For our last few days with Liam we are in New York. Again, a fairly short drive between the two cities so we arrived late morning.
Day 1 – Manhatten and Monday Night Football
We left Philadelphia and basically had expressway all the way out of Pennsylvania, through New Jersey to New York. We did have a bit of a delay on the expressway at one point so we left and drove along Highway 1 for a while.
I don’t think Philadelphia will be high on our “re-visit” list for places in the USA. It was very “gritty” – as Liam described it you immediately had that “on alert” feel wherever you went. However, we got to see the things we wanted to so it was worth the stop.
As we only had a short drive, we decided to stop at an outlet centre for some final shopping – for Liam – and a bit of lunch before driving to our hotel for the first night in Midtown Manhatten. We had orginally planned to stay close to the stadium in New Jersey (East Rutherford) but it turned out the transport options were actually better staying in Manhatten near to the direct train link.
Once we had checked in, we walked to Times Square and past the Empire State Building before a quick stop at Macys – and coffee at their Starbucks – then back to our hotel.
Just before 6pm we set off back to New Jersey for the big game – the Dallas Cowboys v the New York Giants. I had been hoping to see an NFL game over our many trips however the timing of our tour and tour plans never really matched up with games in the right city. The closest we had got in the past was when we did our 2016 tour and we arrived in Nashville at full-time of a Vikings v Titans game.
This time we actually left our planning a bit fluid until the draw came out in early May as Liam – a big Cowboys fan – had said if we could actually line up for a Cowboys game somewhere he would fly over to meet up with us for a few days and go to the game. We might have actually been in the right place to see a couple of games but when the Cowboys v Giants game was on the cards it was a must – so we changed our tour a bit to be in New York for the game, and bought the tickets !
So here we were walking up the street to Penn Station to get the train to the Meadowland Sports Centre where Metlife Stadium is located, via a change to a train shuttle service at Seacaucus Junction. It wasn’t hard – just follow all the people in NY Giants jerseys !
It probably took us about an hour or so all up but once there we were able to find our seats – which we were very happy with – and after arming ourselves with food and drink for dinner, we settled in for the game.
The experience was spectacular – plenty of entertainment going on before the game and during breaks, plenty of banter amongst the rival fans – there was a good sprinkling of Cowboys fans around – and the dream result for Liam, a win to the Cowboys 23-16.
With the big crowd of almost 80,000 it was a logistics exercise to get back to the train but it worked well. It was a long night – we had left before 6pm and it was after 1am when we got back – an expensive night, but it will long be a memorable experience for all of us.
Having said that, you might need to read Adrienne’s version – click here 😂😂
Day 2 – Recovery 😂
After our late night we had a bit of a sleep in. We were also moving from our Manhatten hotel to a New York Financial District hotel near the Battery Point area. With a 12 noon checkout we decided to do a bit of a walk in the morning and headed toward the Hudson River. We had heard of an area called the “High Line” which was an old closed rail line 30 feet above street level which had been converted into a park. It runs about 20 blocks parallel to the Hudson River and gives river and city views along the way.
It is quite an oasis in the city and a very popular place ! We had actually registered before we got there that once away from Broadway and Madison Ave the streets became a little more residential and quieter – and more to our liking.
We probably walked about half way along the Highline and then back again so we could get back to our Manhatten hotel to checkout and drive down to the Financial District.
30 minutes to travel less than 4km ! We dropped our car at the parking lot used by the hotel and then still had a 5 minute walk to actually get to the hotel as well. However the room was ready and after checking in we walked down to the Battery Park area to find some lunch. Again the Battery Park area is much more to our liking with its green spaces and we found a nice cafe in the park to sit and look across New York Harbour to the Statue of Liberty which we would be visiting the next day.
After lunch we walked back up to the World Trade Centre to see the “new” Freedom Tower, or officially One World Trade Center. When we visited New York on our 2008 tour, the area where the Twin Towers had been destroyed by the 9/11 attacks was still a building site. So we were eager to see the new tower and the memorials that had been completed.
Just driving in towards the financial district I could visualise the events unfolding on TV back in Australia on that evening in 2001, with terrified people running down streets we were now driving along.
We wandered around the site for a while and visited the “Survival Tree” – a callery pear tree which had been severely damaged in the 9/11 attacks but had been rehabilitated – the resident squirrel certainly seemed happy with the progress !
With all the rebuilding and remediation of the surrounding area there are many new & restored buildings and the new Oculus Centre contains a big underground Westfield shopping centre and the entry to the subway station. On our way back to the hotel we passed by Trinity Church – which dates back to pre- Revolutionary War and Wall Street – which had changed quite a bit since 2008 when we visited right at the start of the GFC.
Weary after quite a bit of walking we had dinner in the hotel restaurant – the St George Bar Restaurant. The menu was certainly unique “serving pub grub and Chinese classics” – we settled on the “pub grub” and it was a very good meal indeed !
Day 3 – Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
We had a quick breakfast as we had to be at Battery Point again by 8.30am for our 9am boat to Liberty Island. The weather is certainly starting to get cooler – only around 12 degrees (celsius) when we left – but the days have been sunny and clear for all our walking.
First stop was Liberty Island where the iconic statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was erected on the site of an old fort and completed in 1886. Our tour included access to the pedestal level – a climb of 216 steps to the top. The access to the crown is still closed, although Liam overheard one of the guides indicating it would re-open in a about a month – I wouldn’t be going up anyway !
The view from the pedestal gives a fantastic picture of the New York harbour and skyline – luckily not quite an “up-skirt” view of Liberty !
We descended the steps again and then wandered around the base of the statue before going to the Visitor Centre and taking in the exhibits.
We walked back to catch the next boat and leaving Liberty Island our next stop was Ellis Island. This had been the point of entry for over 12 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 1892 and 1954, although by the early 1920’s the numbers were dwindling due to WWI and changing immigration policies and it was mainly used for detention and hospitalisation cases.
Many of the buildings are not accessible except for certain tours however the main building is set up to show exhibits which depict the processes by which the early immigrants would have been subject to – screening, medical examination, review etc and even for approximately 2% who arrived immediate deportation if they were found unacceptable.
It was certainly an interesting place to visit. We had some lunch in the cafe – which was setup like the dining room at the time which provided 3 meals a day to those who were unable to get through the immigration process immediately – and then we boarded a boat back to Battery Point.
We decided to walk around Battery Point along the Hudson River which has been made an attractive green space. It is s popular area for walkers, runners, bike riders, dog walkers etc and near the World Trade Centre area there are a few restaurants around North Cove Marina and a shopping centre called Brookfield Place.
Brookfield Place was formerly know as the Wintergarden which we visited on our NY city tour back in 2008. We stopped there to look at the 9/11 site which was just a building site at the time – mostly open holes. So it was certainly interesting to see the change since then.
We wandered back to the hotel and put our feet up for an hour or 2 before having our last dinner with Liam before he flies home tomorrow. He chose a nearby pub – O’Hara’s Restaurant & Pub – which has become a post 9/11 hub. It had been popular Irish pub and had its windows blown in with the collapse of the towers. When it re-opened, it became popular with the workers at ground zero. On the 1st anniversary a tradition started with embroidered patches representing fire, police, paramedic and military outfits from all over the world being plastered all over the walls – there are now thousands and we found ones from NSW, Victoria & WA.
We have had a great week with Liam with us – lots of fun and memorable experiences – and tonight was a lovely way to finish. We drop him off in the morning at JFK Airport and them we move on to the last few weeks of our tour further north.
