Triple Treat Tour Day 1 , Part 1 : Statue of Liberty

[WileyCoyote]

The previous day is HERE

Due to total photo overload I will split today into

Part 1 : Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Part 2: Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge and Julianas

Here is part 1 ...

Sunday 3 July

It was a bit of a restless night for me with the noisy aircon and a totally annoying cough that kept waking me up

Its also true when they say it’s the City never Sleeps

It was so noisy

We live in the country – there is no road noise – so we always have to adjust to some noise when we go away – but this really was a city alive all night – mainly sirens !

The bed was very comfy. I fell asleep last night around 10pm and woke up at 1am.

Ugh

I thought it was like breakfast time.

I dozed off and woke at 4 and at 4.30 gave up

Andy went to get a coffee from the breakfast service area .

We sat and watched the news in bed – Good morning New York took on a whole new aspect – so different when you are there

At just before 7 we went back to the breakfast area and just grabbed a couple of pastries and some juice on our way to meet the boys

Who were almost ready – so not bad going.

We were out the hotel at 0715 and walked a few minutes to 28th Street to get the R train to Whitehall Street

An engineer was fixing the metro card machine and we learned that you can only buy 2 cards with one credit card – oh dear, we need 5 and only have one card plus cash on us – but he was fixing the cash machine.

He showed us how to get the first two cards ( 7 day unlimited) and then allowed the teens through with no card – we just bought them at the other end.

I read this beginners guide on the subway – in fact I studied it several times.

It really helped. I felt pretty confident that I could get us around.

My only hiccup was the next day on the bank holiday timetable.

I do recommend it
nycsubwayguide/subway/



A bit blurry – they were rat spotting …



We didn’t see one , anywhere

Some of the stations had beautiful mosaic tiling



We arrived at 0745 and were helpfully directed around the corner – head for the flag basically is what we were told.

We passed this on the way



WE walked along Battery Park – only to be directed back to the end of the very long line that we had walked passed

We wrongly assumed these people were queuing for tickets

No

They were queuing for security

So I was a bit twitchy as it was around 0800 now and our booking was for 0830 – and the line did not appear to be moving with pace







Past the naval memorial



Omg , queuing faces





We carried shuffling along around past the old castle





As we had a timed ticket we did get separated out near the end which propelled us to the front of the security line – all airport style – and we just made the second 0830 boat.

Let the amazing views begin







The teens had their sea legs on



Views as we pulled away







The building right at the front looks like a lego model next to the others



The Staten Island Ferry



Coming in to Liberty Island







See how I got the statue parked on top of the boat – complete fluke !



Its definitely worth being on the early boat to get up onto the viewing areas before it gets busy . It was bad enough as it was !

We had pedestal tickets – only the 195 steps then



OMG

My knees hurt

My calves hurt

My toes hurt

And I go up and down the escalators on the Tube all the time

This was something else

And poor Nick only just came out of hospital !

Just the 45 still to go – and no oxygen or a St Bernard with brandy in sight



It was great at the top – very narrow to pass though