Our Big Apple Greeter called and gave us instructions over the phone on how to get a subway ticket and which train to catch down to Wall St. Before we headed off, we stopped in at Starbucks for coffee and hot chocolates.
Then we had a great adventure! Purchased a Metro Card from a vending machine, hopped on the subway and rode until we got to Wall St. Off we got and our greeter, Chafin Elliott arrived on the next train coming from the other way. I recognised him because he was wearing a beanie with Australia printed on the front! What a great guy he was, but then being an Elliott - could he be anything less?? He's 80 yrs old and been married to his wife for 60 years. She was diagnosed with chronic rheumatoid arthritis when she was 32 years old and he's stuck with her the whole time. What a man! Takes a strong man to stick by a wife with a chronic illness... pity I haven't been able to find one like that!
He took us up through Wall St and we got a pic of the Wall St bull.
Then we headed to Ground Zero. What a sobering experience that was. I was completely fine until we headed into the Amex building and saw the memorial they had built in their lobby. It was a big chunk of crystal suspended over an 11 sided pool with the names of the 11 Amex workers and tributes to them engraved in each side. From somewhere above small drops of water splashed down into the pool. The crystal and the drops represented tears. It was a very moving memorial and I found myself tearing up. I think by that stage I'd seen so much, so many memorials and things that it all hit just how many people were affected by what happened on 9/11. After that we went into a memorial exhibit and store. I picked up a little book about the site.
We left there on the subway to Grand Central Station. What an amazing building!! We ate in the dining concourse at Junior's and I had a piece of their award winning cheesecake. I can see why it's voted #1 in NY. Divine!
After that we headed to Times Square. We wandered through Toys R Us. Awesome place with a Ferris Wheel in the entrance. The kids could spend all day there and we probably will tomorrow. Times Square is massive! So much going on there - so much to see. We will spend most of the day there tomorrow.
Times Square and the kids freezing with Chafin
Times Square again, this time they don't look so pained!
We headed to Rockefeller Plaza, then Trump Tower, then FAO Schwarz. We went in and out of so many buildings today I can barely rememeber them all! I know we went into Tiffany at Wall St and also on 5th Ave. We went into the Chrysler Building, the Daily News building (which our guide described as the birthplace of Superman), 30 Rock, gosh I can't remember them all! It was a very full day and I have trouble remembering it all, but we saw way more than we would ever have seen on our own.
Our guide was brilliant, and I recommend anyone who is coming to NY for the first time get in touch with the people at Big Apple Greeters and see if you can have a volunteer assigned to you!
The down side was that the kids were getting really tired with all the walking and all the snow was freezing. The kids complained a lot about how tired they were and how cold they were and how wet their clothes were. So we're tucked up safely in our hotel at the moment. 5.30pm and it's dark outside. Apparently 6-10 inches of snow will be falling tonight, but tomorrow afternoon it's going to be sunny! Hopefully a much better day weather-wise than today.
The kids are in bed watching telly and resting their feet.
Tomorrow - a free day visiting the Time Warner building, Rockefeller Plaza, and Times Square, followed by our night out on Broadway seeing The Lion King!
This awesome painting was in the Amex building
As was this awesome painting
I loved the art deco in The Chrysler building
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