Charlotte 2 Canada - By Car - The Empire State #road_trip #travel_blog

Our drive from D.C had come to an end after 3 hours and 30 mins. We reached New Jersey touching a state line of Delaware on our way and enjoyed our dinner at A2B. Our palate and stomach can tolerate burgers and sandwiches only one time a day!!! (If there is no Indian restaurants in the vicinity we should at least look for Chinese or Mexican).

We stayed at our friend's place for the night with the plan of visiting New York city the next day.

We boarded NJ transit around 10:00 in the morning at Edison station. Parking was available and not free. The round trip costs around $20 for an adult. we reached our destination Penn Station, NY after an hour. AMTRAK is also in service which costs more with lesser commute time.

As we all know New York city is all about busy streets and sub-way trains. You need a special skill to read those train maps navigate yourself among the crowd!!

 Just like an olden day immigrant we had planned to pay a visit to "Statue Of Liberty" first.

we took our first stretch of subway commute from Penn Station  Bowling Green Station. We recharged our metro cards for $20. We were a group of 8 travelers but it didn't let us swipe more than 5 times continuously at the entry gate so we had to buy another card and recharge it. Lesson learned!!

We bought our ferry ride tickets at the counter and caught our ride to see the Liberty Statue. As we all know airport style security check is in place at the venue. After the 20mins of shaky ride (which will make you a bit sea sick) we finally reached.

It always gives you goosebumps to see this ginormous green statue gifted by the French to the USA. You could see the Manhattan sky scrapers from the Island. we didn't go inside the crown or to certain elevation inside the statue. After clicking so many pics in all the direction we had our lunch. 




There is a Museum and a theatre that shows the history of Statue Of Liberty, due to the limited time in our hands we couldn't enjoy the movie or the museums.

From there you could go to Ellis Island to see the museum about olden day immigration. We need to pay only for the ferry ride rest will be free as it comes under U.S. National Parks.

There was a long queue waiting to catch a ferry back to the mainland (city). The sun was not so kind towards us. We didn't realize then that we are going to get a bad case of sun burn.

Once we got off the ferry "Wall Street", Famous "Bull Statue" and the "Trinity Church" are in a walkable distance (this is the another reason to start your trip from the liberty statue).

As you walk down a bit more you could reach "9/11 Memorial". Closer to this "9/11 Museum" is also there which will require 1-2 hours of your time and costs around $20. Pls note that Only active adults can do all these walking not for senior citizens.

As always we were in a rush and skipped the museum and climbed down to the closest train station and hopped on to the subway that took us to "Empire State Building".

After reaching there we realized that we missed to see the "Brookline Bridge". The iconic bridge is happened to be in a walkable distance from 9/11 memorial. It happens when "we are bored" "we are tired" voice from the little ones echoes in your ears constantly!!

The WTC also known as Freedom Tower is also located closer to the 9/11 museum. You could see the city view from their 102th floor elevation but we chose "Empire State Building" to see the view.

Usually you could see The Liberty Statue from the 85th floor of Empire State Building but this time our view is blocked by the smoke coming from Canada. It was quite Hazy all around NJ, NY and CT.

It has been 10 yrs since we visited NY city. A lot has changed since then. You could see people from other continents selling stuff in subway along with their children. The same people are allowed to have their fruit stand in the road side and also you could see them as dressed as popular children characters in Time Square. They even pulled our kids' hand and offered to take pics with them!!

Finally The sun has set and it was time to enjoy the world famous "Time Square". It was the first time that we had our dinner amidst the sparkling lights and bright screens. Great experience.

The NJ transit was available till midnight but we caught our ride back at 9:45 P.M. Even though we are dead tired couldn't sleep with all those excitement bubbling inside our mind 😀 

The NY city has also got "Grand Central Station" "Central Park", "Rockefeller Center", "Natural History Museum" "Madame Tussaud Wax Museum" "Bronx Zoo", "Madison Square Garden", "St. Patrick's Cathedral  and many more attractions inside. We just need more time in our hand that's all !!!

