The Big Apple .... after bidding farewell to our friends after breakfast it was a case of grabbing all of our bags and checking out of the Hamilton Princess that has been our home for 7 months. It was sad to say goodbye to Stan the Front Doorman as he was the face that we saw every morning and he always had a smile on his face. In fact it was sad to say goodbye to all of the staff as they couldn't have done more for us :-)
But we had a road trip ahead of us which was making us feel nervous and very excited at the same time ..... mainly because of the unknown and also we are literally driving by the seat of our pants with not a lot planned!!
16.06.17
Leaving Bermuda ....
Flying on American Airline 1609 ....
Uh oh .... we've just left sunny Bermuda for this ....
.... but this is New York albeit a bit misty!
Right ... now to get our bearings. Yellow Cab or Uber?
The children were so excited on the aeroplane they peaked too early!!
After a little rest and a cup of tea we were off .... First stop Macy's
Eleanor's eyes nearly popped out when she saw all the gorgeous handbags!!
Eleanor loves handbags ....
These are a little too apt for me!!
Eleanor is a little happy that we purchased something for her :-)
After a whistle stop around Macy's it was now time to walk to Times Square
Lots of people all around are dressed up to have your photo with them ....
Times Square
This is now where our adventure begins and we are in The Big Apple ....
So there were a few ladies just dressed in 'paint' ... Patrick found this all too disgusting!!
These two policemen were laughing as an old Chinese man went up to them and joked about the naked ladies and their 'boobs'!!
You still see the Police on horseback ....
Dinner at Applebees
Radio City building
Rockefeller Centre
Rockefeller Centre
The Lego Shop
This is the Rockefeller Centre made out of Lego ....
This dragon started at one end of the shop ....
..... and ended up at another end of the shop
St Patrick's Cathedral
This is one of my favourite buildings in NY
The busy streets of Manhattan
Rockefeller Centre
Eleanor has been looking up American Doll Shop on the internet ...
One very excited little girl wants one for her birthday .... and lots of accessories!
.... it was like a dream come true looking around the THREE floors of dolls and dolls clothes
.... they even have little girls' matching outfits .....
.... it was all too much for Patrick he couldn't cope any longer!!
..... it's even reduced him to tears!!
A statue in memory of all the firefighters that lost their lives in 9/11
When I am called to duty, God, whenever flames may rage,
Give me strength to save some life, whatever be its age.
Help me embrace a little child before it is too late,
Or save an older person from the horror of that fate
Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout,
And quickly and efficiently put the fire out.
I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me,
To guard my every neighbor and protect his property
And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life,
Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout,
And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life,
Please bless with your protecting hand, my children and my wife
I can't believe the weather and how it's closing in ... eek, we're in for a wet weekend!
Grand Central Station
Oh my, this building is amazing
Outside - Grand Central Station
These plaques were in the pavement of all the buildings around Manhattan
17.06.17
Breakfast in New York ....
First stop The Empire State Building ....
Oh dear ... the view isn't that great ...
To the left with the building with the Spire is the Chrysler building
Right at the bottom of Manhattan is the Financial District ... which you can't see very well!!
You can only just see the World Trade Centre Building
The triangle building in the middle of the picture is the Flatiron Building
Macy's
The Top of the Empire State Building
The Chrysler Building - my ultimate favourite building in NY
Out of the Empire State Building and oh my the heavens have opened up .... it's going to be a wet walk down to the financial district!!
The Flatiron Building 💖
Oh my god, I am wet through to my pants .... but we will persevere with our sightseeing and we will not let A LOT of rain stop us!!
A nice stroll through Madison Square Park ....
I'm singing in the rain... just singing in the rain ....
So, it started raining so heavily we thought we'd give the tube a go ....
After waiting an age for the tube to turn up, ours didn't for ages because of work being carried out on the line. So we jumped on another and went 3 stops downtown just to get a bit further down to the financial district to save walking .... it was so hot down in the subway that I thought I was going to pass out. So we got back up in to daylight as soon as we could.
Ah, fresh air ... and wall art
Oh but it's still raining!
Finally we made it to the Financial District
9/11 Memorial - North
World Trade Centre
9/11 Memorial - South
9/11 Memorial Museum
Original steel that survived
This is the original sign that stood outside the World Trade Centre's and it survived
The Foundations of one of the Trade Centre Buildings
Original steel pillar that the Fireman and Policeman wrote on and stuck pictures to it for their colleagues who were missing or killed
These blue tiles were created by the artist for each person that died in the 9/11 attack. Every single tile is a different shade of blue to represent each different person
An original staircase that only just survived and has been left as it was after the attack
This is an urn that contains some of the dust from the World Trade Centre's after the buildings collapsed and was all that was left as both buildings collapsed in to nothing. On the outside of the urn is all the names of the people whose bodies were never recovered and they disappeared the same time the buildings did.
This is part of the antenna mast that was at the top of the World Trade Centre
This is what was left of one of the fire trucks that attended that fateful day
Part of the lower supporting structure from the outside facade
The museum was incredible and really brought home our memories of 11th September 2001. It is still so vivid in my mind as I watched the events unfold live in the boardroom with my work colleagues at UGS. I'm not sure we will ever be as shocked by what the world had to witness that day.
