An Empire State of Mind

Today we did the obligatory tourist double: the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

First up: Lady Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me." Very inspiring in the original - it moved Morag to shed a tear.

Then we sloped off to 14th Street to catch the downtown loop tour bus. Morag met up with a long-lost childhood friend, and got very excited! All she could say afterwards was "Thanks, Spidey!"

Our tour of lower Manhattan took in Ground Zero, Wall Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Pier 17 (near the Brooklyn Bridge). Saw many long streets that tapered off into the distance - probably the most "New York-ey" feature that sticks in the memory. Even got caught in an authentic traffic jam by Bloomingdales! Quite nice when you have nowhere to be in a hurry...

After being dropped back at Times Square, it was a race to recharge the camera batteries and climb the Empire (all King-Kong like) to meet the sunset on the 86th floor. We got scammed by the virtual tour operator on the sidewalk, but managed to skip all of the queues anyway then get our money back at the end, so we're not complaining!

A photographer's paradise, it was all elbows and waiting for a while - then after the sun went down, a cool breeze felt like silk across our faces while we listened to "Tony" tell us about the sights we were seeing. After a lovely Manhattan cocktail and G'n'T served by a friendly bartender called Craig, we had a nice Irish meal in a bar dedicated to a boxer and eventually off to bed. Phew!