More Miles To Cover.. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Charlotte 2 Canada - By Car - The Capitol State #roadtrip #travel_blog

Image
It was the year 2006. The very first time I visited Niagara Falls. Mesmerized by its elegancy and the grandness I was standing there looking at the people in the long distance. By pointing at the Rainbow Bridge and the Giant Wheel on the other side of the falls my Husband exclaimed that "the falls might look more beautiful from the Canadian Side I Believe"!!! As a true Indian Immigrant we planned our Canada trip as soon as we received our Green Card. To refresh our Kids' memory we planned it as a road trip and decided to visit places along the way. N.C to D.C One fine morning we started our drive from Charlotte, N.C. After 6 hours of driving with couple of pit stops and crossing Virginia State we checked in at our hotel around 4:00 in the evening. Usually most of us will stay in suburbs like Fairfax, Dulles(VA), Baltimore(MD). We too did the same and booked ours in Camp Spring, MD. We freshened up ourselves quickly and drove (20mins due to traffic) to the Metro station an
Read more

Soubin Shahir - யார் இந்த கதா(தை) நாயகன்?!

Image
2020-ம் ஆண்டு மார்ச் மாதம் உலகெங்கும்  கரோனாவின் தீவிரம் பரவத் தொடங்கி கிட்டத்தட்ட அனைவருமே வீட்டில் முடங்க வேண்டிய சூழல் நிலவியது. குறைந்த பட்சம் அடுத்த ஆறு மாதத்திற்காவது இது தொடரும் என்ற நிலை வந்த பொழுது நம்மில் பலரும் பல புதிய பழக்க வழக்கங்களை கடை பிடிக்கத் துவங்கினோம். அதில் பாரபட்சமின்றி உலக மக்கள் அனைவராலும் பின்பற்றப்பட்ட ஒன்று OTT-ல் படம் பார்ப்பது. நானும் அதற்கு முன் Streaming Service -களில்  படம் பார்த்தவள் தான் என்றாலும் இந்த அசாதாரணமான Quarantine காலகட்டத்தில் அதன் எண்ணிக்கை பன்  மடங்காக பெருகியதோடு மட்டுமல்லாமல் அதன் எல்லையும் தமிழ் படங்களைக் கடந்து விஸ்தாரமாக விரியத் துவங்கியது எனலாம். இந்த OTT வசதியை மிகவும் லாவகமாக பயன்படுத்திக் கொண்ட பட உலகம் என்றால் அது 'Molly Wood" என்று அழைக்கப்படும் மலையாள பட உலகம் தான். அதிக பொருட் செலவில்லாமல் குறைந்த தினங்களில் படங்களை முடிக்கும் மலையாள இயக்குனர்கள் இந்த புதிய வாய்ப்பை இனம் கண்டு  வாரம் தவறாமல் அனைத்து OTT தளங்களிலும் தரமான மலையாளப் படங்கள் வந்த வண்ணம் இருக்கும் படி பார்த்துக் கொண்டனர். இன்றும் அது தொடர்கிறது. அவ்வாறு
Read more

Charlotte 2 Canada - By Car - Montreal #roadtrip #travel_blog

Image
One day of sight seeing in New York needed 2 days of resting!! So that's what we did. We spent a day relaxing in New Jersey visiting friends and temples. In the evening we started driving to Connecticut. The drive was only 2 hours but the weekend traffic made it longer. After 4 hours of drive we reached Danbury, Connecticut. That place is always close to the heart because it is the first city we landed after departing from our mother land. The Hat City hasn't changed much even after a decade. Next day went faster than we thought and we had to start our drive to Canada. After finishing our lunch on the way at Poughkeepsie, NY we drove straight to Montreal, Quebec. The drive was almost 5 hours 30 minutes. The route we took was scenic and had no cellphone network. It is better to download the maps beforehand. We had a immigration check at the border. It was a drive through and took almost 30 minutes to cross the border. We were only asked usual questions and the documents were ch
Read more