When you come to such a well known city as New York there are many things that you simply have to do and then there are the place that others say that your simply have to do. Everyone agrees that the Statue of Liberty is one of those things that you simply have to do so first thing today we did.
That said we weren’t that bothered about getting up close and personal with her so instead we caught the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry and did a close-ish sail past. The ferry is meant for commuters and I guess on a week day it would have been full but early on a Sunday morning it was very quiet and so we were able to get prime spots on the edge to see the statue. I hadn’t expected to be but as it turned out I was pretty wowed by the statue and I’m glad that we made the effort to navigate down there.
Once we had completed the journey we got off, ran round to the entrance, got back on the ferry and came straight back! There’s nothing to see there. It is a great way to see the statue and oh, did I mention that the ferry was free?
Once back we walked towards the Brooklyn Bridge which took us through the financial district Wall Street which was fine but the real excitement was this…
Like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building steam pouring out of a drain in the road has got to be one of the most iconic NY sights. I was pleased to have seen it at any rate, Helen left me to it!
Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge was ok but it was pretty crowded and actually the views weren’t any better than we’d seen from the ferry. Dumbo, the curiously named area on the other side, was a delight though particularly as it included a visit to One Girl Cookies for a bit of a pit stop. By this time it was raining and so we got the subway back to Times Square.
In the afternoon we walked to see the Empire State Building and the curious Flatiron building.
For dinner we had decided to go to Red Lobster a favourite from our travels to Florida. There was a slight wait for a table and when it was ready the greeter said that we should take the lift up. I queried whether we could walk and she strongly discouraged against it claiming that it was a “long way” as it was two flights up. I was so incredulous that I took the lift but we walked down afterwards just to show her it really was possible!
Feeling the need to walk off our dinner (we’d forgotten that as well as large portions you also get copious quantities of bread and a dressing laden salad to accompany it) we made our way to Grand Central Terminal. The entrance is tiny and it is a bit of a warren inside but sudden you come out into the main hall and wow what a space! It is just incredible although I wondered just how many were actually getting a train from there. Unfortunately we won’t be as our train to Washington goes from Penn station which is a shame as it would have been cool to travel from Grand Central.
It had been a great day and we’d covered quite a few miles. In fact according to Apple’s Activity app jus over ten miles.