New York

Monday 16^th May

New York

Getting off the subway today we experienced the feeling of being swept along by the New York traffic, it was good to experience this as we have heard about it so often. 

Meeting up with Kaylene and Chris was great, it was so lovely to see them.  Swapping stories of our travels was fun.  They looked very well and relaxed after their tour.  We all did a tour together of New York sights, a bit of a come down from the standard of the Insight tours that we had both done, but nevertheless enjoyable. 

The sights were many and varied.  Starting at Central park we went to strawberry fields memorial and saw the imagine mosaic named after John Lennon. 

There used to be a statue of John Lennon in central park but after his death Yoko Ono asked for it to be moved as she takes a walk in central park daily and it was a constant reminder for her, a fair enough call. We also visited the Dakota apartment where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, Yoko still lives there and it also the place that John Lennon was assassinated by Chapman. 

We then moved onto the Rockefeller centre where the world-famous Ice Rink is located in winter, this has become a quintessential New York City winter experience for generations. Whilst the weather gave a subtle hint of winter today, there was no evidence of skating under the watchful eye of the gilded Prometheus statue today, but it was easy to imagine what it would be like to evidence this in winter.  We would love to go to the top of the Rockefeller building, called the top of the rock, but in this weather today it would defeat the purpose. Hopefully we will get up there to see the great view of NYC before we leave, although the weather forecast is not at all promising.

We then drove past Madison Square Park, saw the flatiron building (so named because the building it the shape of an iron and it was NYC’s first sky scrapper),and saw the empire state building.  It was such a shame that this was clouded by fog.  However, we have had the best night view of the empire state building from Mick and Rita’s apartment. 

Then, for a cruise down the river past Ellis Island, Governor’s Island to Liberty Island to view the magnificent Statue of Liberty.  The statue of Liberty was built to commemorate the solidarity of the French and American people after the American Revolution.   After being jostled by the Japanese tourists, we managed to get a few good photo opportunities. 

 The boat ride was a bit rocky for my liking immediately after lunch, but I did manage to keep it down.  I have never had sea legs and can get seasick in the bath as a rule.

We visited the site of the Twin Towers and saw where St Paul’s chapel is located; this is where there is a memorial for all who lost their lives in 9/11, and a site that I really want to see, but not enough time today.

With the tour complete we all went for a quiet pint and then for a meander and photo opportunity in time Square.  We are hoping for an improvement in the weather tomorrow for our shopping trip to Tiffany’s!!