Friday 26th September.
Before we had left Europe we had managed to get in touch with Chris’ cousin Pam who lives at Mt Tremper, a small village north of New York, . Pam took a day off work and arranged to meet us ‘under the clock’ at Grand Central Station New York. We left for the city early, again in the rain, to make sure we would be at the meeting point before Pam arrived. Pam’s daughter Tiffanie had used her email to make the arrangements.
Pam was right on time and it was a delight to see Chris and Pam meet up more than 30 years after their last time together. We took Pam to lunch in a restaurant in the Metro Life building next to Grand Central. Three and a half hours later we left the restaurant as the evening diners were coming in, and Chris and Pam were still chatting!! It was such a lovely time and enjoyed by all three of us. We saw Pam off on her return train trip to her home and then we walked up to Broadway to see if we could get cheap late sale tickets for one of the shows. We had thought of going to see Mama Mia but there was only standing room left and we decided against it. However we did enjoy the experience of being amongst the crowds going to the many live shows running on Broadway, before heading back to our hotel at Newark by bus.
Saturday 27th September . We went into Manhatten by bus, a journey of around one hour and aft4r visiting a computer shop we walked around new York again.
Sunday 28th September. We headed in to New York on the train as we had heard that the streets could be blocked with traffic. The NY Firemen were doing a 5 mile ‘Tunnel to the Towers’ run through Manhattan in memory of 9/11.
We found a church on the internet and decided to see if we could find it. The name of the church was ‘The Journey’ and we felt this was appropriate for us on ‘our journey’. The service was held in the 7th floor ballroom of the Manhattan Hotel about 200 meters from the NY Penn railway station. We arrived in the rain just as the service started and felt the message was meant for us. After a coffee and a snack with the mostly young people of the church we made our way back down to the street and took the underground down to Wall Street.
It was interesting to visit Wall Street with the current financial problems going on in USA. We mingled with the many others in the area and took the usual tourist photos.
We then walked to Ground Zero and found the observation area was closed due to the building work in progress. However, we went upstairs in a nearby Burger Bar and from there could see the activity (yes..on Sunday) behind the high construction fences built about the area. It was an awesome feeling to be near the place of such devastation that took place a few years back and it is hard to describe what we felt.
After chips and coffee from a lunch bar, the weather began to clear and we caught a metro train and then walked down to the waterfront. We saw number 1 Broadway and then found the ferry that went to Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty and later to Ellis Island where the immigrants were processed in the early 1900’s.
The Statue was more impressive than either of us had imagined and we very much enjoyed the visit. Chris was very interested in the museum on Ellis island as her ancesters in the 1800’s came from Manchester and Ireland to America. They ended up in the Philadelphia area but may have entered America through New York. Some more research is needed and we left with some web sites that may give some more information.
Once we were back on Manhattan Island we boarded the underground train thinking we were heading ‘uptown’ but then realised we were under the Hudson river heading for Brooklyn. A change of trains at the next station helped us return to near Times Square.
By this time it was getting dark as we made our way to the Empire State Building and queued up for tickets to the top. There were long queues even at this time of day and when we reached the open balcony on the 86th floor, the sun was well gone and the lights of NY were a spectacular sight. The light breeze was cool but along with many other locals and tourists (one a Sydney fellow who we had a chat with) we marvelled at the scene below. The building had been shrouded with clouds most of the day so it was good that we had decided to go up in the evening as we had a clear view of the city at night.
We returned to the second floor and had a simulated New York ‘Sky Ride” and then decided to have one last walk under the bright lights of Times Square and Broadway before taking the bus back to New Jersey. The weather was breaking again as we waited for the bus on 42nd Street.
It had been a very full day finished late with packing our bags for the early start next day to Portland, Oregon to meet with Kate.
New York was somewhere that neither of us had known what to expect but we found it felt quite an exciting place to be. Times Square, particularly at night was an amazing place. At one stage when we were down in one of the metro stations, Chris said that it reminded her of ‘West Side Story’. We were glad that we came.
