NY - 26 MAY 08 - Uptown and Central Park

Today was meant to be a more relaxed and leisurely day. We started a bit late and took the Uptown tour. This tour was more a sitting-on-the-bus-while-you-are-driven-around tour, as we went through the streets, past the Lincoln Centre American Museum of Natural History and the shady suburb of Harlem. This suburb is mostly black-dominated and witnessed a shootout of 6 people either that same day later or very early next day.

Around 90% of the area that the Uptown tour covers lies on the periphery of the Central Park. You can't miss the park most of the times as its omnipresent. I got off at the Guggenheim museum stop and took a short walk near the Jacqueline Kennedy water reservoir at Central Park. Beautiful views, yet again. I am not much a museum person, so wherever I go, I do not much look forward to visit museums. Give me good and breathtaking views, scenery, you know the nature stuff, where I can click some fantastic pictures and I'm happy. These are images that stay in my mind for years to come and that's how I always appreciate the places that I visit. Else, you visit one museum, you've visited them all.

Next stop was the Central Park main entrance, in front of prominent buildings like The Pierre Hotel, The Plaza Hotel and the Trump building where the show 'The Apprentice' is shot.

Central Park was very beautiful. Mom & I both enjoyed taking a stroll through it; she remained seated most of the times while I took a stroll further inside the park. Children playing, parents driving baby carts, people sun-bathing, cyclists passing by on the specially-made cycling path, people running and jogging, elderly people seated on endless rows of benches chatting and yapping, it was a Kodak moment. If you go to NY, take a walk through the Central Park. And if you like riding bicycles, then there's a beautiful cycling track; I wish I had the time to ride a bicycle there.

After having lunch at the same Italian cafe on Times Square, we headed to Pier 83 - a dock for boats - to catch the Circle Line Cruises. This is a boat ride on the Hudson river. There are various Piers on the NY river coast. If you ever wonder on which street a particular Pier is located, just subtract 40 from the Pier No and you'll get the Street number. So Pier 83 - where I went to catch my cruise boat - was on 43rd street (83-40). I enjoyed the cruise and got to see Manhattan from a boat, all the way to Liberty island - but we didn't get off anywhere en route - and back in about 1 and half hours.