Day 33 - Manhattan, NEW YORK # 3

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Today we had one objective and that was to go to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum at the old World Trade Centre site. We had tried to do this when we were here in NYC on a previous visit but we were unable to secure tickets so this time we made sure to buy our tickets online yesterday and we paid a bit extra for the 90 minutes tour of both the memorial and the museum which would start at midday.



We caught the train down to the end of the subway line at World Trade Centre which was a short walk from the memorial and I saw a sign saying “Oculus this way” and I had a recollection that the Oculus was something important to visit so off I go and indeed it is an amazing architectural structure on top of a good old aussie invention called a Westfield Shopping Mall !



We arrived here about an hour before the tour was due to start so we looked for somewhere to have lunch and found a deli nearby where I bought a chicken salad sandwich and surprisingly it was actually a sandwich with 2 slices of bread like we call them back home and was accompanied by a pickle and a packet of chips (as is standard practice here !). I ate my half and Kerry was prepared to wait until later for her share.



We then met our tour guide and we spent about 30 minutes at ground level learning about the history of the site that included a background as to how the original towers were first built, the 1993 bombing and the 2001 attack.



He also explained how the memorial and museum were created following a lot of public consultation and much debate about how best to build the memorial. I must say they have nailed it for how a memorial should be with two pools built pretty much where the old buildings were located with waterfall running into a hole where no-one can see the bottom where it goes and the museum is built in between the two pools.



He took the time to explain how everyone’s name has been engraved on the outside of the pools and the process of how they managed to cater for some individual preferences as to how their names were arranged and displayed (such as two family friends who were named alongside each other who were both killed onboard separate planes that were hijacked). Another example was where all the staff who were working for the same company on one floor are listed who perished together.



The queues to go inside the museum were huge (hundreds were line up waiting to buy a timed entry ticket) and thankfully we had a private entry via a side door and went down into the museum. This part of tour went for another hour which was an overview of the main exhibits. The first thing you see when you enter is a photo taken on that day before the attacks and it showed how it looked to be such a beautiful sunny day with blue skies. Once the tour was over we then we spent another 2 hours looking around on our own and there is so much to look at here and it is an amazing museum.



There was so much to see that we did not fully explore everything but some of the memorable bits was a fire truck that was destroyed beyond recognition at the front (cabin) but the roof had barely a scratch on it showing how random it was to survive or not from the falling debris. They also had one of the massive steel supports on display that somehow did not get damaged when the buildings collapsed and a set of concrete stairs with ceramic tiles that was used as an escape area for many people trapped in the buildings that had a roof that somehow protected it when the buildings collapsed and the top half was almost as good as new but the bottom section looked just like the bedrock that the buildings were attached to.



Another part that I’ll never forget was a section where they played a number of voice mail messages that passengers and the crew made on their cell phones to their families from the plane that ultimately crashed into a field in Pennsylvania (they think it was on it’s way to the Capitol Building in Washington DC).



This plane was delayed from taking off whilst on the runway due to plane traffic and by the time it was hijacked in mid air the news had already broken of the other 3 plane attacks, so the passengers and crew hatched a plan to take down the hijacker’s and crash the plane (so brave). Just imagine putting yourself in their position and saying on a voice message “I’ve got some bad news. I’m ok but we have a situation here and I just wanted to say I love you and the kids”.



It’s hard to comprehend there was so many people here to visit this memorial for something that happened 21 years ago. Will it ever be quiet here ? It was impressive and well worth a visit but two issues they could improve is the lighting of the signs and the font size of the signs as with all the crowds here you had to literally stand within a foot of the items on display to be able to read the notes and every item (probably thousands of exhibits) all had a story to tell.



Outside and Kerry finally had the other half of the chicken & salad roll as you can’t eat inside and despite the forecast for rain today it was actually sunny and reasonably comfortable around 18 degrees and the iPhone weather App said the rain was now not arriving until 6pm now.



We decided whilst we are already in lower manhattan why not jump on the Staten Island ferry which leaves from nearby South Ferry Terminal. It was only 1 subway stop away and when we arrived there was a huge crowd waiting to board the next ferry and I’m thinking there is no way we are not going to get onboard but within 5 minutes we are boarding and the ferry is huge and only half full and as it is now 4.30pm a few workers are onboard heading home. It’s certainly the biggest ferry I’ve ever been on since I did the spirit of Tasmania when I was at school.



The ferry ride was good for a free service and goes past the Statue of Liberty (all the tourists are sitting on that side of the ferry !) but our ferry had closed windows which were not very clean so not sure how good the photos will look. It took about 30 minutes to get there and everyone had to exit, so I bought a coffee and we then boarded the same ferry to return back to Manhattan. This adventure ensured we have now visited all 5 boroughs of New York City.



On our return we could see the storm approaching from the west over Hoboken, New Jersey which we had visited on our last trip here to visit the line to enter the famous Carlos Bakery and go to Biggies Restaurant. I was able to get some photos from the very back of the ferry and as I was not taking the photos through a window I was able to get some better photos. One thing I was surprised at was we had a police escort from NYPD Water Police both ways (special treatment indeed !).



We decided to get the subway back to our hotel and try and find a place for dinner nearby so we don’t get caught out in the rain that is coming and after checking out a few places we decided on this Indian Restaurant called Sitara Indian Restaurant & Bar and the only real problem was no-one else was there (not a sole !). We ordered a starter of vegetable simosa and a main meal of butter chicken, naan bread and steamed rice and they brought all the food together on a small table with no-one else here. So it was a bit cramped on our table !



The food was awesome with such flavour and the ambience was nice even with no-one else here with background music playing (it stared with Tones & I playing Dance Monkey but soon drifted into some sort of Bollywood soundtrack). When we left around 7pm there was still no-one here which is a shame as the food was so good.



It was only a short walk to our room and we were back in time to watch another edition of “The Voice” as they are now doing the battles, and later watched an NFL match on Monday Night Football between LA Rams and Denver Broncos which went to overtime. Whilst we never saw or heard the rain it apparently arrived as the game 5 MLB playoff decider between the Yankees and Cleveland Guardians was postponed until tomorrow due to the rain.



We have two more days of sightseeing in NYC and unfortunately the storm has brought cold weather to us again so we have booked a walking tour of Central Park online and suspect we’ll have the get the layers back out again.

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Photos

This image was taken on September 11, 2001 at 8.30am
It seemed like a beautiful day.

View of the Statue Of Liberty.
Not bad shot for a free ferry service