Liberty day

I write this post on the last day of our road trip as we arise to pack and take a final saunter through New York city prior to returning home via Newark to Heathrow.

Yesterday we made further use of the 48 hour pass on the Gray Line sight seeing hop on hop off buses to once again visit Battery Park, this time to use the free Staten Island ferry to get some close up pictures of the Statue of liberty.

The passes where used again later that night to take a night tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn, highly recommended as the sun goes down.

Over the last couple of days we have been regaled with information from various guides on these buses all of which has been informative, some of which has been humorous, most of which has been entertaining.

The one think that stands out is how New York city and particularly Manhattan has changed in the two hundred plus years since its inception and is continuing to change today. The neighbourhood names remain the same but their uses, their occupants and their values have shifted remarkably over the years.

We learned of the Native American indian tribes, the occupation and development by the Dutch, the forced buy out by the British Empire. George Washington's war of independence, Lincoln's speech on the abolition of Slavery, the coming of the immigrants, the establishment of the neighbourhoods. The slide into squalor during the depression and the building programs that introduced the tenements.

We learned also how a city was turned around, its streets unsafe and full of vice to become the most expensive real estate on the planet today and how this is continuing to happen to the few remaining areas of rent controlled accommodation in Manhattan and even now overspilling into Brooklyn.

Today will mark the 125th anniversary of the Statue of liberty and a firework party is planned to take place.

Beyonce is giving a free concert in Central park today also, although it is unclear if this is related or whether it is linked to the 4th July celebrations on Monday.

Many shops and attractions have signs indicating their closure on Monday for the 'Holidays', Some like the Empire state will remain open but be 'dressed' for the occasion,  Red, white and blue lights already illuminating the pinnacle.

Its been an intense eighteen days, the places, the driving, the temperatures and the vistas we've seen. We've been incredibly fortunate to undertake this journey and we thank you for taking the time to be part of it. Particularly our family whom although not present have travelled with us in our hearts and minds.

The ability to communicate across the distances involved from most locations freely has been remarkable. The internet can be an enabling tool for good, long may it remain open and unfettered by ill thought regulation and clumsily applied constraint.

Enjoy these final pictures and Thank you.

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Posted in: travel

The city that never sleeps

New York. Is a noisy, bustling man made analogy of the Grand Canyon, as we weave our way through the canyon walls created by the towering sky scrapers we cannot help be be enraptured by it's physical presence.

For this post I'm simply going  to let the pictures describe our day as we travel from the hotel to the Empire state, on through Greenwich village, past the former site of the World Trade Centre through Wall Street to battery park then back via the UN building, Central park and Times square.

It was a busy day and with the time difference wearying us further we still have much to do today as we prepare to repeat part of the journey to take us to the Statue of Liberty.

For now, enjoy yesterdays visits. I hope to more of the essence of yesterday in a later post.

The Hotel Barclay Intercontinental

Empire State

Observatory Deck - Empire State

The 'Flat Iron'

The tiles at Greenwich village commemorate the destruction of the WTC - No longer visible in the background

The WTC site undergoing new construction

A wall of pictures of those that lost their lives during the 9/11 atrocity - There is a similar wall for those still missing.

Wall Stree

Battery Park

The UN Building

Central Park

Central Park - (or is it Bruges)

Times Square

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Coco + Whipped cream = Heaven

What a wonderful day we have had today, we decided to take a trip to a historic aircraft carrier which is now used as a museum "USS Midway" which was launched in 1946 just after the second world war. It served in Vietnam and the first gulf war. It was then decomissoned from service in 1991.

Now I'm sure your thinking... "wow a ship..." but I'm not joking it was an amazing experience and the tour was great even though I did keep banging my head on low ceilings. You get a real feel for what the sailors must have experienced while on board the aircraft carrier. Which included... Cramped living quarters (apart from the captian and admiral... They get a 5* accommodation in ship standards.) also they have to deal with long a disorientating corridors.

