New York Sightseeing: History, Cultural and Architecture Tour

First things first: Let's get acquainted! We'll walk from your hotel, or where you're staying, and with me you'll very quickly get into step with how casual New York is. I like to take each street as part of a tasting menu - so we'll check its "flavors": the pulse of its traffic; the sound of its people; and we'll walk into a few of its stores (particularly if we're in a shopping district!) to get a sense of the commerce that nourishes the neighborhood. I know - that sounds almost clinical! But it's a way of orienting you to your "new" neighborhood - your new home, at least for a while. I've lived in Manhattan for 44 years, and have absorbed and ingested the history of this city both as it's changed and grown in my time, and as it grew through the centuries since before Henry Hudson made his voyage. Maybe we'll walk by the Barbizon 63 - and imagine Grace Kelley as a single girl among many in that women only hotel? Or I could take you on a symphony of a walk down to Washington Square - let's go!

• We start at your hotel or convenient meeting place (the order of our walk is as if you were staying at The Plaza) • We visit the Pulitzer Fountain and a portion of Central Park • We next walk to St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Rockefeller Center; we may also visit the Palace Hotel • Walking down 5th Ave, we pass - or visit (depending on our time of tour - the New York Public Library • Grand Central Terminal - the largest train station in the world, but not the busiest in New York! Magnificent! • One Vanderbilt - a new super-tall building, right at the corner with Grand Central • Tudor City, the Ford Foundation, and the United Nation Depending on our time, we may also see • Times Square • The Empire State Building • The Marble Collegiate Church, where Norman Vincent Peale was the pastor for 52 years, • Madison Square the the Flatiron Building, and • Washington Square and the heart of Greenwich Village This can be modified according to your wishes.