New York, New York...a probe...

Drove all the way into NY, well Brooklyn, NY.  I think this makes the 21st state.  The tolls are astounding, $20.00 to get in $18 to get out.  Our plan was to have the first probe, a look at the lower or Brooklyn part of New York.   The big ticket item here is the Green-Wood Cemetery -This place is absolutely wonderful.  It is several hundred acres in one of the most populous areas of the country.    To have such a quiet and peaceful place, with not only lots of history, but just the grandeur of some of the crypts, and graves is quite facinating. The main gate looks like a church steeple, but there are rare parrots that have taken up residence on the spire, and have built enormous and horribly ugly looking nests.

The front gate 

The nests, just below the pointy bit

One of the star residents, Leonard Bernstein, has a surprisingly humble grave...as opposed to the thousands of grand graves of people no one other than their loved ones will remember.  We had a quiet..well very quiet picnic lunch nearby.  

Leonard Bernstein - well not him his grave.

Parking as at an absolute and very expensive premium in this part, and getting on exceptionally well with the very plesant man on the security checkpoint, he couldn't see a reason, we shouldn't leave our car parked in the cemetery, while we explored some other spots in  Brooklyn. Which is what we did via the subway. To the point where the Manhattan bridge goes over the Hudson River, which is also close to where the Brooklyn bridge goes over the Hudson River.  Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass or DUMBO.  This area also has a huge number of attractions and activities for the local people from a cart which has library books, to take read and return to soccer pitches, many areas of grass, basketball courts, and thousands of people using it.   

It was a pretty warm 30 deg and quite humid, and very hazy, so we had to use a lot of hydration.

The selfie stick, Manhattan bridge foreground, Brooklyn bridge background and Empire State Building back back ground

Harry Chapin park.

On the pak built above the expressway there was a tree, covered, neat tidy and well used kids playground, which was nice enough, but looking at the dedication plaque we note that it is dedicated in memory of Harry Chapin.....who...who wrote Cats in the cradle, and 30,000 pound of bananas.  Andrew knew who he was.  But it was more for his unsung (now sung) charity work in NY for children's charities.

Drive all the way back to AC, once again the traffic was horrible but it was more the roads that were the problem.

After a bit of a fright about the hire car;  an email from the company saying they expected it back yesterday, a phone call to our travel agent,and it was fixed...as it should have been before our trip....but is good now.

An early start from Brigantine  to travel the two and a half hours, and $23.00 in tolls north to New York. Where we will say goodbye to the car...and Julia (the GPS machine) .  The traffic in New York is not necessarily the problem nor are the drivers...Melbourne drivers leave them for dead....it is the roadways that are the problem . Found the hotel, dropped the bags off, then dropped the car off. 

Julia says we travelled 6148 miles. 9894.24 kms.

Goodbye Chrysler.