Thought it would be nice to have lunch with our relatives so we caught the subway (here subways are simply named by a single letter or number, so we were catching the R line) to Chinatown, Manhattan for yum cha. Afterwards we walked around the nearby sights including New York Supreme Court, City Hall, Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero which they are currently rebuilding so there is no memorial there and St Pauls Chapel which also has a memorial about 911, though its original claim to fame was George Washington frequented it. Our last stop was a tourist trap known as the Seaport which has a maritime museum and views of Brooklyn Bridge.
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| NY pt1 |
18/05
Today we would visit the major central sights of New York with Times Square being our first stop to get some tourist information.
On the way there we passed the offices of the Wall Street Journal and nearby the National Debt meter (only a measly $1,113,887,132,398 then). Time Square is really just a messed up traffic intersection with two small squares on the north and south side and the multitude of electronic billboards screaming from any vantage point around it.
We decided to pound the vibrant pavements to the famous Chrysler building, passing Grand Central Terminal and the Lincoln Building. Unfortunately the Chrysler building is 100% offices with no observation deck or facilities open to the public. Next was the Empire States Building (back to being the tallest building in New York after 911), we decided we would come back at sunset and so we continued to Madison Square Gardens, nearby is also the US Post Center. We did see Central Park but it is impossible to cover by foot and so we only scratched the surface there when we traversed the southern side. Nearby are some of Trumps buildings.
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| NY pt2 |
Sig was really keen to see a Yankees game and so we purchased tickets for a game the next night before finally making it up the Empire State Building to the observation deck. I’ll let the photos explain themselves but the orientation roughly is north is Central Park, west is New Jersey (where is the sun sets), east is where you see the Chrysler building and the twin bridges and south is the nearby skyscrapers of the financial district with the Statue of Liberty to the southwest.
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| Empire State Building |
19/05
Today was going to be Statue of Liberty day or so we thought. Like the Washington Monument in DC, there is a tour that allows you inside the statue but again you have to go early in the morning to grab those limited special tickets. We decided to defer the statue for early next morning, but we did walk around the Clinton Castle in Battery Park where the tickets are distributed. A rare fact is that the Dutch actually purchased land off the natives back in 1625 to establish Fort Amsterdam; which the Brits would gladly take to establish New York.
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| NY pt3 |
We just had time before the Yankees game to quickly visit the USS Intrepid, an aircraft carrier from WWII that’s now a museum to yet more planes, the real highlight being able to go inside the Concorde.
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| USS Intrepid |
Then it was onto the new Yankee stadium, we had mid range tickets to watch them play the Baltimore Doubles. After an even start the Yankees routed the Doubles with a triple and double home run for a final score line like 9-1. It was their most comprehensive win so far this season. Got to see 13* A-Rod in action, he wasn’t having a good night though…maybe Madonna was back in town?
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| Yankees |
20/05
We got up early to easily snap those “special” Statue of Liberty tour tickets which lets you inside the pedestal which the statue stands upon where there is a small museum about it.
The statue was a gift from the French people basically to pat the US on the back for snubbing the British. Inside there is the original torch, the one currently visible is post 1984 based on the original design as the elements quickly corroded the original. This corrosion has also affected the public gallery that surrounds the torch which was closed back in 1916, with the crown closed after 911 this means the top of the pedestal is the highest one can climb the statue now. This still offers superb views especially when that day there was a naval review involving several warships cruising past in preparation for Memorial Day.
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| Statue of Liberty |
Afterwards I decided to do a mini self tour of the financial center which is centered on Wall St where the NYSE is. Got to meet our long lost friend Mr. Bull, I am sure his companion Mr. Bear is rampaging somewhere inside the NYSE and so didn’t see him…
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| Financial District |
21/05
Today we spend some time with our great uncle before boarding various subway connections to the airport for a flight into Toronto, which would be our base for visiting the Niagara Falls.
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