Statue Of Liberty & Central Park
Another long, hot day - remind me not to go to New York in the middle of summer! 37 °C & the air so humid there's no where for the sweat & moisture to go. I'm glad we tried to do things early! After a good nights sleep, we went down for breakfast then headed out around 9am to drive to the ferry port to Liberty Island. At the Liberty State Park where the ferry terminal is, we saw the 'Empty Sky' state memorial to the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The ferry stopped at Ellis Island but we didn't get off there; we wanted to go straight to Liberty Island & although I'm sure it would be interesting, it wasn't high on our list & was too damn hot to spontaneously walk around an island that 'might' be entertaining or educational! At Liberty Island, we headed straight for the statues entrance as Adam had got us tickets to walk up to the top of the pedestal Lady Liberty stands on. I don't know if he would have booked tickets to go to the top of the crown if he had the chance (as you have to order months & months in advance) as it turns out he's not great with heights. The view was awesome though; all the boats filling the harbor, the New York skyline, the greenery of New Jersey, it was really something. But hot!
We headed home, back to the hotel where there are a bunch of restaurants & eateries, & chose o have lunch at a place called 'Cheeseburgers In Paradise' which was really cool. It was decorated out like a sunset over a beach with a load of surf stuff. I had a Malibu salad with chicken, bacon, cheese, avocado, pineapple & more. Really tasty with 1000 island dressing. Back at the hotel, we decided to go to the hotel's pool but when we got down there, we discovered that the pool was tiny! There was a small family there & it felt really rude to intrude because it was so small. It actually reminded me of the Onsen in Japan. We turned around & decided not to bother!
We decided to take public transport into the city in the evening - the bus was basically a coach, & the trains on the subway had good air con, but the platforms didn't. We headed for Central Park & had dinner at a place called 'The Meatball Shop', which basically offers a variety of meatballs. Adam & I ordered the same thing & got chatting with the waitress. She was really sweet & turns out that she's from Massachusetts, like Adam. Her name in Ronnie & we got her phone number as we asked if there was anywhere she would recommended us going, & planned to meet up with her tomorrow night.
After dinner, we made our way to the park. Even though it was dark & late, it was still really hot - too hot to really be walking around still. It was weird - I've never been out at night where I'm still sweating! Adam navigated us to a statue of Alice In Wonderland, complete with Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, the Dormouse, Cheshire Cat, & a few critters, with some quotes from the book. There's a huge pond that we saw all lit up, & a fountain. We also saw Hans Christian Anderson's statue. We did a lot of walking & got a glass of water from the BoatHouse, & did some more walking, got lost, & did some more walking, until we got on the subway, then had to wait half an hour in the bus terminal before getting crammed on the coach.
Hot, sweaty long day, but good & got to see a lot of sights & walk a lot of miles!
