A view of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn, New York
Usually, the word "joyful" doesn't usually match well with the phrase "driving around Manhattan in New York City," due to heavy traffic, lack of free parking, and expensive parking garages. However, my husband and I enjoyed a wonderful sightseeing car tour of a part of Manhattan when we returned to Brooklyn, New York after our East Coast Princess Cruise in June. We had spent a few days visiting family and friends in Brooklyn and Long Island, and on this particular day, my dear friend Rosemary wanted to spend the day with us and offered to drive around to show us all the old and new sights we had not seen in quite a while. If you have been a long-time reader of my blog, you will remember I lived in Brooklyn, NY all my life until we moved to Colorado eleven years ago to be closer to our children and grandchildren. The first five years of this blog mainly focused on my life in New York City.
We're now in Lower Manhattan.
Rosemary and I were happily chatting about many things as we drove along, and all the while, I snapped photos with my cell phone.
Rosemary drove on the West Side Highway where we passed many new high-rise buildings and a new elevated park along the Hudson River at Pier 55 called Little Island (photo in the upper right of the collage above)
We continued driving north on the West Side Highway, passing numerous tall penthouse-type buildings and an exclusive-looking senior living facility. (All photos will enlarge in size for easier viewing of details if clicked on) We drove a bit further north and then traffic became heavy and slow so Rosemary drove east crosstown.
Some of the buildings surrounding Central Park and one of the many horse and carriage rides that can be hired for a tour inside the park.
As we continued driving south on 5th Avenue, we passed many familiar buildings: St. Patrick's Cathedral on the upper left, the Apple Store on the right, Tiffany & Company on the lower left, and Cartier on the lower right.
Saks Fifth Ave on one side of 5th Ave and Rockefeller Center on the other side
In the distance, I could see the Empire State Building. What was that figure ganging onto the antenna on top? Could it be King Kong?? No, it turned out to be a large dragon that was promoting a HBO TV show called " House of the Dragon."
We next passed the large New York Public Library main branch on 5th Ane with its iconic lion statues, Patience, and Fortitude, in front.
The triangle-shaped Flatiron Building in the upper left was covered with netting as it is being extensively renovated to turn it into luxury condos. The New School building is on the lower left of the collage.
We stopped to buy some delicious gelato cones to eat and stretch our legs a bit.
We returned to the West Side where we passed more new very tall apartment or condominium buildings in Battery Park and the elite Stuyvesant High School building which requires an entrance exam for admission although it is a public school.
We were very close to the new World Trade Center complex at this location. The largest building in the complex is called the Freedom Tower. It is hard to see it all when one is close up!
We drove east towards the Brooklyn Bridge and I could see the Brooklyn East River waterfront.
We drove across the Brooklyn Bridge again...
Once we were back in Brooklyn, we had a view of Lower Manhattan in the distance, and we passed the large ETSY headquarters.
We treated Rosemary to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Brooklyn. I've missed their wonderful fish salad! She took our photo but wouldn't allow us to take hers because she had tears in her eyes knowing that we were leaving the next day to fly home to Colorado. She promised me that she would visit us in Colorado again soon, and asked us to wait until then to take photos. I am holding her to that promise!
I hope you enjoyed riding along with us in Manhattan in this post! I have a lot to catch up on this blog with what has been happening this summer in Colorado and I hope you'll be back again next week!
Happy September!
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