An oldie but a goodie! - New York - Sep 2014 - Day 3

[AJ86]

Today we had reservation for the Statue of Liberty, this is the first time both of us had chance to do this, as last time we came we never really ventured that far down and the first time was just after Sandy so we were unable to visit due to the storm damage.

We set our alarm for the first time since starting our little adventure and wake for 7am. I open the curtains and what greets us rain! The one day I have things planned for the morning that is an outside activity.

We start our day in the usual way by watching Good Morning America in bed and head out for a bagel, we head to Europan, I guess you can’t really go wrong with bagels in New York, as long as they are toasted and got a slab of butter on it, its good with me.

We head out to Times Square subway and hop on the 1 to South Ferry. In the pouring rain we head to the Statue Cruises for our trip to the SOL, thankfully the Distrikt had a stash of umbrellas for us to borrow for the day.

It was deserted, probably due to the rain, but we head straight in and with no queues we are through security and jumped straight onto the boat, I would have loved to be outside at this point but the rain was still coming down hard so put up with a bench on the right so I could get some sort of view on the way.

We dock onto Liberty Island in no time at all and pick up our audio tour which I’d say is worth it, as you find out so much more. As it is still tipping it down with rain we head to the pedestal, you have to store your belongings in the lockers it is $2 for 2 hours and is all done with fancy finger print locks, the staff at the gift shop also store our umbrellas for free.

The Pedestal offers some great views of Manhattan even on rainy days, so on a good day the view must have been amazing. I was also surprised to see the amount of boats in the river as well, I never imagined it to be so busy!

After taking some pictures of the view we head inside and explore the museum, also grateful to be out of the rain! The Museum was great and gave a great insight into how the statue was conceived and built, a definite must for anyone that is visiting the island. Also considering the price was the same for the pedestal as it was for just coming to the island I’d defiantly book to do it.

From here we headed over to Ellis Island, the boats coming in to Liberty where packed, so try and get here as early as possible!

Ellis Island was amazing also, many of the exhibits are still in storage due to the damage the island took during sandy, but it was still good to walk through the halls and see what people were going through 100 years ago. The island looks massive and I did wonder to myself what all the other boarded building on the island were for.

The Sun was now out in all its glory so we continued on with our day and caught the next boat back to Battery Park. We headed up to the charging bull and resisted stroking its privates but instead settled for the standard photos.

We then continued up Broadway and then looked into Wall Street. Now this was a massive anti-climax for me, I don’t really know what I was expecting but it was just another street in the financial district.

We continued up to city hall park and stopped for lunch along the way, it was a little authentic restaurant and really captured quality American food….. McDonalds! Yes I know, but we were hungry and it served its purpose, I did make a point of choosing something from the menu we don’t have at home, and I must say the strawberry milk shakes are amazing in New York, and completely different to what we get here, also they had a DJ, which I thought was a first for McDonalds.

Anyway we continued up to Brooklyn Bridge and began the walk over to Brooklyn, Its such an amazing structure and offers lovely views over the river and lower Manhattan. Walking across we did come across a wedding, I know people are after different ideas and places, but you couldn’t hear a thing over the traffic noise.

We walked down to Brooklyn and to the Ice Cream Factory, where we enjoyed a nice sit down and some lovely ice cream while enjoying the view on offer. I saw the River Café and It does look a lovely venue to dine and at night would offer amazing views over New York.

We then headed to Dumbo port and spent one of the best $4 of the trip and we took the East River Ferry to East 34th Street. The boat takes you up the East River and offers some great views of Brooklyn, Queens and of course Manhattan.

The boat ride took around 30 minutes and stopped off at various points. It is essentially a commuter ferry with a few tourists thrown in for good measure, even if you don’t need to be in the East 34 street area you could take the return trip back just for the views.

Off the ferry and we continued down to East 34th Street to Macy’s, our feet were hurting at this point so, we took a walk in for around 3 seconds then came straight back out again, and said we would return later in the trip.

During our time here I had noticed a number of tourists using their Selfie sticks attached to a Gopro. I already have a Gopro, but wanted in on the stick action so we continued onto B&H, this is an amazing shop and to anyone who is a little bit interested in photography would like it here.

We headed back to the hotel and had a much needed rest!

I had nothing much planned for this evening so we went out for a stroll and to sit on the red steps in times square before heading out for dinner, I can’t for the life of me remember where we went to eat, so it can’t have been that memorable.

Day 4