About 2 months ago I bought three tickets to the Statue of Liberty but still couldn't get Crown Access - it was sold out until September. September!! We all made our way downtown on the Subway to near City Hall & the Brooklyn Bridge and walked over the the Ground Zero site.
The last time I was here in NY about 8 years ago, all you could see at Ground Zero was a huge hole in the ground but now the design for the Sept 11 memorial has been decided and construction is underway. It now just looks like a building site and life goes on as normal. We found a nice local cafe to enjoy oatmeal (Jo), pancakes (Kathryn) and eggs/bagel (me) for breakfast - very good it was too.
Getting up and close with Miss Liberty
It wasn't a long walk down to Battery Park at the south end of Manhattan to pick up our tickets and catch the ferry to Liberty Island. We hopped on with about a million other tourists to see Miss Liberty. She is an awesome sight from any distance and close up even better - it was great to wander around and get a few good pics. Originally a gift from the French to celebrate America's 100th anniversary of independence she is now a symbol of freedom to all Americans and perhaps the world.
The most famous sight in NY
The weather wasn't that great today and after all the walking yesterday and today we decided to skip Ellis Island (original Immigration centre for America - nearly 12m Americans entered through this island) and went back to Manhattan.
We got the subway uptown to 59th & 5th Ave and took a walk around FAO Schwartz made famous in the move BIG with Tom Hanks - yes the Big Piano is still there. You can have a go if you take your shoes off and you can buy it for a mere $250,000! We needed to get on at Grand Central Station so we took the opportunity to take some shots and have a look around what must be the nicest and most beautiful train station in the world!
The beautiful Grand Central Terminal in the heart of Manhattan
We stopped in a few shops here and there but had no luck so we headed back to the hotel & prison to have a shower and get changed for dinner. After we managed to get the shower taps back on and another subway ride uptown we took a stroll around Times Sq at night - tacky and full of tourists but still lots of fun and makes for great quintessential NY photos.
Relaxing in Times Square
Kathryn's iPhone lead us to 'Restaurant Row' and we finally selected a nice Italian place for dinner. The spaghetti meatballs were great and the wine even better! By the time we finished it was about 9.30 so we go the bill and gave our moody awful waitress a $2 tip on a $75 bill haha. The usual is around 18%-20% so I bet she wasn't happy! Still, I don't care...she was crap but the food was good.
Posing at dinner
We had planned before leaving Australia that we'd go see Sex and the City 2 in NY - and we did :) It was strange watching Carrie & Co on the big screen in NY when we were sitting in the middle of Manhattan too. We all really enjoyed the movie and laughed our way through it until 1am!
The buzz of Times Square at dusk
The subway home got us back safely but not before it absolutely bucketed it down as soon as we got to 28th Street! Thank god it was our last night in hell hole too, tomorrow we switch hotels to the awesome MAve hotel just around the corner. Can't wait!
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