Brooklyn Bridge

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The bus arrived at the Waldorf Astoria  at 10:30 .

We were all ready and thirty people , 23 immediate members of the family and seven friends  boarded a large bus  which had a toilet at the back .

Alessandra and Nicolas were missing .Alessandra was in Beijing studying business administration and Nicolas was in Melbourne with the North Eastern program for mechanical engineering .

As soon as we entered the bus Mike Bloom , the husband of Beatrice, distributed the white hats that had been custom made by a Chinese Company .

He also gave the younger kids a white T Shirt that said ” We love Ben ” It took half an hour to get to the Brooklyn entrance of the Bridge .

I had my french walking stick and on the other hand got hold of Jose’s arm .

In Google they had indicated that it was a 1.8 kilometer walk across the Bridge and Nelly and I had for three months trained in the garden of our apartment for that distance .

But Google did not mention the access which was half a mile long and  a continues incline .

When we arrived at the entrance I was tired already .

But Mike had a confortable cloth folding chair on his back and I sat down for fifteen minutes .

The Bridge itself was flat. Hundreds not dozens of people were crossing the bridge on foot or  on bicycles on the opposite lanes .

Some from Brooklyn to Manhattan some from Manhsttan to Brooklyn .

They all stopped to say hello and ask if I was Ben and what was the occasion .

They had  crossed the kids in their T-Shirts. It was great fun and I kept on walking.

But it was another half mile to go down on the other side .

What a view ! Manhattan and the  Skyscrapers were just in front .We even saw the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

We finally arrived at the bus which was waiting for  us and what a relief to sit down for half an hour.

Upon our arrival at the Waldorf Astoria we had a very nice lunch at Oscar and then a shower and to bed for the rest of the day .

Don’t ask me to do it again !