Walking Tour of Brooklyn, another trip from Cheltenham Adult Evening School

What a wonderful day we had in Brooklyn, which at 2.5 million people is the fourth largest city in the country. So said our guide Joe Svehlak, a nonstop talker and raconteur. Of all the guides I've ever had - and I've been going on bus trips for about 15 years - this man is the most knowledgeable.

Joe never said "I don't know." He told us the first Arabian-Americans lived in Lower Manhattan where Ground Zero is. Ironic!

Historic streets are designated by BROWN STREET SIGNS. Other street signs are green.

Bus driver Jose from Starr Tours, HQ'd in Hamilton, NJ, was outstanding. He had no idea where we were going. But followed Joe's instructions. "You'll get in the left lane at the next light..... or pull over on the right so we can get off quickly, and then you'll meet us on the other side of the street in 15 minutes...."

Crowd management is one of Joe's strengths. He gets us outa the bus, then has us cross a busy street, stopping traffic if nec'y, asks us to stand on the sidewalk but leave room for passersby.

He is a licensed tour guide and wears the badge.

Knowing Joe, he probly wore this colorful shirt so people could easily recognize him.

The day was sunny, around 60 degrees but windy. I came prepared, wearing three layers of shirts, a warm jacket, a beret, and comfy black pants I will never wear again b/c they were not warm.

I left my house at 6:45 a.m., saying to myself Go down Highland Avenue until it turns into Rices Mill Road. I never can quite believe it but it's true.

Brooklyn from the bus window. It rivals Manhattan but isn't as crowded. Except when our bus unloads itself.

The famous St George Hotel. Wealthy people started moving into Brooklyn around 1880 or later. They wanted hotels where they could entertain. 

Hotel St. George, sez Wiki, once the largest hotel in New York City, was located in the heart of scenic Brooklyn Heights. Today, it is a landmarked building in the first historically landmarked neighborhood in New York. Its various constituent buildings, mostly surviving, were built between 1885 and 1929, although it no longer operates as a hotel. WELL, WHAT ARE ALL THE ROOMS USED FOR?

Different styles of architecture mark the mansions of Brooklyn. Norman Mailer once lived a few doors down from here.

When Joe told us that people had gardens we couldn't see thru the fences, I stuck my camera inside a slat and photographed this Buddha-like statue.

We saw wonderful views like this one of Lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center once stood. The new buildings at Ground Zero are nearly complete. They're on the right as is a Frank Gehry apartment complex.

Read the important sign on the top.

Look at the beautiful columns.

Wood frame house.

I have no idea what this tall building is but it sure is purty. Actually, it was recently mentioned in the NY Times: "The Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn Heights is being turned into a boutique hotel with 300 rooms."

Exquisite railings. In the old days there were many iron foundries in Brooklyn.

When this house is finished, how many millions of dollars will it go for?

Old-fashioned door handle.

Tiny gardens brighten up the sidewalks of Brooklyn. Caladium and fern.

She has a little shop around the corner.

One of many fenced-in playgrounds.

Thank you for depositing your trash properly.

The famous abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher was the first preacher at Plymouth Church above. There are statues of both Beecher and Abraham Lincoln. Click to enlarge.

Thousands of worshipers flocked to Beecher's enormous Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. Abraham Lincoln (who said of Beecher that no one in history had "so productive a mind") was in the audience at one point, and Walt Whitman visited him. Mark Twain went to see Beecher in the pulpit and described the pastor "sawing his arms in the air, howling sarcasms this way and that, discharging rockets of poetry and exploding mines of eloquence, halting now and then to stamp his foot three times in succession to emphasize a point."

Does the preacher look like a philanderer to you? Read about the scandal that rocked the nation, a distraction from the Civil War.

Ah, here are the strollers from the modern-day nursery school. I'm sure pastor Beecher would have made an appearance and gave a little blessing to the children.

