New York City

We began our cruise up the coast and the St. Lawrence River at New York City. It was my first visit there in many years and I was really surprised at how nice it is now. We walked around town and felt perfectly safe all the time.

Times square on Saturday evening. The billboard signs on the building rent for $10,000,000 a year. That's about 70,000,000 a year from the signs. Good thing because there is only one renter in the entire building--the city of NY rents space for the police substation on the first floor. Notice the crystal ball at the top that falls at midnight each New Year's Eve.
The Brooklyn Bridge across the East River.
GCS exit to street.
Uptown from the ship. Notice the interesting building on the right.
As we left the pier, this was our view of Midtown.
Lower Manhattan with the new WTC building.

Saturday night at Time's Square. The sidewalks were packed for several blocks in each direction.
The skyline of lower Manhattan and the end of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Grand Central Terminal and entrance to subway system.
Midtown with a Disney cruise ship on the right.
Nice view of the Empire State Building.
The lower Manhattan area is built mostly on fill taken from construction of the subway and the basements of other building.

The Empire State Building as seen from the tour bus.
The iconic clock in Grand Central Terminal.
The Chrysler Building (left) and Empire State Building as seen from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center.)
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Our little tug boat that helped us out of the slip.
Ellis Island.

A lovely fountain in one of the many parks near Washington Square.
The main lobby of Grand Central Terminal.
Home of the world famous Rockettes.
The SST and the bubble housing the space shuttle on the Enterprise.
Another look at the Empire State Building.
The grand ole lady welcomes everyone to NYC.

The Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn side.
Grand Central station entrance to the trains.
Sally on the top deck of the Veendam cruise ship overlooking midtown Manhattan.
An iconic view of midtown Manhattan with the Empire State Building on the right.
The new World Trade Center which is now the tallest in NYC.
The Statue of Liberty on the left and lower Manhattan on the right in the background. My lady, Sally, getting her first taste of life in the Atlantic breezes.