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Woke about 8.20 after a slightly fitful night. Les went straight down to mini coffee bar in the lobby and got coffee and a cinnamon whirl. Just as we were getting ready to go out shortly after 9am, Anne realised she couldn’t find her phone. We then spent some time finding the Vodafone number via the internet and managed to call them and get the phone blocked. Started by thinking that we might get a City Pass so we walked back past Macy's to the Empire State where they sell them at the ticket desk. When we saw the full details we decided it wasn’t worth it so we walked back to the subway station and bought Metro cards. $8 each gets us 4 rides. Went straight down on line 1 to Battery Park. Getting tickets at Fort Clinton was odd. Tickets are sold from windows in an octagonal hut with windows on six sides. The first four had very long queues. We walked round to the other two where there were only a couple of people queueing, and got our tickets in a couple of moments. Couldn’t understand why people weren’t using these windows. Joined a very long queue to go through (airline style) security, but the queue moved reasonably fast and we spent the time talking to a young English couple behind us in the queue. |
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Macy's entrance |
Battery Park |
| Sat downstairs on the boat while everybody else rushed upstairs. Our windows slid open so we got just as good photographs as anybody else. Got onto Liberty Island and simply took a slow walk round taking photos of the statue and back across to Manhattan, etc. A brilliant day - clear blue skies - temperature around 22/23c but quite windy. | |
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Approaching lunchtime so we took the ferry to cross to Ellis Island. Standing room only but it didn’t matter as it was a short trip. Chatted to an American guy who turned out to be from Raleigh, NC. We told him that we’d been there on the night of the 4th July 2008. He said he remembered it well as he’d only moved to the city two weeks before and he recalled the thunderstorms. Got onto Ellis Island and went straight to cafe. Excellent value - Anne had a tilapia sandwich (pitta bread) and Les had a bbq pork roll. Both came with chips, most of which we left. Went round the whole of the museum before stopping for another drink and then had a brief walk around as much of the outside as possible. More terrific views of the NY skyline. |
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| Back to Battery Park on the ferry - quite a lot of rolling about. Rode the subway back up to 34th and then went into the fantastic Post Office building just along from the hotel. Long queues, and only when we’d reached the front of the queue did we find out that the Post Office stays open until 10pm. | |
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Back to the hotel for a rest, at which point we found Anne’s phone inside the hotel info folder! Must have somehow got shut in there while we were moving things around. Anne went down to the hotel shop to buy postcards while Les grovelled again to Vodafone. They reconnected the phone. The operator pointed out that this would give Les an enormous moral advantage for several weeks. When we got home we found that the two calls to Vodafone had cost £26. Usual routine of a drink in the bar and dinner in the diner. |
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In the Tick-Tock Diner |
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