Thursday, May 26, 2016-Bronx

We traveled in style for the day and then walked again at night.

In the morning, we got on a bus (coach) for a tour of the Bronx. It was amazing the places the bus driver could get! Anyway, we saw lots of houses, buildings, geographic features, etc. Parts of Harlem, a park, and famous places (Edgar Allen Poe's house, the last 18th century farmhouse in Manhattan, etc).

We had lunch in Little Italy (pizza magherita and then gelato) and then more driving tour until dinner.

After dinner we walked the High Line for about 1.5 miles. Were in the oldest subway station in NYC and then came through the newest on our way home. Both looked the part.

When we got home, we drank our bottle of wine purchased for the occasion and finished off our box of wine. Then it was time for bed.

Today we have wrap up and then check out by noon.We will either walk the one mile to Penn Station or take the subway.

The Highline is an old raised railroad track built around 1900 for railroad delivery straight to the meat packing plants and factories. In 1980 it was abandoned and fenced in as semi trucks were more efficient. It was slated to be torn down starting in lat 2001, but after 9/11, the priorities changed. 2009 two guys met at a meeting about the next slated destruction and worked on getting a way for it to be a park. It has already brought $2 billion in re-investments. The place is packed with people, diners, bars, new buildings, etc. There is yearly artwork--you need a special permit if it stays more than a year.

Benches made from reclaimed wood from Coney Island after Hurricane Sandy.

New building by female architect Zaha Hadid. 

Car storage.

Episcopal Church framing the Empire State building.

Four story golf driving range. (And bowling and other recreational sports.)

Viewing area of 10th Ave. People watch the traffic and the people in the windows are the billboards.

DEA building, where they hold seized assets. Also walked past one of the buildings that started the Manhattan Project (but wasn't sure which building).

Oldest subway station. 

The elevators (both of them) were out of commission when we got back in the afternoon). Mom and I only had 7 flights. Joanie and Joan, 10. They were fixed by 9 PM when we got back. The Swiss Air flight crew stays here. The hotel staff had to bring all their suitcases down for them...and they were BIG bags.  

Vintage motorized bicycle.

Modern housing building with a courtyard in the middle.

The ferries used to go under these arches. The Hudson River is about 200 yards in the opposite direction from this picture. 

Had the Titanic made it across the Atlantic, it would have docked at this gate.

The silver is our bus. I could have opened the window and touched the beer truck.

Private school in Riverdale. A very expensive area of the Bronx. On the Highline we walked past the school where Suri Cruse (and others) go. It is $46K per year.

Park that is preserved in Riverdale.

Pre-fab houses brought in as an experiment in the 1940s after the war. Some of the few free standing houses in the heart of the Bronx.

Another one of our guides houses. This was Molly's. She and her husband occupy the bottom two floors. She rents the top two as two apartments. It is on a quiet street in Harlem. They paid $1.8 million about 4 years ago. One is for sale on the street for $3. They have parking in the back.

Molly's street.

Free standing McDonald's. The prize of the land is not to the point where they have eliminated the parking and drive through. This is in Harlem.