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Times Square
Looking down towards Times SquareHello everyone, we arrived in New York safely yesterday afternoon after a very short flight from Toronto. We were on a tiny plane and by the time we had taken off and taken our belts off it seemed like it was time to land!
We are staying in the spare room of an apartment we found through a website called www.airbnb.com (No its not for swingers!). They rent out their spare room on a short term let and its cheaper than a hotel. Our room is small but it has a tv and we have the use of a bathroom so we are fine with it. And they provide a healthy breakfast for us each morning (Yoghurt and Granola).
Yesterday afternoon we took a walk down Broadway (10 minutes from the apartment) and into Times Square. Its huge and very neon!!! The first thing that strikes you about New York is the size of everything!! Including the traffic jams! We had a good walk around and then a bite to eat in Bubba Gump's restaurant (shrimps all round!!!) and then made our way home and both promptly fell asleep! We'd had an early start so decided to stay in
FDNY Memorial
Near the WTC site for this evening ready for today.
This morning we headed to Lower Manhattan on the subway and walked around the financial district and then to Ground Zero and the building site for the new World Trade Buildings. We went on a long walking tour with couple of guides. The company is set up with all proceeds going to the 9/11 families charity and our two guides were amazing. Very knowledgeable, and what made it all the more poignant and impressive were that they were both involved with the tragedy. One lady was a volunteer who had helped with the rescue and recovery and the other lady lost her husband as he was working in the North Tower above the impact of the first plane. To hear them talk and not angrily or bitterly about the day and the aftermath, but taking positives and lessons they learn was very touching and inspirational.
This afternoon we took a walk around Battery Park and then took the Staten Island Ferry which gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Lower Manhattan skyline. I think seeing all these famous landmarks and places brings it home that we
WTC Site
Building work on the new tower blocks and memorial at the WTC site are on the trip of a lifetime and have so much to do and enjoy. We have only been here a day and yet we have done so much (and have so much to do!!)
I am writing this from Burger Kings Internet Cafe (very expensive and no we haven't had tea here!) so cant publish any photos unfortunately. Not sure when we will get back on the internet, so bye for now and catch up with you all soon.
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Claire
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If you do the Horse ride in Central park, there is a cable car near to there. It takes you across the river and there are some really good views, there is nothing at the end but it comes back quite quickly and I think it only costs a few dollars! Sooo jealous you are there, I really miss it, you can spend hours just wandering aroun d taking in all the sights.