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Statue of Liberty & 9/11 Memorial
This morning we were woken up with the words “Happy Birthday Daddy” from Callum – another early start as we were all awake by 4.15am this morning – need to have a much later night tonight. We dozed for a bit but decided to get up and brave the rush hour on the subway and get down to Battery Park. Rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon but hopefully we’d be lucky. We weren’t taking coats with us!!
Considering it was 8am in NY, the Subway to South Ferry was pretty quiet. From here, Callum was first to spot the Statue of Liberty across the water. As soon as we had booked flights to NY and knew we would be there for Jon’s birthday. Birthday treat was tickets to climb to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty. We walked around Battery Park past the WW2 memorial and found Castle Clinton where we needed to pick up our tickets up for the Stat (as the locals seem to call it … or her!).
Tickets picked up and we had a 30 minutes or so before catching the boat over to Liberty Island. Not many places for breakfast – Subway it was for a breakfast roll. It was actually OK (Jon said much better than the Subway breakfasts back home). We headed back to get on
the boat .. but not before going through airport-style security. Once through, we were quickly onboard and on our way. Whilst in the queue, you passed the Sphere that stood in the shadows of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre prior to 9/11. Displayed as it was found in the rubble when the debris was cleared.
Thankfully we had done our research and pre-booked tickets to go up the pedestal and to the top of the Statue of Liberty. More security to go through – and even had to show our passports – and then had to put our bags into lockers. We could only take cameras and bottles of water with us.
Everyone onboard the Statue Cruises Ferry wanted to be on the top deck to get the close up views approaching Liberty Island. We were no exception.
There were 357 steps to the crown and 195 to get to the top of the pedestal. We walked the lot. Some great views of the Manhattan skyline from the top of the pedestal. It was quite busy so we decided to climb to the crown. It’s the narrowest staircase I’ve every seen. Inside the statue you could see the steel framework with the sheets of copper to form the statue’s clothes attached. We got to the top and it was so much smaller than I imagined it would be.
Only about 10 people could be at the top at any one time. It was closed in with windows too – I’d expected it to be open! The views weren’t anything special, but being at the top of the Statue of Liberty was as was the climb. An experience well worth doing. We had a good look around – the Park Ranger took Callum’s camera and took a photo of the torch for us – he sticks the camera out of the statue’s crown, point and clicks and keeps fingers crossed he caught the torch!
After climbing back down, there’s several other observation levels where you can look and and get great photos of the Statue – blue skies appeared whilst we were there so hopefully the photos will come out ok. Once we’d retrieved our backpacks, we wandered around the island before heading back to the boat to head back to Battery Park. We were some of the first to board so managed to get prime position on Miss Liberty for the trip back via Ellis Island. We decided not to go to Ellis Island but head straight back and found somewhere for lunch.
We had a light lunch at George’s – a deli right by the subway on Rector Street. Jon and Callum had a Mexican wrap and I had a salad – saving ourselves for steak tonight!
We carried on walking up Greenwich with the Freedom Tower coming ever closer. The 9/11 reflecting pools are open and very moving tribute to those that lost their lives on that day. These are formed out of the footprints of the North and South Towers and water cascades down to the void in the middle. The names of everyone who lost their lives is etched into the metal frame that surrounds one of the two reflecting pools. There was also a fire station right by WTC that displays a bronze relief to remember the 343 firefighters that lost their lives that day.
Back to the hotel and Callum has the Subway well and truly sussed. We thought we might have a drink at the hotel next door to ours as it has a rooftop bar – alas no-go as you must be 21 to go up there. That probably rules out all the other rooftop bars too. Back to our hotel for a quick drink and get ready before heading out to dinner.
Jon needs to make a decision on where to eat tonight. He wants steak but the choice is a little overwhelming. We have Keen’s immediately behind the hotel … but at $60 a steak may be a little expensive. In the end, he opted for Nick & Stefs at Madison Square Garden. With Callum in tow, we were shown to a booth in the corner of the room. Steaks were still a little pricey and we did manage to persuade Callum to have the steak off the kids menu as we knew it would be huge … and that he would have some of ours too.
Jon went for the Crab Cake Starter and I had calamari. The portion of calamari was huge (plenty for the three of us to share!) … Jon’s crab cake plenty for one! For mains, Callum had Fillet Mignon & mash, Jon went off-menu and had a surf & turf and I went local and had the New Yorker. A portion of chips and mushrooms were ordered as sides (as all you get on your plate was the steak!). The steaks were fab and really tasty … Callum was starting to fade fast and didn’t want his ice cream.
A 5 minute walk back to the hotel and Callum was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Hopefully, we’ll all wake up later in the morning.
Hilton Garden Inn West 35th
Our hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn West 35th is pretty good and pretty much perfect for our stay in New York.
We are on the 31st Floor, so lifts were a little problematic at times … mainly first thing in the morning as they arrived on our floor full! For most of our stay, one of the lifts was out of action so this did tend to take a while … however we really only did the journey up and down may be twice a day. The really annoying thing was people getting in the lift to go up before going down … so the lift was full when it reached our floor!
The room is a good size for New York. The last time Jon and I were in New York, you couldn’t fully open the hotel room door or wardrobe without it hitting the bed! That was meant to be a 4* hotel off Times Square – absolutely zero space.
Great facilities in the room. We have a fridge that works – water is icy cold. We have a coffee machine and a microwave (not that we’re planning to use the latter). We’ve more plug sockets than we have plugs – which makes recharging camera batteries, phones and tablets a doodle. Views from the 31st Floor are awesome (although an Empire State Building view would have been amazing).
Entry to the Subway is about 20 metres from the hotel. Shopping district is a stones throw away. Complimentary tea/coffee in the foyer of a morning; followed by complimentary pink lemonade and cookies of an afternoon (Callum quick to suss that one out). Safe is a good size and will fit a laptop in.
The downside, our room is behind the lifts so a little noisy when the room is quiet and TV off – probably worse than for other floors as we are on the top / 31st Floor. It would have also been really cool to have a room with the view of the Empire State Building. Also the smallest wardrobe I have ever seen. It’s only as wide as the safe – about 14 inches wide! so just about room to hang 3 items up!
