The Brooklyn Trolley loop

Getting to the Brooklyn Trolley is tedious in terms of time. You have to cover about half of the downtown loop to the South Seaport stop. Today, we felt adventurous. The 80-year-old especially felt that just sitting in the bus was not enough anymore; we had to explore! We decided to combat the cold and hopped off the bus at Battery Park.

We clambered aboard the free ferry to Staten Island. This is located to the extreme southwest of the city and is one of the 5 boroughs, the others being Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. The population of Staten Island is the least of them all. Inhabitants also call it the forgotten island, neglected by the government.




The ride is about twenty minutes to the St George Terminal on the island. The ferry is large and orange in colour. Streams of visitors move aboard and we go with the flow. We realize that the average American is comparatively large. From where we sit we see only people – our view is effectively blocked.

The 80-year-old is determined she’s not going to let the sights go by. She’s burdened by the heavy overcoat, but she still manages to get place by the railings to peer out between people for the first sight of the spectacular Statue of Liberty.

The ride on the waters of the New York Bay that separates the island from the mainland is gentle, peaceful. This is the weekend and plenty of folks opt to picnic. About the 17 century, the Dutch established trade on the island. Henry Hudson named it “Staaten” after the Dutch Parliament.

We get the north shore of the island and beyond the terminal the homes look different. They are large and Victorian. We can’t stay long, and take the next ferry back to the mainland. Strangely the bus we had hopped off has returned. The tour guide remembers us and greets us warmly. We hop off again to join the Brooklyn Trolley loop.

We’re getting hungry. While we wait we try a heart shaped pretzel. But these are rather large and frankly, not very tasty. My ethereal illusion formed from the old Neil Diamond song Crying in your Pretzels, seems to somehow lose its charm!




We board the bus, but on this route there is no open top. The tour guide says that Brooklyn is really a different country. Do you have your passports, she asks tongue-in-cheek. I nod vigourously. All the way from India, I affirm. (But of course, it’s all just kidding!)

Brooklyn is the most populous of the boroughs and the largest too. The Dutch were the first settlers here as well. The name ‘Brooklyn’ evolved eventually from the Dutch Breukelen. We cross over the Manhattan Bridge, which is flanked by the Brooklyn Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge.

Brooklyn has its distinctive culture and architecture. It also has ethnic enclaves with demographic groups from various parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America.

We also realize that the tourists on the sightseeing buses are predominantly non-American. Asian and European visitors abound and in one tour count there are groups of people from Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, South Africa, India, China and Australia…We expect we have to continue on the downtown loop from South Street Seaport to get to Times Square. But we’re saved of further tedium as the bus then gets us there express.

On the tour buses the focus is now on tips. Tour guides now intersperse tip-raising plugs with historical facts. The tips they say are a part of the salary for the guide and the driver: In many cultures, offering money is considered an insult, but for us it’s a sign of appreciation…So please… Surely, never before have the people of USA been in such need of appreciation!

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