Yesterday was our only day of 'planned' activity. We had booked two things to do, one in the morning and one in the evening. We started the day by taking to subway to the 911 memorial. The events of 911 still shock me to the core today, as Bernie & I were watching it happen on TV, from the first plane until both towers fell. In the days following, we hoped for survivors but in the end, only 18 people made it out. Nearly 3000 people died in those horrific attacks and in part, it has shaped the world we live in today. When we made the decision to come to NY, number one on our list of things to do was pay our respects to the victims of 911. Visit to the memorial is free, but you have to book in advance. I booked our visit in January.
As you walk down to the memorial, you are walking the streets that were engulfed by smoke & debris when the towers fell. Today, little remains of the destruction, and new building work all around serves to remind you that New York moves onward and upward. We passed through the first ticket check and walked to the next. Because of the construction work, there is a temporary entrance, so you have to wind your way through streets. We entered a building briefly to go through the security scanners and moved on to have yet another ticket check. In all, there were 3 times we had to show our tickets.
We finally made it to the memorial park. Here are the two pools of remembrance, standing where the original towers were. Two massive water filled pools with waterfalls cascading down into them and the names of the victims around the outside. They are still building the museum but you can see the massive tridents they salvaged from the original tower. Also in the plaza is the survivor tree - one of the original trees that was found in the debris and nurtured back to life.
I'll try and put the feeling of the memorial as succinct as possible. Standing between the two pools and looking at the buildings around you, you realise you are standing in a spot that 12 years ago had tonnes of debris, bodies, fire and destruction and you can't help but feel a chill. Pictures from 2001 show just how high the debris of the buildings was piled. The black granite of the pools and the sheer size of them gives you a good idea of how big the towers were. And how many people worked there. Ordinary people going to work, and then first responders who arrived to help. The stories of heroism that have come out just show the selflessness of human nature. The way New Yorkers offered everything they could to help in the search efforts and those who couldn't actively help, supported those who did. If you haven't read or seen much about 911, do some research. Not just on the attacks but the rescue efforts. I'll never forget the scenes of the streets lined with people clapping and cheering the metal workers changing shifts as they dug through the collapsed buildings. Of people bringing food to them. 911 may have been a tragedy, but the human spirit prevailed.
After our quiet reflections at the memorial, we hit the gift shop. Keying count increased. After that we went to the Burger King that was used as the NYPD headquarters after 911 and which was shown in a book we bought. While lining up, Tara needed to use the bathroom, which was upstairs. I turned to take her, when the greeter offered us the use of the staff bathroom. I thought it was odd that Burger King HAD a greeter but thought nothing of it. After all, this is New York, they do things differently here!! We were given a number for our order and told to place it on our table upstairs. Bernie & I looked at each other blankly - dont we just come and just get our order? No. Upstairs we were shown to a table (table of 4? Follow me please) and seated. Next thing, our food was brought to us, and our server checked we had all the sauces we needed. As we ate, he stopped by a couple of times, even to try and coax Tara into joining him in a bit of a dance!! This is Burger King. Can you imagine getting the same thing from your local Maccas???? I took out a $5 note to give to our server but he was busy. Overall, the oddest fast food eating experience EVER!!
After lunch, we crossed over to a park to decide what to do next. As we sat there, a group of street dancers started their show. High energy dance tricks and 2 brothers who pulled people out of the crowd to participate. Thankfully, they didn't pull me out!! We laughed as they ran though their routine, pulling 3 women and one man ( a tall sexy white guy as they said) out of the audience. They made us laugh, so when we were hit up for the usual 'we do this for a living' spiel, I threw in my $5. I was wearing a California t-shirt, Amy had a New York one on, Tara was in a Paris one and Bernie had a SC one on. I was asked where we were from (I could see he was confused) and when I said Australia, he said 'stop the show! I've just been given $5 from Australia, show your appreciation' and the crowd clapped. Like the shy retiring person I'm not, I played up got he crowd, acknowledging their applause. After collecting their 'fee', one guy proceeded to summersault over the audience participants. It was a cool thing to see, another one of those 'had to be there' moments!!
While we were in downtown, we stopped to get an ice cream. Bernie was wearing his fighting gamecocks t-shirt from SC. I've already mentioned that the gamecocks are the University of South Carolina team, and this woman came up and asked if we were from there. She mentioned she had graduated from USC in May and moved to NY. I think she was a bit disappointed to discover we were just Aussies on holiday!!
