How we gonna pay the rent?

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On Monday, we took the Subway with Craig, Eleri and Nadine to the site of the World Trade Centre and looked at "Ground Zero" from the observation areas. There are some signboards which tell part of the story and provide quite a moving experience. Across the street we visited St. Paul's Chapel which miraculously escaped unscathed. The chapel is beautiful and houses a pew once used by George Washington. It was used as a base for rescue workers during the WTC clean-up operation and there are displayboards in place to tell part of their harrowing story. Afterwards, we (sombrely) walked along Wall Street to South Street Seaport where we bought half-price tickets to see the Broadway show "Rent". We had lunch together and then Emma and I spent the afternoon walking over the Brooklyn bridge (from where you can see the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty) and checking out downtown Brooklyn. That evening, we saw the show "Rent" and very good it was too.

On Tuesday, we took lots of trains (some suspect navigation took place) to get to the northern part of Central Park to see the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It was quite impressive, despite the damage from the 2001 fire which had destroyed nearly half the building. Unfortunately, we don't recommend visiting this landmark as it is on the edge of Harlem, away from the beaten track (i.e. no tourists or police) and we nearly got mugged (not joking!). Luckily, the "be polite, back away and then run" technique worked a treat! Afterwards, we explored Central Park (fantastic autumn colours) and found recognisible landmarks such as the Bethesda Fountain (featured in Ransom amongst other films), Ice rink, Zoo and the "Tavern on the Green" where the 'dog' gets Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters. Next, we did some shopping on Fifth Avenue, visited Bloomingdales on Lexington, saw the Chrysler building and Grand Central station. We met up in the evening with the rest of the guys for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (where Nelly was performing in the private room next door and the Country Music Awards were taking place across the street).

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