Manhatten- show me the money!!!

So we are definitely still on Calgary time at the moment because we just don't seem to be able to get out of the hotel at a decent time.
Seeing as we have become kind of addicted to these salad bars out here, we went for a quick salad lunch at one of the local cafes.
The weather had slightly improved today. It was still cloudy but it didn't look like it was going to rain any time soon so we decided to head all the way downtown for the first time and go and have a look at the WTC site or, as most people know it now really, Ground zero. Its surprising how little seems to have been done since it happened nearly five years ago. There is still a huge hole in the ground although there is no debris left lying around. There were also no trucks or anything on site that were doing any work which surprised us as well. We spent most of the time there reading the information signs they have hanging on the railings. Thats one thing they did really well- they have so much information on the origins of the towers and the other buildings that were part of the complex as well and of course, they have information on what happened on the day of 9/11. According to one of the signs though, although most of the underground lines have been repaired, the one at the WTC site hasn't been finished yet. It is understandable in a way though, in that they probably don't want it to look like they are covering it all up or that they are trying to forget the people who died that day so they take it all really slowly.
After that, we walked over through the world financial centre to the Hudson River where we sat for a while watching some people play volleyball on an open air court near Battery Park by the river side.
We were near the very tip of Manhatten so we just decided to walk to the bottom and then back up to the Stock Exchange on Wall Street. On the way there, we passed by the famous charging bull on Broad Street, apparently created after the stock market crash of 1987 as a symbol of strength, power and hope. Well, whatever it symbolises, it sure pulls in a lot of tourists! There were so many people standing around wanting to have their photos taken with the bull that it was next to impossible to get a clear shot of it from over the road. There were a few street sellers behind us selling pretty much everthing from watches and T-shirts to hand bags and sunglasses (ie. the usual rubbish!). All of a sudden, we noticed a commotion behind us- all of the street sellers were packing up as quick as possible, literally grabbing the box their wares were on and chucking them in a box and then running off. When we looked the oher way, a policeman was strolling down the road towards us with a massive grin on his face. In between laughing, we looked at him and he said, out the corner of his mouth, "I just can't be bothered to run today"!!
We eventually actually made it to Wall Street and spent a few minutes looking at the buildings aroud there before deciding to move onwards.
Most of the time we just walked randomly and at some point, we came across a small stage set up with a sign over it saying "Thank you Spiderman". We weren't really sure what it was there for really because there wasn't anybody else there. When we walked further on though we saw a load of vans parked up another road that seemed to be from some kind of film company so we guessed they must be filming a scene from the next Spiderman film there at some point.
The last thing we did that day was go to Town Hall which was completely blocked off from the public (bit like Downing Street then) before heading back uptown for dinner. Went back to the Key West Diner although our experience this time wasn't as good as the first time. Sven had a hair in his dinner and then some kind of bristle on his dessert. We decided not to go back there again.

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