Brooklyn, New York

This is not the first time I have walked over Brooklyn Bridge, however this is the first time that I actually spent a whole day in Brooklyn. We are walkers, that's for sure, so we do use a lot of time just walking around. Going to Brooklyn was no different. We just had to start our Brooklyn day by walking over the bridge. That I think is a must do in New York, it is an absolutely beautiful walk and to get to the underground stop where you start the walk is very easy if you are on the Manhattan side. 

Brooklyn Bridge was finished built in 1883 and it is one of the oldest bridges in USA. The bridge crosses the East River. It took 14 years to build it and 27 workers lost their lives doing it. You can see pictures of some of the memory plaque in this blog post  

What is so great about Brooklyn Bridge and walking over it is that you get to see so much of especially Manhattan. You get to see the skyline (in one of the many ways you can see it), and you also get a little glimpse of Statue of Liberty. The view is absolutely amazing and breathtaking in my opinion. 

Brooklyn Bridge even have their own version of the love bridge, like the one in Paris.

I love taking jumping pictures and with this great background it can't be wrong, or can it?.....

Just to finish of all the picture from Brooklyn Bridge I have to put out the pictures of the memory plaque as I was talking about in the beginning of the post, after that we will get moving to Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn Bowling. Great times!

If you walk across Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side to Brooklyn I'm afrai
d there is not much to see or do on the Brooklyn side. We walked around for a good while without finding any thing to do, I mean anything at all. So if you go to Brooklyn you might want to check out Williamsburg and maybe get a cab or the underground. After walking around for an hour we just jumped into a taxi because we had plans to go to Brooklyn brewery (79 North 11th Street) and Brooklyn bowling. 

We were very lucky because when we arrived at the brewery we got free tickets for one of the guided tours in the brewery. Which suited us nicely as we had plans to do that tour anyway. They arrange guided tours every half hour and it last for about 25 minutes. It is not a huge brewery so that is why the tour is so short, but I kind of like that. Better to use some time tasting the beer instead. 

After receiving our free tickets we bought chips to use in the bar, beer chips! It is very easy  that way because everybody has to pay with these and most f the beers cost one chip. 1 chip was 5 dollars but you get 5 for 20 dollars. in other words, not expensive at all if you ask me. We had about one hour before you guided tour so that gave us plenty time to taste the different beers.  

Brooklyn Brewery was founded on 1988 and are currently distributed in 25 states and 20 countries. They even have a branch in Stockholm, Sweden. As I have mentioned the brewery in Brooklyn is not that big, bit that is because they don't brew all their different types of beers just there. In the beginning of the tour we were told about the brewing process and what they use brewing the different beers. We also got to see some huge barrels (if I can call them that).

Moving on to the next room, which is also the finale room, we learned more about the different branches, like the one in Stockholm, Brooklyn Brewery branding and marketing. Even though our guide told us a little bit about the history of the brewery in the first room he told us even more now. How it all started and how they ended up where they are today. We also got to see the people who work there in action. This was actually on a Sunday so it was a little bit unusual that people were working. Great for us though because we got to see a how they worked.  

The tour was short but very interesting and the guide was great, he was funny and he knew his stuff and what to say and I think everybody was very interested in hearing what he said. If you go to Brooklyn Brewery I highly recommend that you also do the guided tour.

After the brewery we just walked around the corner to Brooklyn Bowling. What is so special about this place is that the have a restaurant, bowling alley and live music. Basically you get a live concert while you are bowling. Very cool concept and I must admit I have never seen that anywhere else before either. 

Even though we were there at early evening time,there was about one hour to wait on a bowling lane. Since there is a restaurant there as well we just had some dinner while we waited. The food wasn't bad at all and the local red wine was actually very good. 

After dinner bowling time!!!! Now bowling is truly entertainment for everybody, and it doesn't matter if you're a good bowler or not. It is still a lot of fun. But I do understand that it is much more fun with people who are at the same level as you. Let just say that the 5 of us were definitely on the same level. Not the greates one to put it that way, but when you actually hit just one pin you are super happy with yourself. 

As i mentioned Brooklyn Bowling also have live music so it is like being on a concert and bowling at the same time. Unfortunately I don't know (or remember) any of the band names, but we were later told that the first band we heard was going on Skavland (two weeks from then, so that was last Friday on the 28th of March), maybe someone saw it. 

It is such a great concept and very entertaining for everybody. I didn't think that is was expensive either. It was 25 dollars for half an hour of bowling, and we were 5 so that was only 5 dollars a head. And in addition to this you get 4 mini concerts (think it was 4 different bands playing when we were there).

We had such a great time in this place and as I have said before I really like to do stuff that are not that touristy. Of course I would like to see the sites of a new place, but as I have been to New York so many times it is really fun to do something very different. 

The day just flew by and even though we had plan to see a little more of Brooklyn there was no time. We did get to see and do quite a lot and it was time to go back to Manhattan.