The travels of Tim and Megan: New York...again (Part 2)

Saturday

Saturday began with another fantastic breakfast at the Metro Cafe next door! The weather just got better and better during our time in the Big Apple. Both Saturday and Sunday were hot and mainly sunny - happy days!

After breakfast we walked through the city to Grand Central Station and caught the subway from there to Battery Park, right at the southern tip of Manhattan. The park got its name as it used to be home to a fort that the military used to protect Manhattan from enemy ships entering the harbour. There is a big monument in the middle of the park to remember the soldiers killed in the Korean War (see picture below). It lists all of the countries that took part in the war and the number of casualties suffered by each. The park was very pretty and we were entertained by a very energetic squirrel jumping in and out of a rubbish bin fossicking for breakfast!

From there we caught a ferry out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty close up. Note that we skipped the 2 hour queue as we had bought our ferry tickets online the week before!!! The short ferry ride was very pleasant and we were very excited to see the statue close up. It is massive! The height of the statue itself is 46.5m, with the stone base included it is 93m. The statue weighs around 204 tonnes. The width of each eye of the statue is 2 and a half feet and the length of the index finger on the hand holding the torch is 8 feet!

The Statue of Liberty was presented to the US by the people of France in 1886 to commemorate the centennial of the United States and as a symbol of friendship between the nations. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) engineered the internal structure and Frederic Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue, which was then separated into parts and transported from France to New York in crates. The people of New York donated $100,000 for the clearing the island and construction of the stone base that the statue sits on. The statue was often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants following ocean voyages from Europe.

Another short ferry ride took us to Ellis Island, the location of what was once the main entry point for immigrants to the United States. The US Bureau of Immigration operated the huge building on the island from 1 January 1892 to 12 November 1954, during which time up to 20 million immigrants were processed. The immigrants would pile off the ships and make their way through the building where they would be given health checks and asked questions about the skills and resources they had brought to the United States. Those with minor health problems were treated in a hospital on the island before being let in to New York. Those with serious health problems or those unskilled workers who were considered "likely to become a public charge" were sent home again.

The building is now a museum but the interior has been retained almost exactly as it was when it was closed in 1954 (see picture below). We spent a good 2-3 hours (although you could easily spend longer there) in the museum and we both found it fascinating.

Once back in Manhattan, we returned to the Chelsea Market to buy some of the goodies we had sampled the previous day! We both bought some Cranberry Everything cookies and Megan had some gelato!

On Saturday night we had tickets to see The Lion King musical on Broadway. We got down to Times Square early...but so did a few million other tourists. We eventually found a pizza and pasta place where we grabbed some kai. Then we made our way to the Minskoff Theatre. We had wanted to see this show for ages but had never got around to it in London, so we were very excited. And we were certainly not let down. The show was spectacular. The costumes were amazing and the many different animals portrayed by the actors were incredibly life-like. The giraffes were stunning - basically people walking on stilts but leaning forward with their arms resting on another set of stilts while wearing a long neck and head mask (to look like a giraffe you see). They were somehow still able to move with that giraffe lope - very talented people.

Sunday

Surprise, surprise, Sunday began with breakfast at the Metro Cafe...and it was excellent once again. Sunday was even hotter than Saturday and rather muggy. We were a little slower moving than on the previous mornings, but after breakfast we caught the subway over to Brooklyn. We had a very pleasant walk around Brooklyn and caught some rays lying on the grass in a little park near Brooklyn Bridge. We had heard that the finest pizza in New York is made at a place called Grimaldi's Pizzeria, but so had everybody else. The queue was pretty long and we were not super hungry, so we bypassed the finest pizza in New York!

We walked across the famous Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan, taking in the stunning views of the skyscrapers as we went. The bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States (the weekend we were in New York marked the 125th anniversary of the bridge) and it stretches over 1.8km connecting the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1964 it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

After doing a spot of shopping (Megan bought a few things at Banana Republic), we met up at the Shake Shack at Madison Square Park. The Shake Shack is a fairly new outlet, which we are told does the best burgers in the world. Judging by the queue of literally hundreds of people, that is probably true, however we didn't put it to the test. Instead we had some lunch in a bar across the road from Madison Square Park and sipped cold Budweisers while we watched the Yankees come from behind to win.

Right next to Madison Square Park is the Flatiron Building, a bizarre triangular shaped building with rounded edges, which sits between 5th Avenue and Broadway on a small triangular block. We stopped for a few snaps - we are certainly big fans.

Then we walked a few blocks to visit Daggy (from our Russell McVeagh days). Daggy recently moved from New Zealand to New York and somehow found himself a great apartment with a balcony looking out on to the Empire State Building - we were very jealous. Captain Dags (former tugboat captain) is a loyal follower of the blog, so we said we would post a photo of him (see below). We had a few beers at Daggy's place and then he introduced us to one of his locals where we had a few more before calling it a night.