New York - Day 3

I slept a bit better last night - was at least warm enough.  I went and had my coffee and croissant at the coffeeshop outside in the sun!  Then took the subway to Battery Park. 

Today I am visiting the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island - Immigration Museum, Downtown bus tour, Rockefeller Centre - The Rock, and home sweet home...in other words: another action packed day!

I got to Battery Park and discovered again to my horror... a huge queue of tourists wanting to board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  Again, I got to talk to some other tourists, who were as appauled as me by the non-customer service of staff.... but I won't go there ...!  So I queued.... for 1 hour...in the sun.....went through an airport like security check (these Americans are sooo paranoid....) and onto a jam packed ferry...

Battery Park is a 25-acre (10 hectare) public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them.

It was a very pleasant ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty.  I got off and had a wonder around the island ....

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States.

...then I took the next ferry to Ellis Island where the Immigration Museum is (Keith & Bet told me that it was worthwhile and interesting to see)....and it was!!!!  I spent quite some time here - amazing stories of peoples lifes and destinies... not unlike refugee stories today!!! Makes you think and wonder.....we have come far, but has much changed in the human story???

Ellis Island is known best as the historical gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. This site was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954. It became part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and since 1990, hosts a museum of immigration.

In the 35 years before Ellis Island opened, over eight million immigrants arriving in New York had been processed in lower Manhattan, just across the bay. The Federal Government assumed control of immigration on April 18, 1890 and Congress appropriated $75,000 to construct America's first Federal immigration station on Ellis Island.

The first federal immigration station was an enormous three-story tall structure, with out-buildings, built of Georgia pine, containing all of the amentities that were thought to be necessary. It opened with celebration on January 1, 1892. Three large ships landed on the first day and 700 immigrants passed over the docks. Almost 450,000 immigrants were processed at the station during its first year.  About 1.5 million immigrants had been processed at the first building during its five years of use.

After 1924, Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation processing center. During and immediately following World War II Ellis Island was used to intern German merchant mariners and enemy aliens - American civilians or immigrants detained for fear of spying, sabotage, etc. Some 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base. Ellis Island still managed to process tens of thousands of immigrants a year during this time, but many fewer than the hundreds of thousands a year who arrived before the war. The immigration station closed in November 1954.

Bunk beds immigrants slept on....

They had a special exhibit 'Alkatraz' - and I discover to my dismay that the prison cells on Alkatraz were bigger than my little cell at the Bowery Whitehouse Hotel.... I need to complain!!!! hi hi hi....

I have a coffee break, as the museum was big and lots to take in....I am exhausted...

A wall of Immigrant names....

And another queue of tourists....

...then take the next ferry back to Battery Park.  It's yet again a lovely and warm sunny day!  Don't really need my heavy new jacket... but I am carrying it with me just in case!

I get on the Downtown bus tour, which takes us through East Village, Chinatown, passed the UN headquarters, and to the Rockefeller Tower.

The green line is the downtown tour.

Batman is about....

UN Headquaters

Rockefeller Plaza

It is 4.30 p.m.ish - quite late and I decide to hopp off and go up to 'The Rock' as they call it for the view.  Only to be told, when I pick up my tickets, that the next slot to go up is not til 6.45p.m.  Oh well, what to do - I take it and wonder off, ... I discover the Lego shop... then decide to have dinner as otherwise it will be too late.  I can't find anywhere so I go and have MacDonalds of all healthy food choices...  The burger is disgusting and feels like I am eating air... the 'small' soft drink is huge....  I wonder what the large size looks like.....??? Oh well... what can I do??

The LEGO Store at Rockefeller Center has the tallest Pick A Brick wall featuring LEGO elements in a variety of colors & shapes in bulk.

This is a small size drink... I am small....!!!

It is almost time and I go back to the Rockefeller Tower - thinking... what am I doing?  It is 70 storeys up in an elevator - and I hate heights to say the least...????!!!!  AAArrrgggg....

Rockefeller Center or Rockefeller Plaza is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 m²) in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1928. Rockefeller initially planned a syndicate to build an opera house for the Metropolitan Opera on the site, but changed his mind after the stock market crash of 1929.

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the 70-floor, 872-foot (266 m) GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza ("30 Rock", also the name of a comedy television show). Unlike most other Art Deco towers built during the 1930s, the GE Building was constructed as a slab with a flat roof, where the Center's newly renovated observation deck, the Top of the Rock is located, which was first built in 1933. On the 70th floor, reached by both stairs and elevator, there is a 20-foot (6.1 m) wide viewing area, allowing visitors a unique 360-degree panoramic view of New York City.

The elevator has a clear ceiling with a light show - but I have to close my eyes to make it up there....Once up there - it is just beautiful... New York by night... lots of lights - the Empire State Building - Central Park - the night sky with the stars - and you can see lots on lots of planes in the skies.... very very beautiful up here.. despite the tourists!

 Empire State Building

After some time I make way back down by elevator and manage to take some not so good photos of the light show - somehow down is not as freightening as up.

I walk to Time Square to take the subway.  I pass by the M&M Shop - it's fun!!!

Finally, I make my way home by subway - I learn the hard way to take the 'local' train and not the 'express' one, which doesn't stop at my stop.

I get my chai tea on the way home - have a shower and wrap up warm for the night and go to lala land....

S & D