We made the decision to head uptown to the FDNY Fire shop. I wanted a fire patch and t-shirt, even more so after visiting the 911 memorial.
To try and explain Manhattan to those not familiar with the island, it's all based around a compass. Everything is east or west, up or down. So 911 is downtown, central park is uptown and Times Square is midtown. Then there's the upper east side, upper west side (on either side of Central Park), the lower east side and the lower west side (on either side of downtown). We are staying in the lower east side. (I've included a map of Manhatten to show what I mean)
We plugged the address for the fire shop into the 'oracle' (which is what Hop Stop has come to be known as) and made our way to the subway. While riding the train, we were treated to a guy doing a dance routine, but as he began just before he got off, I can't say how good he was. We walked up to the fire shop, and spent some cash on FDNY goods. T-shirts, teddy bear, pins and of course, key rings. (Yes, plural. I have a problem.) While we were uptown we headed to FAO Schwartz, one of the biggest toy shops in the world. It's one street back from Central Park, so we got our first glimpse of the park, and the multi million dollar properties that surround it. Rich people will happily drop in excess of $4m to own an apartment overlooking Central Park. Lucky rich bastards.
FAO Schwartz had the famous giant piano. Anyone who has seen the movie 'Big' has seen Tom Hanks play chopsticks and Heart And Soul on the big piano. Well, the one he used is now in a museum, but there is still one there for people to go on. No jumping, running or sliding is allowed, but we still had fun making the keyboard light up!! We let Tara pick something to buy, within reason (due to size & weight restrictions for flying home) and she was resolute that she wanted the giant pink dog (cost: waaaay too much!!). When I pointed out that it was too big (read: the size of a bed) to fit in our luggage, she said 'but I'll HOLD it mum!' There's an image. A 5 year old holding a mattress. On a plane. In economy. In the end she settled for a small black cat which she called Slash.
It was getting on for 5, and we had another planned event to get to. A harbour lights boat cruise. We boarded the subway again and headed for Times Sqaure again, as the harbour pier was west of it, in the neighbourhood of Hells Kitchen. We stopped for dinner at a nice eatery called Gourment New York and had a sandwich/wrap/fajita dinner. (not all together, obviously, we all had different things). We walked down to Pier 83 and swapped the print out for tickets and joined the line to get on board. Once on board,we found our seats and waited to set off. Our tour guide was a native New Yorker and he knew his stuff! We got some great trivia and history about New York, and I was especially interested to note he had written a book called Unique New York. I'll look it up later, I thought to myself....
The boat was docked next to the USS Intrepid, a retired US naval WWII aircraft carrier. It's now a permanent fixture as an air & space museum. It has various planes, as well as the original space shutte. Housed alongside is the Concord. As we pulled out we got to see her in full. Had we known about it before we came, we would have booked a visit!
The cruise we were on took us in a semi circle around Manhattan. Before planes, New York had 200 odd years of sea faring history, but these days, a lot of the piers are disused. One in particular is Pier 54. It stands out like a sore thumb. There is nothing on it, even though its a free park and open to the public. What's so great about Pier 54? Well, IF the Titanic has made it's journey without disaster, it would have berthed at Pier 54. Plus, it was where the Louisitania was berthed prior to it being sunk by a German U boat in WWI, thus pulling the Americans into the war. In fact, a large percentage of boats that sailed from or to Pier 54 had met with a sad demise, so it was left as a park. But no one goes there because of the rumour that its cursed.
As our boat sailed around the island, we were given lots of interesting information about New York, and Manhattan in particular. Our guide gave us some history on the skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. He also filled us in on the 3 bridges that link Manhattan to the rest of New York, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan bridge and the Westburg bridge. Easy to remember the order - BMW. As a trivia buff, I loved the information, and vowed to get his book....
We sailed down past midtown where the Freedon tower rises above everything. It's the first tower to be completed to replace the World Trade Centre. It's very impressive, especially when the sun is setting. We had seen it up close earlier in the day, but the perspective from the water was imense!!
After doing a u turn (or whatever the naval term is) we made our way back, coming past the most iconic of New York icons, the Statue of Liberty. We made our way onto the bow for some close up shots. The boat bobbed in the water as we took a zillion photos from every angle. She's really quite impressive! By now, the sun was nearly set, but she was all lit up. The lights were starting to come on all over Manhattan and it was quite a spectacle! I put the camera away to take it all in. New York is massive, and we only saw half of it. All the skyscrapers lit up, reflecting off the water was certainly a sight to behold. It's a beautiful city from the ground, but it is totally stunning by night from the water!!!
