Who’s idea was it to get up and experience the approach into New York, it all happened very early and it was a bit fresh stood out on the viewing platform on deck 13. It was all pretty spectacular though and probably worth the effort and we has excellent weather for it, a crisp and clear November morning.
After the excitement was over it was back to the room for a lie down before heading off the ship and into Brooklyn.
Immigration was painless, but a bit tedious with all the booths manned initially, but then for some inexplicable reason they closed half of them just as the majority of the ship’s passengers started to come through. Luckily we’d latched onto the tour parties, so we’re at the front when they started to disappear and weren’t overly delayed.
Once off the ship we headed into Brooklyn proper on the hunt for a diner for Breakfast, we found one on Court Street In Cobble Hill and after a stack of pancakes, eggs and sausage we headed off in search of Macy’s on Fulton St. via Stinky Brooklyn, the starting point for today’s walking tour. It was a bit of a hike up Smith Street to Fulton which was good, both for walking off the breakfast and the fact they didn’t open until 10am. On the walk we passed a vertical car park that had Jane fascinated, cars were parked vertically being raised out of the way when the next car arrived, I’ve got no idea how you’d retrieve your car if you arrived back early. With Macy’s out of the way, we headed back down Smith Street to get a coffee and wait for our tour to start.
This was our second Urban Adventures tour, the first last year in Lisbon, and I can highly recommend them. We had booked this through Cunard, but they can be booked directly from their website, which is probably better value. Sacha, our guide arrived just after us shortly followed by a couple from Wisconsin who made up the rest of our party. Stinky Brooklyn is an artisanal deli showcasing local producers and the walk started here with first of many little and not so little tasty tidbits, cheese in this case. I’d like to describe in detail each and every stop, but it would take forever, so I will just list them here and urge you to visit them if you’re in Brooklyn
Damascus Bread and Pastry
Table 87
Court Pastry Shop
The tour lasted three hours and although there was a lot of walking, it was at a nice easy pace. The only regret I had was not having a lighter breakfast. There was a lot of eating on the walk, and although the portions were small, it all adds up. So much so that Jane only had soup for dinner, and this was a night with roast lamb on the menu.
After the tour we waddled back to the ship and joined the queues for the X-ray scanners and were back aboard in short time. Back in the stateroom Jane realised she had misplaced her Macy’s bag, so I rushed back off the ship, down to security where I relieved a disappointed TSA official of the package, as she’d had her eye on it.
While the Muster Drill went on we went up to the Commodore Club for a livener. While there I got a voicemail from my next door neighbour saying my burglar alarm was going off, cue massive panics on Jane’s part. It wasn’t helped by the fact we couldn’t get back in touch with them and lots of frantic phone calls ended up with Sarah doing a sterling job check in the house and finding it all secure. I don’t know exactly why it triggered, we’ll find out when we get home.
I just about managed to squeeze down my dinner, but it took some effort to do so. My dinner was duck terrine followed by duck breast, with white chocolate pana cotta for dessert