We also went on an interactive fighter pilot simulator. I was the driver (not the best idea and I think my dad regretted it after. Haha) It was along the lines of you had a control stick and a speed lever and it was your job to go after japanese fighters and destory them... Sound easy huh? Well it's not... When you turn the pod you're in turns as well... When you do a barrel roll you actually do one... (I liked that) also when you try and out smart the enemy by doing a 360 degree backflips in the air... It also happens to you in real life... Pretty cool, unless you have a weak stomach. Also while you are in the ride there is a camera in there with you recording your faces and reactions on a live stream for the general public to look and laugh at you... I would I like to see what we looked like.

After that we grabbed some lunch, and then went onto to flight deck where all the aircraft were. I knew that aircraft carriers were big, but you only get a real sense of that once you have walked from end of the runway to the other end. I did take some pictures of it but as you know from all of my posts by now I can not upload them because I do not have an SD card reader for my iPad.

Once we had finished on the flight deck we took the opportunity to take a guided tour up stairs where the "Boss" and "Mini Boss" sat and watched over the flight deck operations. Also I learnt that the people that wrote on the see through status boards you sometimes see on films, had to be taught to write backwards extremely fast as they would have to stand the opposite side of the board so that the other people in the area could read what he was writing.

Sailors no longer have to do this apparently, however back when the "USS Midway" was commissioned this would have been an extremely long and hard task to do on a day to day basis.

After the tour which approximately lasted around half an hour we took a quick look at the engine room (aka "my Grandads garage" the reason for that is because it had similar machinery or what appeared to be similar, also it had that nice smell of oil.) once we had finished looking around the engine room we decided to head back to the car and go to the famous San Deigo zoo.

Don't really know how to start this. As it was our first time there we took a 40 minute bus tour around the park that covered apparently 70% of the park... Yeh... Whatever... Put it like this I'm glad that they don't charge any extra for the service, the only animals we stopped and looked at was birds... Great if your interested in Flamingos and stuff like that...

But me and my dad wernt and wanted to look at mammals e.g Tigers, Rhinos, Elephants, Lions, Polar bears. But no... Apparently the bus driver wasn't interested in stopping and looking at them... She just wanted to talk about plants and birds... *Yawn*

Anyway I better get off that rant or I could be doing this for days... Once the 'bird and plant' tour finished to went to look around the zoo for ourselves. We start off by going in a random direction (I say that because i cant remember the way we went... It's a big zoo...)

We saw the Lions... Sleeping because they sleep 20 hours a day...(I would if I was in a zoo too though.) Alright for some. We then went on to see zebras, they were at least moving and I got a couple of good pictures of them. We also saw polar bears, elephants, meercats, hyaenas, turtles, orang-outangs, koala bears, pandas (which had a very nice enclosure... A contruction site and to me the panda's looked like mexcian construction workers)

I would like add at this point, if you would like any pictures taken by me while at the zoo, please do get In contact I have a wide variety of animal pictures and will be able to provide you with a sample first.

Pricing will vary and there will be a 10% discount for family members. If you are interested please send me an e-mail to d_shep@hotmail.co.uk explaining which animal photo you would be interested in buying, thank you. (if you are a family member please wait till I get back off holiday).

That concludes both activities today. However before I go I do wish to talk about the room service we have just had delivered to the room. 12" pizza with "pepperoni, sausage, and olives" and 2 bud lights, for my dad of course... And a hot chocolate for me with whipped cream, which relates to the title of the post.

The pizza was delicious and the hot chocolate was heavenly (Tash you needed to try that) and all that while watching the film "Tomorrow Never Dies". Overall an awesome day throughly enjoyed it but guess what... Oh yeh you guessed it... I'm absolutely shattered.

So good night all, my dad and I have got yet another long day ahead of us tomorrow when we fly to New York. This may be posted a day late due to connection issues at the hotel.

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Posted in: attractions,photos,travel