lost our New York tourist book/guide. So our goal now became to hunt down a bookstore and buy a new one. The subway and tips of people on the street brought us to Borders.
We than ate at Friday's and tired but thrilled we went back to the hotel.
A warm bath and a bed was enough to catch sleep.