New York Day Three Monday 3/11/14
I got up had some toast and coffee then got dressed while mum and dad went down to Hoboken to do some shopping. When they got back we headed out to see the statue of liberty.
We took the bus over to the port authority and then walked down to the nearest 1 metro line. Once we’d figured out the ticketing system we headed down to the platform we missed the first train as there was some confusion due to there being two trains in the station but one being an express to brooklyn and the other being the slow train to the south ferry we wanted. We had to wait for the next one and while waiting were accosted by a woman asking us where in England we were from and who then told us someone in Kingston upon Thames had sold their house and therefore made her homeless which I didn’t understand. She went upon her way and we caught the next train to south ferry.
It was a bit odd being on the Metro as it’s very like the tube and yet not the movement and waiting is familiar but there are all sorts of odd differences. In south ferry only the first five cars lined up with the platform (something it might have been helpful to know before getting on as it’s not easy to work out what car you’re in from the inside) also the platform had extending sections that closed the gap to the train once it arrived.
We headed out and then joined a queue to get our tickets this was just the first of many queues today. Next we queued to be processed by security while being attacked by bad flute music bad steel drum music at the same time. Once through security it was straight on to the ferry to liberty island. We got a great view coming in though the ferry was packed. I got several excellent photos of the back of a balding man’s head with an out of focus Statue of Liberty in the background.
Once we arrived at the island we had to queue to get off the ferry we were a bit hungry so we queued for a fairly bad sandwich a half decent cup of coffee and a tasteless brownie for a ridiculously inflated price. Suitably fortified we wandered around lady liberty and took some pictures of her and Manhattan. We could see the new world trade center really well from there and apparently this was the day it opened which might explain the large contingent of heavily armed soldiers festooned about the port authority bus terminal.
It was a lovely bright day with gorgeous sunshine which made the contrast between the statue and sky either too great so you got silhouettes or not enough so it was completely washed out. You can theoretically visit the pedestal and the crown but both are booked up months in advance when I checked when we were still booking they were booked solid into next year. So we just wandered the grounds and took pictures.
After that we queued to get on a boat to head to Ellis island where the people were processed for immigration. Once we’d queued again to get off the ferry we were out front of the building that once processed the new immigrants. It was the LAX of it’s day with lots of paperwork potential to lose your baggage and grim humorless immigration officials. There was a lot of pro America propaganda disguised as museum exhibits and I was not really feeling up to wading through it so I spent some time sitting in the baggage hall resting my feet.
We had a wander around the building took some photos and then caught the ferry back (after another queue of course) we queued for the final time to get off and headed down to the metro station to get the metro back to the port authority (via an underground tunnel that basically stretched all the way under the streets from the PATB to 42nd street and times square where that line of the metro picked up). We jumped on the bus which was just there ready to go and headed home for a cup of tea and a rest.
For dinner we walked down into Hoboken which is down a very long hill. The area all around the little house we are staying in is in the process of having a lot of the buildings being striped gutted and then either knocked down and flats thrown up in place or redone as flats. Especially along this route we took which goes along a cliff which looks out across the Hudson into Manhattan offering spectacular views of the city. We reached Hoboken and had a look at the various restaurants settling on this middle eastern place called Alibaba’s we were a bit early about 6ish and almost all the places we had seen were empty this place seemed a little surprised we wanted to eat in though they had a full room of tables.
I had the Sahara chicken with a Greek salad to start. The salad was nice with good fresh veggies and quite a lot of dressing. The chicken was pretty good it was done thin and grilled with lots of middle eastern spices as well as lots of grilled veg with a large serving of yellow rice. It was delicious and I enjoyed it after a hard days queuing.
For dessert I had baklava which was flaky honey good. We also had a cup of coffee which also seemed to throw the lady serving us. Maybe new yorkers don’t have coffee after a meal.
Anyway it was a good meal. We had a walk down to the front after for a look at the night cityscape. The whole front which I suppose at one time was docks and industry is now being redeveloped with a neat front where people jog and walk their dogs and swanky apartments where they can live with a wonderful view of Manhattan yet still able to just jump on the ferry and be downtown for work. It’s clear that whole area of New Jersey is in the process of becoming expensive modern places to live for the wealthy.
I took some photos of the night scene of Manhattan lit up like a christmas tree. It’s an incredible sight you can see from one end to the other of the island and it’s all glowing in the night. It’s just like in the movies and incredible to see.
Once we were done we walked up the front and then headed back up the hill to our little house and turned in for the night.
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