The Big Apple (at last)

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18^thJanuary 2014



Distanced travelled 3207 Nautical miles



After 8 nights at sea battling through up to Force 10 gales and high seas we finally sailed serenely into New York on a cold, frosty January morning. With the Statue of Liberty one of the first landmarks people sea, it must have been a welcome sight for those first visitors & immigrants. However when they had to be processed for Immigration in the early days on Ellis Island, I’m sure ‘the land of the free’ may have taken on a different view. Some immigrants only made it as far as the Island before being turned back.



Luckily for us, Immigration was quite smooth and we were allowed to take our trip on a whistle stop tour of the ‘Big Apple’.



As you can see from the weather, it was quite inclement, snow and sleet for the first part but brightening up, although the temperature was a balmy 2 degrees C, the wind chill took it down to -5 degrees C



The city is still recovering from the 9/11 attacks and there is still a lot of repair work going on, coupled with all the new building work.



Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc through the Hudson River area and all this has added to a program of building and renovation work particularly around Battery Park where you look out on the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty.



Saw all the usual suspects, Central Park, Rockefeller building with ice rink, St Patricks Cathedral (where the rescue workers rested during the 9/11 attacks), Times Square, Broadway, Chinatown, Battery Park, Lots of shops (Macy’s, Tiffany’s etc), Greenwich Village and the new Freedom Tower soon to be opened. We crossed over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn to view the city from a different slant.



The only disappointment was the tour guide omitted the stop at the Memorial Preview Site 9/11 which gave an overview of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.



Just as an aside, this was a Transit stop, so 700 passengers disembarked and were replaced by passengers who are travelling to different ports on the cruise.



A good taster tour, which has whetted our appetites to visit for a longer stay in the future, particularly for Lin who was eyeing up the shopping areas, although I did spot the Apple store on our tour.



Sailaway was late (08.30pm) heading out of the Hudson River heading south towards Fort Lauderdale.



P.S. In crossing the Atlantic we had 5 time changes of 1 hour. How weird is that!!!

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