A bit more New York

On arriving back in Manhatten from our Liberty Island trip, we walked up the road and soon found ourselves heading up Wall Street and here was the Charging Bull

On the night of 15th December 1989, the bull was loaded on a truck with a crane and driven to the NYSE by the Artist, Arturo Di Modica and a few friends. The bull arrived unnoticed and unannounced under the NYSE Christmas tree.  By morning it was the BIG story all over the media. It was truly a mystery as no one knew how it got there or who was responsible.   The NYSE officials were not happy to have it there and they tried to get the City to remove it. Around 5pm they took matters into their own hands and paid a private contractor to haul the Bull off to storage in Queens.

However lower Manhattan businessman, Arthur Piccolo read the article and found Mr. Di Modica in the phone book. They spoke and met later that Saturday to survey the space at Bowling Green Park, a few blocks from the NYSE, as the future home of the bull. With the help of Henry Stern, the NY Parks and then mayor of New York, Edward Koch, the bull returned to Bowling Green on the morning of December 20, 1989 and is still there to this day where visitors go for their photos.

 

 

We wandered on up the road - what a beautiful walkway this was

 

 

St Paul's Chapel - Manhatten built in 1766

 

The rear of St. Paul's Chapel faces Church Street, opposite the east side of the World Trade Centre site. After the attack on September 11, 2001, which led to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.  St. Paul's Chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site.  For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12-hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counselling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. The church survived without even a broken window. Church history declares it was spared by a miracle sycamore on the northwest corner of the property that was hit by debris. While the church's organ was badly damaged by smoke and dirt, the organ has been refurbished and is in use again.

 

We walked down the side of St Paul's Chapel

 

 

World Trade Centre

 

 

In we went and there was a lot going on

 

 

Plans on the World Trade Centre site

 

 

New buildings under construction on the site

 

 

This building is finished

 

 

 

You arrive at Ground Zero and the feelings that overwhelm you

are very humbling and you quietly walk around

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S T U N N I N G L Y     B E A U T I F U L

 

What a beautiful memorial

 

Thanks for popping by

 

Xx Joy xX

Day Three - Liberty Island

Hi there - well off we set again having bought tickets for Big Bus New York to show us more of the sights we might otherwise have missed.

 

Hop on and off all day long wherever the fancy takes you.

We got our bus at Broadway first thing in the morning and headed to the

seafront (taking note of landmarks we wanted to visit on the way back)

 

 

We had these tickets that were part of the package we bought

on the Big Bus (these included your boat fare across to

Liberty Island)

 

We were going to see this beauty

 

 

Novel way to store the life jackets!

 

Leaving Manhatten behind - what a busy waterway

We landed on Liberty Island

 

 

 

Off we set and what an awesome sight this Statue is

Snapping madly again the more we walked

 

 

Look at her toes!!

 

 

Look at the inscription on her book

 

 

Look at her!!!!

 

 

A W E  S O M E

 

 

The tall building has been erected on the sight of the

Twin Towers!!!!

Four buildings are being built with two finished

and the building on the right of the picture is number

three still under construction

 

 

 

 

 

Café entrance for a hot chocolate (the best in the world that I have tasted)

to warm us up on this really cold day

 

 

I took this photo of facts about

The Statue of Liberty

as a question on the quiz programme The Chase before we left

was how long was the nose - now we know - 4ft 6"

 

 

On the ferry back to Manhatten there is a stop at Ellis

Island along the way

 

 

We leave her behind heading back after another awesome day

on our trip to New York

 

Thanks for popping by

Hope you come back another day

 

Xx Joy xX

Day Two - Empire State Building

Hi there - What a busy Saturday we had - Central Park - Fifth Avenue and finally the Empire State Building.  We arrived there late afternoon, queued up as we were already booked to go in and off we went.

 

We first spotted this when we were wandering along by Madison Square Garden -

How excited was I?  So on we walked

 

 

The closer we came - the more excited I got

 

Right let's go in

 

 

W O W

 

 

Look at the floor

 

 

Snapping these whilst waiting for the lift up to the 80th floor -

I was so excited to be up there (although my stomach didn't like it too much)

I just went back and forth snapping and snapping and snapping

 

 

Some of the costing of  building the Empire State Building

Construction started on 17th March 1930

 

 

Completed and opened on 1st May 1931

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after snapping away for ages - up we went again.

The 86th Floor had an open air observation deck which was so

windy that you were totally blown over and your breath was taken away,

so we hurriedly made our way back down again

for some more photo taking

 

 

 

 

The sun was starting to go down and night time was drawing in

 

 

 

 

Then New York started to come alive as lights appeared

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After an exhausting day we finally left with one final look back

 

W O W - W O W - W O W - W O W - W O W

 

I had my fitbit on all day and I clocked up a total of 28,972 steps,

 which was 12.42 miles

  total walking for 285 minutes. 

Every step of it was worth it and I had the best day ever.

 

Thanks for popping by and there

is more to come

 

Xx Joy xX