Day 18, New York

Today saw us let loose in New York. The weather today has been ok on the whole, it was raining this morning and had been very cloudy all day. But the rain cleared up mid morning and the temperature has been good.

We started the morning in a New York Deli for breakfast, I had a steak and cheese omelette with potatoes and toast, Sharon just went for a vegetarian omelette. I took water, Sharon decided to go for the "Skinny Trip" shake, cucumber, carrots, and spinach. It looked disgusting and judging by the animation on her face it didn't taste that much better.

We then walked down 7th Avenue to find the "Iron" building before moving on to find the bridal shop "Kleinfeld". Apparently it's featured in the garbage to program that Sharon watches called "Say Yes to the Dress". By some miracle it was closed today and only open for alterations tomorrow, how awful. However Sharon got her picture there which she was very happy with. The traffic is horrendous all over New York due to the UN conference. There are lots of road closures and the city is gridlocked. The media really are going to town on it and the security is very high.

We moved on and headed for The World Trade Centre. It was quite a walk, about 4 miles but was pleasant. We passed many interesting buildings and parks as well as a fire station with a memorial outside for the staff that died as heroes on that very sad day. We were invited in to take a picture of the truck and the firefighter was lovely. Makes you think what the emergency services could face each and every day they go to work. When we reached the site it had changed so much since we were here 5 years ago. The One World Observatory is up and the memorial gardens and Waterfalls are complete. Again very sobering when there and there's still a massive hole in the skyline. We spent a lot of time reading all the info and taking everything in. We were going to go up the observation deck but we were advised against it as there was zero visibility due to the fog.

Moving on, we walked to Battery Park and took the Staten Island Ferry across to the Island. As we got there we got straight off and on the next one coming back. The whole purpose of the trip was to see The Statue of Liberty. The ferry sails right past it and the view is good (on a clear day), the whole service is run free of charge, 24 hours s day, 7 days a week. A cracking service and very busy. As we sailed back we saw 2 military helicopters flying side by side around the Manhattan skyline and out to Staten Island.

We had walked a long way so decided to get the subway back to Penn Street Station at Maddison Square Gardens which is literally round the corner from the hotel. We then set about buying a 3rd suitcase due to being overweight and sorted a taxi out for the airport tomorrow night. All done.

Finally this evening we wandered back up to Times Square stopping of for some dinner on 7th Avenue. We've walked 11 and a half miles today and we've had a blast.

Last day tomorrow, late flight home and check out at 12. Weather forecast is for it to chuck it down all day and the tail end of a hurricane to hit so an interesting day ahead.Read more