Statue Of Liberty & leaving NY

We woke to a raining morning, but Karina was still determined to do the Statue Of Liberty Island Ferry so we packed our bags ready to leave New York and headed out into the light but steady rain after a bowl of cereal.

The lines at the ferry were about half as long as our last attempt - the rain may actually have worked to our advantage. It was still a slow, long wait but we eventually boarded the 1st ferry of the day and landed on Liberty Island to cold wind and light rain. Regardless, it's an impressive sight and one can't help being in awe when standing at the base of the statue. Unfortunately, tickets to enter the statue itself and go up to the pedestal viewing deck must be reserved 2 days in advance (I suspect for security reasons) so we had to be content with circling the island on foot.

Next stop was Ellis Island, the immigration processing point for America during the great influx after the war. It now houses a 3-storey museum which is actually very interesting, with photos, documents and artifacts from immigrants entering the US from all over the world. We would've actually liked to spend a few more hours in there, but we didn't have the time today. But we were both very glad that Karina was so insistent on doing the ferry trip.

By the time we left Ellis Island in the early afternoon, the rain had cleared to an overcast but dry day. We wandered up to Wall St with impressive buildings but little activity except tourists on a Sunday. Then to Ground Zero again, where I took a few photos from the 2nd floor of the Burger King to get a view over the fencing. Although construction has started, the existing damage is still quite apparent - not the least of which is a gaping hole in the skyline for an entire block.

Karina ran into Century 21 to buy another work shirt, and when she returned she realised that she had left the camera in the change room! She bolted back across the street in a panic only to return about 5 mins later holding the camera over her head triumphantly! It had been handed in to lost & found thank goodness!!!

We headed back uptown to Chelsea for lunch - a healthy but rather small and expensive burger - and had about 1:30 hr to kill until we were due back at the apartment to collect our bond and luggage. We wandered down to Chelsea Pier in search of the Law & Order offices, but found no trace except a sign saying "Law & Order Way". With little to see we decided to return via the Meat Packing District. An area of stark contrasts with raw meat hanging on hooks literally right next door to sanky cafes! And grafitti-covered abandoned warehouses next to very up-market clothing boutiques. Quite interesting!

We returned to the apartment at 3:30pm, and were all but pushed out the door by Patricia as the next tennants buzzed themselves in as we left. We opted for the subway to JFK as we had about 5 hours before the flight left - a good choice! With only a few short blocks to traverse and a couple of flights of stairs into the subway, it took us directly to the airtrain link absolutely free as we had a metro weekly. A short $5 trip to the terminal and we checked in about 3 hours early!

Some final impressions of New York as I sit in the lounge of gate B29 waiting to board the flight to London via Zurich... awesome! Plenty of stuff to do, we could spend months here seeing the Broadway shows, touring the museums and exploring the surrounding areas - something we unfortunately didn't get enough time to do. What really amazed us was how friendly New Yorkers are - they actually stop to ask if you need any help, they apologise profusely if they bump you, and always bid you with 'have a good day' or 'have a safe trip'. Much nicer than rude Sydney-siders, and it really made a difference to our enjoyment of the trip. Would thoroughly recommend a visit to anyone who hasn't been, and would also suggest anything less than 6 days isn't enough time to see enough. We missed out on a few things - Tom's Diner (Seinfeld), seeing a Broadway show, touring the museums to name a few.

Onward to London!

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