The rest of the day was spent doing the tour of Uptown New York. I must confess, I think one of the reasons I enjoyed the tour so much was because of our guide. Whilst he was really informative, he was also amusing, telling jokes and getting everyone involved. The tour was actually a ‘hop on, hop off’, but I decided to stay on for the whole circuit non-stop, which took around 2 hours.
We began by driving up Central Park on its Western side, passing by the American Museum of Natural History – which is definitely going on my list of things to do the next time i’m back in the city! We saw Grant’s Tomb, which I must confess I had never heard of before, but I actually found quite interesting. This is the tomb of the 18th president of America, Ulysses S. Grant, and his wife Julia Dent Grant. Apparently, he was supposed to have been buried somewhere else, but this location would not have allowed his wife to be buried next to him. So instead, the ex-president was buried in Riverside park, an act I personally think is quite romantic.
We then drove towards Harlem and went past the Apollo theatre, before driving back down 5th avenue. We went past the Museum of the City of New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, more places that I wanted to visit but didn’t quite have the time. It’s amazing how quickly seems to go by in the city! I certainly could have done with another week to try and fit in some more sights.
The tour ended very close to Times Square which was absolutely perfect for me. Looking back, I’m incredibly pleased that I decided to do this tour. Although I simply saw a lot of sights, instead of actually going inside or doing them ‘properly’, I’m still glad that I did it this way. I know for a fact that there’s no way that I could have walked to all of those places in the time that I had, and although the subway is convenient, it doesn’t let you just sit back and watch the city go by – which is something that I love doing. It was an easy and convenient way to tick multiple things off my bucket list for the city, and the great thing is that now I already know which bus tour to go with the next time I’m back in New York!
‘One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.’ Henry Miller
A list of everywhere 