Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Day 41 New York

We all are feeling much better finally, and so we all enjoyed a good night’s sleep.  We headed off to catch the ‘hop on hop off bus’ and travelled on through Soho and Chinatown till we reached the World Trade Centre site.  The first thing on the agenda was to get Den a hat, scarf and pair of gloves.  It was only 3 or 4 degrees so it was rather cold on the top deck of an open bus.  We made a street stall holders day and Den was pretty happy too.  So on to find a coffee shop to get fully thawed.  It was a true old fashioned coffee shop full of atmosphere.  Warmed and batteries re-charged we headed off in the direction of the World Trade Centre Memorial site.
The new Tower One is under construction and is very impressive.  It will be just slightly taller than the original twin towers, and will be completed early 2014.  To go into the Memorial Park there is high security screening.  Once through you follow the path around to a park area.  On the footprint of the Twin Towers are two enormous pools.  Thirty foot waterfalls cascade into the pools, each then descending into a centre void.  The names of the 2,977 victims are inscribed in bronze parapets around the pools.  A museum is under construction which will open in 2014.  It was very moving.
A change a pace – lunch – Pizza and a red wine.
From there we walked on towards Battery Park to go on the ferry.  It is a beautiful area with lots of parklands and gorgeous views out to the Statue of Liberty.  We had a lot of walking to find the correct pier but the trip was well worth the effort.  The cruise started at 3.30.  We first travelled out under the Brooklyn Bridge then the Manhattan Bridge with the Williamsburg Bridge in the distance.  Then around the Battery Park area where we had walked and finally out to the Statue of Liberty.  By this time is was about 4.15 and so the sun was setting and the temperature falling.  We had all really enjoyed the great views of New York and wonderful scenery.
Now for a cup of hot chocolate to warm up!!!!  It was dark now and the lights of New York starting its nightly show, but for us it was time to get a taxi and head somewhere close to our apartment for dinner.  We chose the Penny Farthing.  It was a cross between an Irish Pub, a sports bar and a classy café.  It was great and so was the food.  Back out into the cold night air for a quick walk back home.  Another full and exciting day.

A p.s. from yesterday – before we left the apartment we[VC1]  had decided on which hop on off bus co. we were going to use.  We were walking along Broadway to where we could buy our tickets and a rep. from another bus co. was trying to convince us to buy tickets from his company.  We listened to him and he made added offers etc.  We didn’t want to decide on the spot without talking together and so we told him we would go and have a coffee and consider his offer and off we walked.  We didn’t realise that he was walking along behind us – he pointed out which was the best coffee shop nearby to go to…..talk about persistent.  We had a laugh and bought the tickets.







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