New York City -- Day 2

First of all, nothing untold happened unless you count watching an episode of CSI-NY being shot on the pier where I picked up my sea tour. They were “fishing” a dead female out of the river. Otherwise, there were no catastrophes, no accidents, no funny stuff. Another glorious day in the Big Apple. We have been soooo lucky to have such good weather. Today was escort duty for both of us, hitting all the famous landmarks and neighborhoods with drive-bys from both land and sea.

New York City is one crowded place, with people rushing here and there. Traffic is congested but not noisy anymore. Used to be you could hear a symphony of car horns constantly blaring, but today there is a $350 fine for blowing your horn in anger! I have been to NYC several times and cannot remember the streets being so quiet. There are so many skyscrapers that the sun does not penetrate to the ground. The city is cleaner than I remember. Many abandoned piers, wharves, and elevated train tracks have been turned into lush green parks with lots of blooming flowers. Apparently, Mayor Bloomberg is a green nut and anything that can be turned green (and flowery) is.

I have spent two days here and I am now ready to leave. The big city is not for this Port Ludlow girl. I would miss driving my car. Parking is dear and very costly: $8.49 per ½ hour in a parking garage! I feel sorry for the poor doggies as they don’t have any place to freely roam. They are walked on a leash to play and do their business. People live in dense apartment buildings and highrises; I like to walk out my front door and be outside. Lower and mid- Manhattan is nothing but a concrete jungle with a few parks interspersed here and there. For me, it’s too much of everything, like orchestrated chaos. Michael could live here again, although it’s been 50 years since he left.

Henry Hudson was the first person to explore Manhattan in 1609. It is said that Peter Minuit bought the entire island from Native Americans for $24 worth of beads and trinkets in 1629. The tiny Dutch settlement was named New Amsterdam, which was located on the lower tip of the island in the area now known as Battery Park and Wall Street. Since it was strategically located and had a protected harbor and was surrounded by rivers, the British in 1664 took control of the village and renamed it New York, in honor of the Duke of York.

The island was a lot smaller in those days. Today, 1/3 of the island is landfill, made from the dirt and sand that was excavated for the foundations of the skyscrapers. The reason why so many skyscrapers can be built in Manhattan is because the island is made of granite. Builders dig down until they hit solid bedrock. The new World Trade Center foundation goes down 71 feet, and all that dirt has to go somewhere, so it is used as landfill.

I seem to collect miscellaneous data that is good for nothing but trivia. Over 200 languages are spoken in NYC; each former WTC tower – called a vertical city – had its own zip code; there is a specialized high school for just about any job you can think of; Wall Street got its name because that is where the Dutch built a wall to keep the animals from roaming into the forest. If you get your car towed, you can expect to pay $400 in cash + ticket + interest + storage fees. You will have to deal with a human who sits behind a 4” bullet proof glass window. You do not want to get your car towed! Cities make up counties, but in this case, the five boroughs (each of which is a separate county) make up one city.

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I have been asked how it feels to live on the Crystal Symphony. We have spent almost 1/3 of 2010 in Room 8108, a mere 135 square feet. We have a whole ship to roam in, but our little room is our sanctuary. I miss comfortable furniture and a decent view. I don’t like having to shower and dress before I go for breakfast. I sometimes miss my TV shows. This is not like living in the real world. I love my house in Port Ludlow, I like living in the desert in the winter yet, somehow, this is home. Home is where we are at the moment.