This morning I started to have a bit of a look at what I was gonna do and sent some emails and stuff. I found out there was a visitor information center fairly close so I thought I would go there and find out some info on walking tours. Unfortunately when I got there it was closed for winter. Instead I decided to try out a self-guided guided tour of Brooklyn Bridge. On the way I was surprised to find so many shops selling restaurant equipment. I have never seen a shop like them before and there were heaps on the same street. They were selling stuff like commercial BBQs, commercial fridges, meat cutting machines and even pots and pans and stuff. Weird. I wonder where people buy that kinda stuff in NZ, probably just one warehouse somewhere or something I guess.
I got to the bridge and took this half way across, I found her!
There was some information about how the bridge was built and a bit of a story about the project managers: A German guy designed the bridge and fell ill after construction had started, he enlisted his son to take over the project but his son got the bends pretty bad when he was working on one of the underwater pillars and was kinda bed-ridden for the rest of his life. His wife took over and managed the project to the end. She apparently did a fantastic job despite not having a background in engineering.
I got some pretty sweet views from the bridge but nothing amazing because of temporary fencing and anti-suicide fences.
On the other side the tour led me down a couple of nice little residential streets (the property values must have been ridiculous) and a wee park where I found this guy:
Why does everywhere get squirrels but NZ? The tour then led me down to DUMBO which stands for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" to the waterfront where it recommended the "Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory":
I got a chocolate and chocolate chip ice cream (luckily it was a beautiful warm day!) and it was fantastic. I wandered around the waterfront and got this shot of the Brooklyn Bridge:
I decided to go back across the Manhattan bridge but it was all metal and shit and no where near as cool as the Brooklyn Bridge.
I then decided to go on a mission to get a power adaptor so I could charge stuff. Andrew had recommended a "best buy" which was pretty close to their place so I went there. Apparently they always sell out of anything-to-north-american adaptors pretty quick so there wasn't one there but they said that I could 14 blocks up Broadway to another best buy which had 8 of them in stock. So I walked 14 blocks up to the other Best buy only to find out they didn't have any either. I queried the guy to make sure they didn't have any in another part of the store or out the back and he said definitely not. When I went downstairs to leave I saw some other similar adaptors sitting on a shelf but not the one I wanted, but that kinda blew his theory that they were no where else out of the water. So kinda wasted about 45min walking up and back for nothing. I went to another store and they only had universal (large) expensive adaptors, then I finally found a place to sell just a anything in - North America out adaptor for twice as much as Best Buy were selling them but at least now I can charge my stuff.
For dinner we went to a pizza place and I met a couple of Andrews mates. Also had a Pilsner beer that was quite nice hoppy. Pizza was damn good but I'm not sure if it was as good as the place I went to in London with Gaz and co.
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