It's only two stops and we're at Union Square station. I have time to sit for a coffee before heading to the meeting place for the bus at 10:45. The bus arrives with Edwin driving and our guide is Marc, he is one of those perfectly suited to the job - informative, funny and friendly. There's about 15 or 16 of us, some English, Germans and Australians.
We set off and out to the Manhattan bridge, passing the place we stayed at last time. There is a large monument on the Manhattan side of the bridge, nothing but a plaque on the Brooklyn side. There are lots of spectacular views on the way...
Marc gives us all sorts of information along the way. He's obviously a very passionate Brooklynite. And there are many famous people who come from Brooklyn. It was also home to the mafia families.
He mentions the two main reasons we don't take the famous Brooklyn bridge - first is we couldn't get the great views and photos of it if we are on it, and more importantly, commercial vehicles aren't allowed on it!
The tour shows how many of the areas of Brooklyn were used in movies and Marc plays small clips from shows as we actually pass them - very clever and interesting...
Our first stop is to one of the best photo op places, apparently.
Marc wanted to take everyone's photo in front of his favourite view...
Then it's off to our first pizza stop - Grimaldis - a pretty famous place and one so popular, they queue down the street for a slice. We have their famous margarita - coal-fired oven baked with a sauce made with tomatoes grown in the rich soil at the base of Vesuvius in Italy and cheese from the best of the dairies and basil.
It's called margarita because the original pizza makers in Italy made it for King Umberto and Queen Margarita and it was her favourite. When the guy made it for them, he asked his wife what she thought ot it, she said to add the basil, then it would have the red, white and green of the Italian flag. History aside, it's delicious!
This is not all for me - there were four of us for this pizza!
Apparently this place is a favourite of the Obamas, so now I've had pizza where they have pizza and hotdogs where they have hotdogs, in Washington!
The building is beautiful - it's an old bank so there are bars on the windows.
Back on the bus for a drive through Brooklyn. We go through the expensive area where there are some magnificent homes, including a very cute gingerbread house...
Passed a very exclusive primary school - Meryl Streep sent her daughter there - at $36,000 a year for primary school! On the other side of the road is a golf course where a game was interrupted one time when they were digging up, looking for Jimmy Hoppa's body.
He showed a clip of Staying Alive when John Travolta is on a date, talking about the bridge...
In this scene he is talking about a construction worker falling into the pylon and being buried in the concrete forever. Marc said this didn't actually happened, however there might be other bodies in concrete around the place...
We got to the street where they filmed Saturday Night Fever, the opening sequence where John Travolta struts along the street...
And while that was playing, the bus was driving along the same section of street...
..doesn't look like it too much in a photo but it was very cool. When they filmed the scene, they weren't prepared for the 7,000 screaming Welcome Back Kotter fans who turned up each day - the girls were screaming for him and the boys were yelling, "Yo, Vinnie! My name's Vinnie too!!" There weren't many stars representing Brooklyn before him.
Then it was the next pizza stop, for another plain, classic pizza. The pizza place was L&G and there were a lot of locals out the front when we arrived. The pizzas here have a more breadie base and and an amazing tomato base. It's just that with a bit of cheese and then grated Parmesan.
Through the Russian section where they filmed Moscow on the Hudson...
And then to Coney Island - very happy to go here as it has been on my Wishlist since my last trip! It is only open on weekends in the winter but you can wander along down the boardwalk and look at it all.
This shows one of the historic landmarks - the parachute drop, at the end. Not operational anymore as it certainly wouldn't pass any OH&S standard - just wooden benches that raised in the air and dropped and a parachute would come out and stop you falling to your death. No seatbelts and you had to take your shoes off - I in case they flew off and hit someone (or flew off and couldn't be found - in the '30s, you might have only had one pair). It was designed not as a ride but to help train soldiers to jump from planes. Amelia Earhart was the first to try it.
And here's Marc...
There is a big banner where they list the annual winners of the hotdog eating competition - the first winner ate something like 17 and the last one ate 70 - that's pretty disgusting!
We past one of the famous rides in the way out - looks a bit unsafe. Apparently if you come on the first day of the season, you can ride for free as a 'guinea pig'. One year, they got stuck up top and had to walk down!!
The last bit of the tour was one of Marc's favourites - where they shot the French Connection. For this movie, they didn't get any permits and then had Gene Hackman running around in a gunfight and car chase with no permits. So people passing by and early being hit by cars and gunfire were just people walking by!
Back to our drop off point and end of a great tour!
The it's a quick coffee and back home before heading off to meet the boys for dinner. We went to a lovely Chinese dinner with lots of veg. Then to tonight's show Waitress - about a waitress trying to escape her mundane life and abusive husband. It was a really lovely show, very well done, some great characters and music. Just a gentle, enjoyable show.
Then back home for Oreo donuts and pumpkin cheesecake donuts!
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