Today’s the day! Today’s the day!!!
Today is the day we get to go to the Statue of Liberty! And not just that, we get to climb all the way to the top and into her crown! Oh. Em. Gee!
To get Downtown, we caught a train. Not just any train. The New York Metro! Wooo hooo! This is a very easy to understand system, especially compared to the Sydney rail network! I love it. So we rode the Metro like we knew what we were doing.
Security is a big deal, in all of America, but particularly in New York. So we and our bags were fully screened before we got into the ferry, and then again after we arrived and before we were allowed to climb
above grass level. There are only 400 tickets available each day for visitors to visit the crown and we got in early to purchase them. It was worth stalking the online ticket booth to see when the tickets of the day we were visiting became available. It was worth the 6am wakeup and near freezing weather. It was worth climbing almost 400 steps to be at the top of one of the most iconic New York landmarks. I filled an entire memory card from my camera, just for the Statue of Liberty. I purchased a mini Statue of Liberty to live on my desk at work, so if you catch me staring at my mini statue, daydreaming, my mind and heart will be in New York.
above grass level. There are only 400 tickets available each day for visitors to visit the crown and we got in early to purchase them. It was worth stalking the online ticket booth to see when the tickets of the day we were visiting became available. It was worth the 6am wakeup and near freezing weather. It was worth climbing almost 400 steps to be at the top of one of the most iconic New York landmarks. I filled an entire memory card from my camera, just for the Statue of Liberty. I purchased a mini Statue of Liberty to live on my desk at work, so if you catch me staring at my mini statue, daydreaming, my mind and heart will be in New York.
Statue of Liberty, tick!
Next, we used the SpotCycle app to find the nearest CitiBike pick up/drop off station. We needed to haul ass to Brooklyn to see the sights and have a bite to eat. We rode over the Brooklyn Bridge, which was an
experience in itself, then strolled along DUMBO, got street tacos from a man in a van and caught the Metro back to hit up our 9/11 Memorial tour and Museum.
experience in itself, then strolled along DUMBO, got street tacos from a man in a van and caught the Metro back to hit up our 9/11 Memorial tour and Museum.
Before the tour started, I was a little dubious about spending 45 minutes of my New York time on this tour, but within the first 5 mins, I was just so glad we added this to our list. Our tour guide was Jenny and she had wild auburn hair and I spent a fair bit of the tour trying to figure out what she does in her life. She came off initially as an art/drama kinda student but I was left believing that this is her gig, that she actually does these tours because it is something she feels so passionately about. Her genuine compassion for the memory of the victims of 9/11 and the fact that she took her role as the custodian of the memorial space very seriously was amazing. There were more than a few of us on the tour who were welling up as she told stories of bravery from the day, the relationships between many of the victims and the lasting impact on the city of New York. She explained that on the birthday of each victim, a single white rose is placed within their name, which is hollowed out of the copper, not just etched into, to symbolise the void left by the death of that individual. That is the thing with the memorial, there are no coincidences. Every facet has been so thoughtfully planned out and every structure, placement, word, etc means something. Very touching indeed. I cannot recommend this tour enough. It is only 45 mins out of your time in NYC but such an important and well spent 45 mins. We backed the tour up with a visit to the 9/11 Museum. This contained so many artefacts from the events of September 11 and are presented in a thoughtful way.
After we came outside, it felt like the temperature had dropped by about 10 degrees. The blue skies that were there when we entered the museum were gone, replaced with a whole lot of grey.
We hit the Metro again up to Carrie Bradshaw’s steps. If you are not a Sex And The City fan, you may wish to zone out now. I just HAD to go to the steps and thanks to the internets, we found the address. Yay for the internets. Apparently in the early seasons, the front steps were at 64 Perry Street but in later seasons they changed them to 66 Perry Street. So I had my pics taken on both. The people at 66 are obviously not too impressed with hundreds of people converging on Carrie’s steps each day and so have a chain up
to block anyone climbing or sitting on said steps. The people at 64 don’t care. To be honest, beside the number and a bit fancier window above the door, the two are identical.
to block anyone climbing or sitting on said steps. The people at 64 don’t care. To be honest, beside the number and a bit fancier window above the door, the two are identical.
Carrie’s steps, tick!
The neighbourhood around Carrie’s steps is amazing. Cold. But amazing. Lots of pictures were taken in this area. We also stopped for a bite of pizza so we could formulate our game plan to get to our next destination – the Flatiron Building. We hit Uber for this one, as we have become a little obsessed with Uber since using it in Dallas. Anywho, I think the temperature dropped again while we were getting to the Flatiron Building. The wind was blowing and it looked like it was snowing (although I just believe this was cherry blossom floating in the wind). Since I was a little kid, I have always associated New York with two things, the Statue of Liberty and the Flatiron Building. I welled up as I stood in front of it. I dare not actually cry for fear of my eyeballs being frozen open.
We headed back to the motel and put on about three extra layers of clothing as we were now heading to the Yankees V Astros baseball at Yankee Stadium. The Metro was again our saviour and we got to squish into a confined space with a large number of strangers. Fun times. At least there were no seats, so Pete did not have to wear his ‘train pants’.
The tickets for the Yankees game, we got for $5 each as part of a MasterCard promotion. This was some of the best money we spent on our trip to NYC as the seats were spectacular (behind the batter). We had seen online that Yankee Stadium does a ‘nacho hat’ and while Pete was really bummed that nowhere in the USA appears to sell an actual had made out of nachos – cue the Nacho Man song – we were delighted that they served nachos in a souvenir Yankees batting cap. So there we sat, at the Yankees game, eating nachos out of the Yankees hat bowl. Life really does not get much better J
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