New England Trip 2015 Pt 3 NYC

Continuing from Philadelphia we rode up I-95 towards New York City.  Notice I said towards NYC. We had to get off the toll road for a pit stop and when we tried to re-enter the toll road we were caught in traffic and forced into a lane that took us across to Staten Island via a toll bridge. Imagine my surprise when they charged me $40 for the motorcycle because I had that little trailer attached. We had to go find an ATM on the island because we didn't have enough cash to get back across the bridge to continue to our hotel. We got the cash and were happy to find out that the cost to escape the island was included in the entry fee.
We actually stayed in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey and took a Metro bus into the city. We only had about 8 hours to see what we could in that short visit. We had a lot of ground to cover on this trip.
At the Metro Station we caught a subway downtown to the Ground Zero Memorial. There was a lot of construction still going on around the site and the Oculus had not opened yet.

It is very easy to get around in the City on the subway and mass transit. We have used it upon every visit since this one and had no problems getting from upper Manhattan to Tribeca and many places in between.

After a stop at Ground Zero we walked down to Battery Park and caught the Staten Island Ferry. It is a free ride for passengers and it takes you past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty plus you get a great view of Manhattan from the Ferry.

After the ferry ride we rode the subway up to Little Italy and did a stroll through the neighborhood. We came across a very nice Italian Restaurant called DaNico and decided to have dinner.

The atmosphere was awesome. It looked just some place you may have seen in the movie the Godfather. The food and wine were really good. It was a very nice discovery and has been visited by many celebrities through the years including the ones caricatured in the picture. There were many pictures of them on the walls.

We went into a local deli to look at the fresh cheeses and meats that seem to be only available in the city.

Here are some of the meat products hanging around the Deli. There were racks of cheese and a counter that had multiple offerings of delightful looking dishes. Look at the sausage and olives and other things in the display case below. Are you hungry yet?

 We walked back through part of Chinatown to Tribeca and caught the subway up to Metro Central Station for our bus ride back to the hotel in NJ. The next morning we were off to Mystic River and Newport. (Pt 4)