Another day of glorious weather in NYC and another action-packed day. We’ve walked so far in the last couple of days that I had to buy some new trainers from Macy’s this evening (what a shame!) as the soles have started to fall apart.
We started the day with another fantastic breakfast close to our apartment – eggs benedict set us up well for the day. We then rode the subway all the way down to South Ferry in lower Manhattan. Here we picked up the Staten Island ferry – one of New York’s greatest bargains! It’s completely free and you get great views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. We rode out to Staten Island and back to enjoy the views.
We then explored the Wall Street area. We found a lovely little chapel – St Paul’s (episcopal church of America). There were rehearsals going on in there for a lunchtime concert of Britten and a Bach cantata. We sat and listened for a while and were glad of a warm place to sit and the music was fantastic.
The chapel was right across the street from the twin towers of the World Trade Center used to stand. It’s astonishing that the church did not have any physical damage at all when the towers collapsed as it’s incredibly close. It was used as a base for the volunteers who were helping on the site immediately after the terrorist attack – the church provided beds, counselling, food, massage and all sorts of other help. Dotted around the church were several shrines and exhibitions from that time.
We visited the 9/11 Memorial at lunchtime. The area includes two memorial pools/fountains as well as new skyscrapers and a museum (which is not yet open).
The names of everyone who died on 9/11 were inscribed all the way around the pools and people were grouped with others that they worked with. As it was Veterans Day in the US today yellow roses were placed in the names of veterans who had died there.
We walked back towards mid-town via Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich village and ended up at Ravagh’s grill – a Persian restaurant on East 30th St. The food was really good – especially the shrimp kabob. Although one thing we really can’t get used to here is people’s appetites! It really is astonishing how much people can eat! We’ve taken to sharing most things as we can’t manage a portion each and also to having two meals a day instead of three.
Mike made a friend today with a man inexplicably walking around with a cat on his head. We’re not quite sure what was going on here but he was talking to us about Bob back in London. It was a rather bizarre experience!
So that was our last full day in NYC. We head off on our first rail journey tomorrow afternoon – exciting!!
Becca x
amtrakadventure 