Liberty Island and Top of the Rock

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  New York City, New York, United States
Thursday, August 16, 2007

We rushed on the subway down to where the Liberty Island Ferry was, thinking we would get the first boat over and beat the crowds - wishful thinking...! There were heaps of people, and we all had to shuffle like sheep through metal guiding barriers that led towards the security area - all bags had to be x-rayed and we had to walk through a metal detector.

Once abroad the ferry, which was packed with camera-wielding tourists (like us!!) we headed towards Liberty Island, with views of Ellis Island (where the immigrants landed on U.S soil in ships all those years ago.) Disembarking from the ferry we decided to have a spot of breakfast before looking around - bad move. By the time we joined the line to go inside the Statue, it was already about a 30 minute wait to the tented security area. Anyway, since we had made the effort to acquire the tickets to enter the statue (only a certain amount are issued daily) we thought we may as well wait

View from Top of the Roc

. And wait we did. And wait some more. And then some more. The line crammed with tourists zig-zagged inside for what seemed like forever, and they were only letting 4-5 people at the top of the queue through the magic doors (where there were more lines, and more waiting to go through security again - hang on, did we NOT just go through security to get on to Liberty Island??!!!) and after another 30+ minutes waiting we'd had enough and decided to forget going inside.

Instead we walked around the base of the statue, got some good photos and filled in Josh's Junior Ranger booklet (which had questions about the Statue's history & construction for him to fill out, and it earned him a Junior Rangers badge & Kate was given a patch also). We caught a ferry back and the kids got their photos with some street performers dressed up as the statue of Liberty - though we wouldn't have if we'd known beforehand that it would cost $5 each kid - learnt our lesson to ask first though! We stopped at one of the hundreds of street carts (which sell everything from pretzels, hot dogs, kebabs, cold drinks etc) and had our first New York hot dog - not a big as we expected and very quickly devoured! By this time the low cloud had turned into drizzly rain, so we ducked back down into the subway to catch a train to the entrance of Brooklyn Bridge. However by the time we found how to get on the pedestrian access of the bridge, Kate had decided she did NOT want to walk anymore, so we decided to do that later this week and instead caught another subway to the Rockefeller center. We had just sat down on a wall by one of the fountains when we were shooed along by yet another security guard.

A couple of gripes about NY: Revolving doors very common, and can be tricky trying to get through them with kids underfoot, because they move so fast

And again

. Also there are security guards everywhere who ask you to move if you sit on a ledge/wall "you can't sit there", touch a fountain (true!) "you can't touch that" or stand outside a restroom waiting for your son to come out "you can't stand there" (also true)! Talk about over-the-top! However, 2 great things about NY: Strangers who are happy to help you when you're lost and nice coffee with free refills in diners, and generally under $2 a cup.

We took a fast elevator (67 floors in 48 seconds) to the 'Top of the Rock' www.topoftherocknyc.com (top story of the Rockefeller building). It was lovely up there, no queues, no crowds of people, soft couches things to sit on, and unobstructed amazing views thanks to the clear Perspex. Unfortunately because of the smog/low cloud we couldn't see clearly in the distance. It certainly gave us a better understanding of how huge New York is. The kids only had a token glance of the view and were more interested in playing with their little souvenir 'I love NY' teddy bears. Typical kids.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

You know who, Top of the Roc	Josh n Sharky	$5 for this photo!	Sharky makes it to the Statue of Liberty
View back from SOL to Manhatten	Kate's turn another $5 "donation"	She had to have her turn like Josh	Top of the Roc
Cafe at Liberty Island, looking out	TOTR	Just a small part of the queue at SOL	Famous Radio City building
Top of the Roc from ice skating rink	guess	looking back from Liberty Island	At last a photo of all of us
Tracey's arty shot looking down

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