Day 43 - Taking Liberties

The sun finally realised it was in the wrong month and called in the clouds. The timing wasn't great as we had planned on going to the crown of the Statue of Liberty. However, they weren't too low luckily and at least it wasn't raining.

To get there required a short boat trip to Liberty Island followed by a large amount of steps up the statue. We cheated a little and got the elevator to the pedestal. But from there it was all sweat and narrow staircases. Upon reaching the crown it was incredibly claustrophobic and for some reason I had assumed it would be a big space. It consisted of a small platform below a few plane sized windows. The small size actually added to the experience and the realisation of where you were standing. Looking out of the windows at Manhattan, and then down at the large tablet in the statue's left hand and then up at the torch in her right hand was a lot more affecting then I had expected. The two National Park workers in the crown were very friendly and offered to take a number of photos for people who had made the trek and they did not pressure anyone to leave until they were ready. I thought this might be one of the benefits of being out of season, then again, there are a limited number of tickets to the crown on any day and so this might have more to do with who is patrolling the crown on that day.

We were then queuing for a while to catch the boat to its next stop, Ellis Island. There isn't a great deal to see or do here. Just read. Lots of information boards about the history of immigration in America and across the world. It's interesting never the less that this is the location for the start of so many people's journey into America.

Arriving back in Manhattan, we started a long walk to get to our restaurant for the evening in West Village. Along the way there was a famous TV sight although you had to know where it was and then you had to look up. It was the exterior used as the location for the apartment in the sitcom Friends. The show was filmed in the iconic set somewhere in LA but this corner is unmistakably New York. That was pretty neat. And just a few minutes from here was our restaurant for the evening, an authentic Neapolitan pizza restaurant. The pizzas were fabulous and had that uniquely chewy with a slightly crisp base combined with a strong flavoursome tomato sauce, a sprinkling of mozzarella and the odd basil leaf. They also had the chinotto San Pellegrino which complemented the meal perfectly. Sheer bliss.

We had planned to meet up with a couple of Alice's friends who were also in New York, however, we had overdone it with all the walking across town the past few days and it hit the both of us. We needed an early one and so headed home.

Song of the Day:
Jennifer Lopez - Jenny From The Block (we haven't actually been to the Bronx, but really wanted to use this song. The Bronx!)Read more