Our boat berthed back at pier 83 (thus giving pier 54 a wide berth, pardon the pun) and we got off into a lovely rain storm. I say lovely, but it was raining quite heavily. Native New Yorkers were ducking under cover or running with umbrellas but a family of 4 from Australia? Nah.
We did however, make a stop at the Market Diner for a hot chocolate and to use the facilities. A yummy late supper but talk about a snooty cashier! Paid the bill, saw a postcard from WA behind her, and the stuck up cow did not say a word to us. Took our money ok, but not even a friendly 'how are you' or 'was everything satisfactory' nothing.
We headed back to Times Square to see it at night. By now it was past 10pm and pouring with rain. We had already decided we were catching a cab back to our apartment and figured Times Square was the place to get one. However, after watching a hundred or so cabs go past, I hadn't figured out the light on/off system. I wasn't keen to stand in the pouring rain with my arm up like a dickhead, so I went into the Times Square NYPD and asked the most useless 'look at me, I'm a tourist' question. He tried to explain it, but when he said 'even if their light is off (vacant) they may not stop for you', he pointed us in the direction of a taxi stand. We took another soggy walk and eventually caught a cab. After much repeating of our address and holding fingers up (332 E4th street for the record) he eventually go it. We enjoyed the cab ride back with TV in the back seat. Bernie was up front with the driver, who didn't say a single word, until I made the fatal tourist error and got out of the taxi on the wrong side. After that, he didn't shut up. Apparently I had committed the most grave taxi passenger error ever and had to get BACK in the taxi, just to scoot over and exit the correct side. So now I know!
Before I went to bed, I looked up the book that tour guide had written. Yep, found it on Amazon, looked at the price....$185! For a used book! Or I could but the new one for $1689! For a fucking BOOK!! Is it printed in gold? With a jewel encrusted cover???? I must be missing something. If you want to check it out, google 'Unique New York' by Malachy J Murray. (P.S I have a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks and I'd really like that book....hint hint!!)
Friday morning was a lazy sloth around the apartment until about 11. Then it was on the subway to the Empire State Building for a trip up to the observation deck on the 86th floor. Interestingly, as I leant the night before, the ESB was originally going to be a transport hub for Zeppelins, until they realised how dangerous it was (and how dangerous Zeppelins were!!). The building was actually going broke, until the film King Kong hit the silver screens, and it was inundated with people wanting to see what the big gorilla saw, and thus the booming tourist industry was born!!
The trip to the top is quite drawn out. You take an elevator to the 80th floor (don't press any buttons, it's automated!!) and then wind your way to the next elevator bank for a ride to the 86th floor. There are rope lines set out all the way, and at the height of tourist season, it would take upwards of an hour to get to the front. Luckily, no such wait for us. At best, 15 minutes. As we arrived at the 86th floor, we stepped outside! My god, what a view!!! Out came the camera again as I took shot after shot of the skyline. In every direction there was buildings, ranging from a mere 5-8 stories high up to massive towering skyscrapers. As ESB is located midtown, you see almost everything. The stunning Chrysler building is very impressive!!
We spent a good hour at the top, taking photos and just drinking in the views. One of the sobering thoughts we had was people were at the same height as us at 911, and they had the option to jump or burn. Looking over at the ground below, it must have been a massive decision to make. It's certainly one I couldn't make if faced with it!! Then it was back to the gift shop and back down to the ground.
After ESN we headed off for a late lunch, stopping to check out a few shops along the way. We also had a look around Rockerfeller Centre, home of the CBS studios. We went into the shop but obviously I dont watch a lot of shows becuase I didnt recognise many! But this was in the Madison Avenue/5th Avenue region, and shopping doesn't come cheap!! We headed to Grand Central Station and because we hit it about peak hour, it was busy!!
We caught a train back down to the lower east side and did a bit of suburban exploration, just a fancy way of saying we got a bit lost. We had dinner and came back to the apartment. It was another day exploring and the more we do, the more familiar we get with our surroundings. We're not quite native New Yorkers, but the subway doesn't seem as scary, and it's actually quite easy to find what you're looking for.
Tomorrow we are heading to Central Park for the day to have a picnic and relax. It's huge, so I've got no idea how much of it we will see. I will blog the days events tomorrow, but as the last few days have shown us, never be surprised by anything that happens!!!
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