New York - Day 3 (Monday)

Day 3 - Monday in New York...

Ok, so it was mighty hard getting up after our first decent sleep in 3 days, but we managed to make the 7:30 Red 1 express train, which hurtled downtown to the ferry terminus, and battery park. Lucky for us, there's not much of a line for the first ferry to Liberty Island, and we start chatting to a young guy from Germany in the line. He'd been there for 2 hours that morning to get tickets. wow. Through metal detectors, and onto the ferry, we wait for the boat to fill up, and we're under way by 8:20. Being the first boat to the Island was a bonus, as we were able to make a b-line for the Monument museum at the base Lady Liberty. After a quick argument with the automatic lockers (which are keyed using your fingerprints - cool!) we are about the 5th in line for more metal detectors, and entry to the museum. 

The museum was really good, explaining how the statue was conceived, and made. I never knew it was built in France, boxed, and shipped to the US. The boats that brought it across hit heavy weather, and even ran out of fuel for their boilers, so they completed the crossing under sail. The actual metal shell - made from copper - is only 5mm thick in most places, and the supporting structure inside the "tower" was designed by the same dude that built the Eiffel Tower. (Mr Eiffel, I presume?)

These days you can only climb to the top of the base (about feet level ;-) ), but even that afforded a sensational view of Manhattan  and the surrounding areas. The weather was pretty perfect, with blue skies, slight breeze and about 28 C. Brilliant. With the obligatory photo's taken, we wander back down to ground level, and once again thank our lucky stars that we got the first ferry - the line for the museum was now over an hour long. Crikey. A few more photos, and we're back on the ferry to Battery Park, via Ellis Island. If we had more time, this would be worth a look, I think.

With our feet back on Manhattan, we grab some cash, buy some photos of "the buildings of manhattan" and jump a train to Union Square. This turned out to be somewhat unremarkable, so we hot foot it uptown to the flatiron building. Man, that really IS flat. Amazing. Madison Square Gardens is just around the corner, but all we have time for is a photo. Too bad. Off to Grand central station via the empire state building, which ends up being a fizzer, as the line is HUGE. We'll do the Rockafellar center first thing in the morning instead. Grand Central here we come. Now, this really is worth a look. What a complex - and surprisingly schmick (read: marble walls and floors)... much neater and impressive .. more-so than any other public place we've seen before. The grand hall is quite a sight with it's 50 meter high windows and its restaurants on mezzanines around the edges. (once again, see the pics earlier in this blog)

There's a Subway shuttle between Grand Central and Time Square.... which turn out to be  just another subway train, and this get's us across to Time Square in no time at all. The subway is starting to get busier now, which is what I really wanted to see. The popular claims are that this is the busiest subway (measured on people carried per day) in the world, and it's starting to look like it. Cool.

Up the stairs at Time Square and ...... nothing. Damn. Must've taken the wrong exit. A quick wander along.... 5th Avenue get's our bearings, and in a few minutes we're smack in the middle of the most concentrated gaggle of big video screens I've ever seen.

Aside: when you pop up from a subway in New York, it's sometimes very difficult to get your bearings, as the blocks are large, and the sun is often obscured. We often had to walk to the nearest corner to see the street signs before we knew which street we were on, and what direction we were heading. Now, this doesn't sound too bad, but (now) amongst 1000's of other folk wandering about, it can take 10 minutes of walking to get your bearings, and if you've started walking the wrong way.... there goes 20 minutes on a round trip!

Time square is definitely impressive, and a few minutes just standing there starts to give you an impression of what it must be like on New Years eve with 100's of 1000's of folk having the mother of all street parties.

We decide to go and find TCKTS - the quite well known broadway discount ticket box office. A quick sms to Kristy and she tells us where it is, and we discover it's moved, but not too far away. 

Monday 2pm - New York / Time Square

We jump in the TCKTS line, which doesn't open until 3pm, so we're got some time to chill out. Sarah isn't feeling well, so she leaves me to wait in line, and heads back over to the Hotel for a nap. (Luckily) I get chatting to the lady in the line next to me - she's from New Jersey, and is getting tickets for her and her daughter. She saves me by telling me that I need cash, and is happy enough to kep my spot in the line while I duck back to Time Square to visit a charity booth @ Bank of America. That would've been a bummer to wait an hour only to not have enough cash.

At about 2:45, the boards listing the available shows springs to life .... Bummer. Phantom of the Opera isn't there. As it turns out, Monday is also "dark", which means that a lot of the more popular shows aren't on that day, and I don't know anything about the ones on the list. Oops. Now our lack of preparation is starting to bite us. I jump out of the line, deciding to try to find the Phantom box office itself. This is harder than I thought, as the address I had looked up before we left wasn't right...doh. There goes another 40 minutes. A quick call to Sarah, and she finds the address on the internet back at the Hotel, and I'm there @ 3:30. The short line move quickly - mostly, I quickly discover, because the show is sold out. Boo Hiss. Damn. And Grrr. Should've just pre-booked. Shoulda Coulda Woulda.

Another quick call to Sarah with the names of the shows on sale back at TCKTS and we decide on "Title of Show". I get the tickets, and head off to Brooklyn Bridge. The subway is REALLY getting busy now, and it's squeezing room only across to the Brookyln Bridge station. Grabbing a bottle of water on the way back through Grand Central turned out to be a good idea, as walking across the bridge was surprisingly uphill, as the walkway was built with quite a camber. This was definitely worth a visit, as there is an observation deck in the middle of the bridge, affording some really spectacular shots of the harbour and the city. It's also a Civil Engineers idea of heaven to wander about on such a famous engineering achievement. With a cool breeze blowing down the harbour, it's also nice to sit down for a few minutes too.

Well, no rest for the wicked, and I'd better get back to the Hotel to get changed, and drag Sarah of to a show on Broadway.