Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York - October 2012

  

Our Tour of Coney Island was part of the "Slice of Brooklyn"Tour.  Had we not taken that tour we would not have thought to travel out to see Coney Island as part of our day touring of New York.

It was well worth the visit to view an area that we have heard a lot about over the years.  The grey sky day had turned into beautiful blue sky and sunshine which was perfect for the kite flying contest that was being held on the beach while we were there.

Our Tour Guide - Tony, from the Slice of Brooklyn Tour, showed us around Coney Island Amusement Park including the ancient wooden structure called the "Cyclone" big dipper which is still being maintained today.  We got to see a bit of good history of Brooklyn on this tour.

Some of the kites on the beach were huge and there were a lot of people there having fun including children on the beach building sand castles. 

It is hard to believe that two weeks later the area was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. 
 

Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial, New York October 2012

We were in two minds about our visit to Ground Zero.  We had seen the site from the Convention Centre during our City Tour when we first arrived in New York.  From across the road we could see both of the new towers and we could see the tour groups moving through the site. 

To get into Ground Zero we needed to pre purchase a ticket on line stating the number of people to tour including exact names, the day of the tour and the time we wanted to book for the tour.  There is no charge for the booking, but without the tour registration we would not have been able to get through the security check.  We had time on our last day in New York so I got our reservations done on the hotel Internet service where we could print out our tickets.  We booked an end of the afternoon tour when we thought that the crowds would not be so large.  In the morning we had done a tour of Brooklyn and then went straight to Ground Zero.  The queues were not too bad as we all had our allocated time to enter the site and once we got through our security check the rest was easy.

The site was very impressive and I was happy that we had found enough time to have a close look at what was being done there.  It is all "work in progress"with the two towers and the Museum partially completed.  The two pools where the Twin Towers once stood were a very sobering sight.  The steady water flow down the sides and into the middle of the pool was beautifully designed.  I could not help but shed some tears walking around the walls of the pool where the thousands of names are of those that were lost.  The park area which is very new was peaceful and welcoming with lawns, trees and gardens.  I was personally very impressed with the effort that was being put in for the Memorial. 

It was worth a bit of inconvenience over getting the tickets as I now have a memory that will stay with me forever and I am looking forward to seeing the finished project in the future.I imagine the purpose of issuing bookings is for crowd control so that too many tourists do not turn up at the same time.

I understand that Hurricane Sandy caused some damage there after we left and the site was closed to tourists for a while.  

Return from our USA experience - October 2012

 Our Tour Group with Insight Vacations

touring the West Coast of the USA

 

 Our Tour Group with Globus

Touring the Parks and Canyons USA

 

Our Tour Group with Globus

Touring Eastern Canada and Eastern USA

 

 

I have finally got to start my travel blog on our USA tour which stretched seven weeks from the end of August 2012 until mid October 2012.  I intend to add a post for each place we visited in the order of travel when you read down the blog when it is finished.  To achieve this I need to start at the end and move backwards through the tour. 

 

 

Our tour included three organised bus tours as well as individual tours. 

 

My overview of the trip:  A well worthwhile trip.  It was very tiring because of the length of the tour but in hindsight I could not take anything out of what we did so my overall reaction is that it was a great tour and we managed to see all of the main highlights of the USA.  There is still heaps more to see over there as it is a huge country - very unique in the lifestyle and the natural wonders that the country offers. 

 

We chose Virgin Australia Premium Economy Class for our flights and was well pleased with the service and comfort that we received.  I would not have any hesitation about flying with them again.

 

Our tour began in San Francisco and finished in New York so I now going to add our New York highlights first and then work backwards to San Francisco.

 

Footnote:  We were very fortunate with the timing of our travel as we missed Hurricane Sandy (that devastated New York) by 15 days.  If we had got caught in that mess my report would have been vastly different.