PACKING BEGINS

The leaves have begun to change colour and a good many have fallen to the ground.  It is cooler now, but still very pleasant to be here.

Packing in earnest today.

LAST NEW YORK DAY

NEW YORK

NEW YORK SATURDAY

We had a full agenda for today and even with a later start thought we would get to do it all and more.

We had breakfast at Starbucks on Broadway then took the subway clear across the city - destination being to Ground Zero.
How terrifying it would have been! Today we could see through the fences only a brief look at the area now in construction. It will be a beautiful memorial. We toured the church where firefighters caught a moment of rest and where now many memorials and wishes are displayed.

We walked on,heading on we believed to the shore where we would take the harbour tour. Battery Park turned out to be a location for such tours but not the one we wanted. We continued walking along the shore, a beautiful walk, eventually asking a policeman for directions. After over an hour of walking and finding the location we sought, we learned that the boat no longer left from that dock.
We also now knew that we had taken a very long walk to get to this destination that was only a few blocks from ground zero where we had been!
Here we had lunch, discovered the Winter Garden with full grown trees on the inside, glassed dome, marble floor and broad semicircular stairs that led to a magnificent window overlooking Ground zero. Wow!
Our Plans had been to visit the battleship Intrepid (museum too) and to ride the hop on hop off bus. There was a delay - a visit to Toys are Us, and rain, that increased, cold and wet. Plans were abandoned. We did some more shopping, saw someone selling ladies bags out of a white garbage sized cotton sack , spoke to a rep from the City Sights bus and learned
how and where to get the bus for tmorrow's night trip to Brooklyn. We walked several blocks looking for Carnegie Deli to try the big sandwiches, but since the guys had had rubens for lunch we opted for dessert only. Humongous pieces of cheesecake and apple crisp. Too much to finish.

Soaking wet, cold, we walked a number of blocks and combed more stairs to fond the right subway train that would get us back to the hotel.
With much walking and also climbing stairs throughout our holiday, still not conditioned. Sore!

The highlight of the day was the church memorial at Ground Zero. The Harbour Tour by foot rather than NY boat was good. The rain and umbrellas on crowded streets not so good.

Addendum: Through the Internet at the hotel, we learned that the Intrepid museum would not be open on Sunday.

Lorna

MORE NEW YORK

HAYDEN PLANETARIUM

A very busy day!
We were up at daybreak, cameras in hand, to record our arrival at New York City. The statue of liberty, lights on, glowed against the still dark sky.

The Eurodam docked at it's NY pier and we disembarked at 10 am. Just over an hour's wait to secure a taxi, and we were headed to our hotel just off Broadway.

We walked to Central Park and along a border street to the Hayden Planetarium. The imax was fantastic - a visual of 'The Big Bang'. There were exhibitions to see, and not easy to comprehend.

Once saturated with our earth and it's beginnings, we waited for our hop on hop off bus which arrived full and left us behind. Another similar bus asked us aboard, honoring (ignoring really) our ticket and we had a tour of NY which ended near Times Square.

Before long we were booked for the Sunday off Broadway play/musical 'The Million Dollar Quartet'. We claimed our seats at the box office, then grabbed a burger and figured out the subway/metro a nd rode it to a stop near our hotel.

We have wifi!

NEW YORK CITY

SALEM, Mass