Right next door is another church. Plymouth Church, a registered landmark.

Look at this swanky place with the gargoyles. Simply gorgeous! My seat-mate, Judy of Warrington, who's a docent at Pearl Buck House and a member of the League of Women's Voters, who, like me, will not watch the VP debates tonite, joked that she's moving to Brooklyn. This was her very first bus trip tho she's traveled quite a bit.

Even tho I didn't know anyone on the bus, you get quite friendly with the people around you. Topics of conversation were: wearing wigs, wearing wigs b/c of cancer treatments, one woman was gonna give her wigs to another woman who was starting chemo the following day.

Someone has her office on her bed, including a stapler. Her husband's office is on the other side of the bed. My mom loved this story as she has an office-bed also.

Quite a big house at that! The car was a Honda.

Two separate houses. Stained glass windows.

Modernization of the brownstone.

A patch of old brick sidewalk.

What's to say about this lovely home where the FILTHY RICH LIVE?

Here's one of the guys on our trip, wearing his name badge. The window on the right is interesting. It had the first political sign I'd seen....an Obama-Biden sign.

Actually I just turned on the debate, tho I could only stand to watch a few moments. Biden is fantastic, trouncing Ryan.

Ryan seems like a high school student way over his head. Biden's broad smile is a good way to mock Ryan's ridiculous nonsensical responses about the Afghan war. 

A pretty gate hides the garbaggio.

Doors doors doors. Steps steps steps.

I heard birds chirping in here but couldn't find them.

A motor scooter is tucked away in the front yard.

Look at this rotunda, a first in this area.

Say hello to Tony the mailman. He's wearing protective gloves. He offered to take my photo

I look like Sheena of the Jungle.

Tony said the actress Jennifer Connelly used to live in this white house. Who she?

Love the balcony and the stonework about the windows. Everything's got a name. Dunno the name of nuffin here.

Was hoping we'd see the new Barclays Center, named after the London bank, an investor. Barbra Streisand will perform here as well as the Brooklyn Nets, basketball team. Saw a fascinating Charlie Rose show all about Barclays. Bruce Rattner, orig. from Cleveland, Ohio, is part owner along w a tall handsome Russian billionaire/basketball player/bachelor.

Lunch at the famous Junior's deli.

Waiting in line to enter the restaurant. The skyscraper is where our guide lives. On the top floor.

They certainly know how to make good-looking desserts. But how would they taste?

The cheesecake was the best I've ever had in me whole damn life!

Other tripsters did not like the blubbery pie nor the apple pie.

I ate a brisket sandwich on rye with ketchup, like mom makes.

On the table to eat when we sat down was delicious cole slaw and fresh beets! The pickles were not very good.

Sat next to this man who is married to Dorothy, a black woman. They have four sons. The one in the navy was hit with lots of prejudice. Frank is a Jew and Dorothy is Catholic. The boys were raised Catholic.

Frank's family got out of Germany in 1930 tho his grandfather died in one of the camps.

How blithely we can talk about it today, just as we speak about the atrocity that was 9/11.

Here's Dorothy in the foreground, a retired English teacher from Arcadia University. I asked, at Junior's what books she taught from for her American Voices class: Grapes of Wrath, Sound and the Fury. The man sitting next to her said he had no patience for Faulkner.

When you're young, that's when you read Faulkner.

The Clinton Hotel.

I am getting ready to peek inside the gates of the residence of the Catholic bishop. Our guide pointed out churches on every block. They arose when the immigrants came over. Their main task was education.

"Always Ready," says the sign.

Stair railing.

Last stop is this park.

This plaza has words by Walt Whitman wrin on the fence from his poem Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. Whitman wrote for the Brooklyn paper "The Eagle." Brooklyn Bridge on the right.

World HQ of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Here's where they print "The Watchtower" magazine. On 9/11 who should come knocking at my door but the Jehovah's Witnesses?

A morning glory outside one of the mansions.