December 2008, my first visit to New York and after finding Big Apple Greeter on the internet, I applied and was successful to be allocated a volunteer. Tim met us at our hotel at 10.00am and as ouor requested area was Brooklyn, he took us downtown where we proceeded to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge - awsome! Tim took us a walk around Brooklyn, giving us all the local history. He gave an insight on how it was in Brooklyn on 9/11. Although only a short walk from Manhattan, Brooklyn seemed a different world from there - no scryscrapers, only cute little houses with steps up to them - just like you see in the movies. This is something we would never have done on our own - having a "local" to take us around made a world of difference. I can't praise highly enough the real value we experienced by having a Big Apple Greeter. He gave up his Saturday to spend time with strangers, and shared his love and knowledge of Brooklyn with us. I will always remember this experience and it was made possible by Tim.