We did however skip the videos in the museum as the children did not want to watch them. They had a pretty good understanding after we explained what happened and how people had to decide whether or not to jump or just stay in the burning building. So as they understood, they didn't want to witness it - which we respected and moved on.
Back outside and the sky has cleared and we have some sunshine ... yippee .... pants are still wet though!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 The world's smallest police car
We can almost see the top of the World Trade Centre the clouds have cleared that much
The Vietnam Memorial
The Koreans War Veterans Memorial
We are now on the ferry to Liberty Island to have a tour around the Statue of Liberty. To go inside her and up to the top apparently you have to book months ahead :-(
Statue of Libery
Goodbye Financial District
Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty .... much closer
Patrick and Eleanor were really good and listened to the audio explanation ....
The clouds have cleared so much we can now see the top of the World Trade Centre
Manhattan
Back off the ferry and now for the long walk back to the hotel .....
The Charging Bull ....
Trinity Church - The Priest from this Church was one of the first people to run down to the twin towers after they had been hit. He read people their last rights and helped as much as he could. Sadly he suffered a heart attack and did not survive :-(
Trinity Church
Plaques and art ....
NY smoke from the Subway - 9/11 Tribute Memorial - Brookfield Place in the background
St Paul's Church - this church also was untouched and survived unscathed during the 9/11 attacks
United States Courthouse & Municipal Building
City Hall Park
City Hall
Another amazing sky scraper
Brooklyn Bridge
Municipal Building
Walk through Chinatown and then Little Italy
Sunset in the middle of Manhattan
A walk through Greenwich Village
A gentleman playing the piano and giving his own private concert under the Archway
Night time walk back up to the Empire State Building
Back in the Empire State Building for our night time views .....
.... Somehow though I don't think we are going to see much!!
Ah, we were right .... we are above the clouds!
It was so eery and quiet .... felt very strange being above the mist and clouds and be able to have clear skies above??
The mist moved very slightly and you got a glimpse of a building for a split second ....
.... at one point the clouds cleared enough for us to see the street below us
Hey ho, it's 11pm and these children need to get to bed. We will just have to come back to NY to see the views again one day
18.06.17
Our walk down to Central Park was HOT! Thankfully we came across another Hilton Garden Inn halfway down and were able to use the Restrooms and fill up our already empty water bottles.
The entrance to Central Park
The Old Dairy
A typical horse and carriage
The Huskie
The Boating Lake
The Alice in Wonderland Statue
.... it has to be my favourite, with so much detail
My Patrick is like the Mad Hatter sometimes .... anyone for tea!
A little mouse under the mushroom ....
Beautiful blossom
Out of the park and up to the Natural History Museum
Abraham Lincoln Statue
Here no Evil, See no Evil and Speak no Evil
Dinner in the Plaza at the Rockefeller Centre
Mmmmm ..... Yum
Rockefeller Centre
The Plaza where we had dinner
19.06.17
So we have done two and a half days of walking so far and yes, we are exhausted ... but no rest for the wicked cause we have another day that we have a lot packed in to see.
First stop ..... New York High Line
Someone doth protest about walking!!
A bit of a rest ....
Apparently this is art ....
..... another rest stop (it's getting really hot and we are struggling)
..... more art
The New York skyline is amazing :-)
The children are reading up about some more art....
... so someone leaves some Witches shoes somewhere in amongst the garden
.... Now this is weird!
Oooooh there's some art .... Oh and I managed to capture some chap watering his plants in just his shorts ;-)
The High Line is so cool
It has got so hot - kids needed another pit stop
We came off the High Line and ventured in to the Chelsea district
These houses are amazing and typical of NY
Now to walk down to Rockefeller Centre
Rockefeller Centre - Top of the Rock
Luckily we got straight through (unlike last nights queues!)
Eleanor walking the Red Carpet
Patrick trying to pick up the Empire State Building
Yes, we are up at the Top of the Rock
Wow, Wow, Wow .... the view is amazing (especially compared to our view up the Empire State Building!)
Central Park
The Empire State Building
Bird of Prey ... sorry the camera is rubbish!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wished we had more time to look through this fabulous museum
As we didn't have much time in the museum we headed straight in to the Egyptian Section
Staring competition .... Oh, looks like the Egyptian statue wins!
Oh dear ... it's raining again ... so we're waiting under shelter
See .... told you .... it was chucking it down!
Manhattan Aparments
Happy Anniversary Neil ... Bill's Burger Restaurant ... how romantic!
Time to walk home, get packed up and ready for leaving NY for our next stop ......
In summary, I loved NY when I visited back in 1999 and the twin towers were still there and I found it very upsetting on this visit to go back and see the Memorial site. The City is still as vibrant as every and very busy and I love all the architecture and the fact that there is soooo much to do. The only thing I am gutted that we didn't get time to do was Ellis Island - so hey ho we will just have to come back again :-)
Neil: "Busy, Big, and interesting. I loved Central Park and the Skyscrapers."
Patrick: "Bustling shops, obnoxious crowds, wondrous skyscrapers."
Eleanor: "A lot of walking, very loud and didn't like the amount of homeless people. I loved the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre."
love The Wise Old Owls xxxx
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