October 2nd, 2008: New York
Bob: I was feeling really crummy in the morning, so rather than charge off to conquer New York, after our ship coasted in past the Verrezanno Narrows Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, I quietly crept back into bed for a post-breakfast nap. |
Monika: We woke up early to go up on deck and watch us sailing into New York harbor. It was still dark, and getting pictures was difficult. But it was an emotional moment for me sailing by the Statue of Liberty. When I first came to the United States I flew into New York, which is really not the same as sailing past the Statue of Liberty. After docking we went in for breakfast and Bob just kind of wilted. His cold was robbing him of energy. We went back to our cabin, where he took a morning nap, while I brought out journal up to date while watching the river. |
Bob: You know things aren't going well when the first thing you can think of after getting out of bed in the morning is to get right back in and take a nap! I had hoped that would prepare me for something active, but by then the ship's disembarkation procedures were well underway. As it turned out we couldn't disembark for another hour or two, so I turned in for another nap, and you know things are really going South when the first thing you can think of when getting up from a nap is getting right back in bed for another nap! |
Monika: We were docked in Brooklyn in the mouth of the East River on the port side, so our starboard side looked out over the river to Manhattan. We could even see the Statue of Liberty. I watched ferries and barges come up the East River and bigger ships coming up the Hudson past the Statue of Liberty. The biggest was an aircraft carrier that was towed up the Hudson. I later learned that it was the museum ship "Intrepid" a WWII aircraft carrier that was towed to its berth in the Hudson after having beein refurbished in Staten Island. Helicopters were swarming overhead like a swarm of mosquitoes, probably from all the different news organizations.
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After all that excitement (for me, Bob slept through it), our gangway number was finally called. Everyone had to go down to the terminal to be processed through immigration. After all this was the first port in the USA. Immigration went fairly quickly, but we had to wait for all passengers to be processed before we could get back on board. Since our cellphone was working, we had chatted with Judson earlier, I called Lois and we caught up with family affairs and planning our spring cruise with her and hopefully Phyllis from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome (Wanderung 19).
Back on board we had to wait for a mandatory lifeboat drill for the crew to end, before we went up to a rather deserted Horizon Buffet and had lunch. But that was all the excitement Bob could take. So it was back to our cabin for some more ship watching (me) and napping (Bob).
Bob: The two naps helped, however, so after lunch I gathered up enough energy for us to venture out into the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, which was the area right around the cruise ship port. The guy at the Tourist Information center was both brusque and unhelpful, but he grudgingly gave us a map of downtown Brooklyn, which did not have the cruise ship port on it, and finally also a map of the Red Hook area, which did. So if you take a cruise ship to New York and disembark at the Brooklyn terminal, make sure you get a "Neighborhood Guide and Map" of Red Hook on your way out of the terminal.
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Monika: Finally, around one, Bob was ready for some adventure. We decided at this time to stick to Brooklyn and the area around the ship. We had a small shopping list (pretzels, beer, mouthwash) and at the end of the major through street, about 6 blocks, was something called Fairview Market. I had expected a little market, but was surprised by an enormous grocery store inside an old restored warehouse. Already outside was a large array of vey nice looking produce. Once inside, the produce section continued, and we thought that maybe it was a produce store. But no, there was much more. In each section, they had the everyday stuff and exotic stuff. I bought a beer from the Czech republic, we found some interesting pretzels and ouf course the mouthwash. |
Bob: On the way back we detoured over to the new and very large Ikea store about 2 long blocks southeast of Van Brunt and Beard Street. There we found the port for a cute little yellow passenger ferry that is free and will carry you directly across the river to the tip of Manhattan. I just wished I had been well enough to get there a couple of hours earlier so that we could have ridden over to Manattan and walked around or taken the free courtesy bus around the southern tip. Why wasn't any of this mentioned during our port lecture? It was good to know those free services were available for our next visit, but somewhat frustrating that we passengers had to figure out what to do in each port. The Red Hook neighborhood that we walked through struck us both as undergoing urban renewal, a process of gentrification so to speak. I think the Fairway Market and Ikea stores are kind of the "anchor stores" that will attract other kinds of retail stores to the area. As Ted Gessner, who lived in such a neighborhood, once pointed out, the first stage in that gentrification process was to put the fancy, wrought iron anti-burglarly bars on the windows. Sure enough, we saw several nice examples of those bars including the ones that were bowed out to accomodate a window air conditioner.
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Monika: . Stuffing everything into our rucksack, we decided to forge on for a couple of blocks to Ikea. I had seen Ikea water taxis on the East River and was curious what that was all about. We met some people, who just had come on a water taxi, and they told us that the Ikea water taxi is free and goes every 40 minutes from Ikea in Brooklyn to Pier 12 in Manhattan.. Since the walk from the ship to Ikea was about 20 minutes, this would be an ideal way to get to Manhattan. Unfortunately, it eas too late for us to try. I thought I had seen that the “all aboard” call was 4PM. It turned out that the ship waited for some people that did not get back until after 5PM, so we could have had a boat ride to Manhattan and back, oh well. However, we slowly went back to the ship. The neighborhood around the Red Hook terminal is an old neighborhood in the process of gentrification. I have the feeling that in a couple of years, housing prices will have gone up, and amenities multiplied. I did enjoy seing a "Cruise Passenger Cafe" at the corner of the road that led to the cruise terminal and the main road. |
Back on board, we posed for a "we where here" picture and then Bob went back for another nap, and I went up on the Sun Deck to talk to Martin on the cellphone. From the Sun Deck I could see the Fairview Market and Ikea and the landscape beyond and watch the last people get on the ship. The captain did wait until everyone was back on board, although it was past 5PM our scheduled sailing time, and greeted us with another warm "Welcome back and welcome home."
Bob: I managed to rouse myself once more when our ship edged away from the pier and once again steamed slowly out to sea about 5:30 that evening. The setting sun gave a completely different angle of light to the city skyline of New York. Some clouds were edging down on the city from the North, so the brilliantly lit towers and bridges of New York stood out in stark contrast to the gray overcast, a rather pretty sight. My only regret was not being able to get "up close and personal", so to speak.
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Monika: Bob woke up for the sailing away and we watched as we glided past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
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| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Baltic Cruise | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Epilog |
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