It was a long weekend and my husband and I decided to visit NY which is about 5 hours drive from our place.Some of our friends from Ohio also joined us at NY.NY city is very much like Mumbai. Lots and lots of people..everyone running around to go somewhere ..lot of train stations with excellent inter city connectivity.Trains are the best means of transport there.
We first planned to visit Statue Of Liberty which is situated on Liberty Island.To reach the island, you have to take a 20 minutes ferry ride from Battery Park.There was a long queue for the tickets and unfortunately due to heavy rush, tickets were sold out before our turn came.What a disappointment!! We then took a train from Whitehall station (close to Battery Park) to Penn Station to visit Empire State Building.
Empire State Building is one of the magnificent buildings of New York city. It was built in the year 1930-1931 . It is 381 meters tall and has an observatory at 86th floor froom where you can have a 360 degree aerial view of the New York city.It was a breathtaking view and you can see skyscrapers all around. It gives you a feeling of being at the top of the world.
Our next stop was Times Square which is an area of hustle bustle. All the buildings are very well lit and you can enjoy just walking around there , seeing the buildings and tourists from various countries.The best time to visit this place is late evening when the whole place looks more like a carnival area.The famous Madame Tussauds’s wax museum is also located at Times Square, which we would visit the next day. The whole place was buzzing with people and the moment you enter that area , your spirits soar high.
Next day, our first stop was again SoL and this time we got the tickets.We had to wait for an hour before we were in the ferry finally.The ferry ride is awesome.The downtown view is marvellous and as you get closer and closer to SoL , you could not help gaping at it. The whole structure is made of copper sheets and has turned light green shade due to oxidation process.This statue was gifted to the US by France and was shipped in pieces which were reassembled in the US. One can spend couple of hours at the island, enjoying the cold breeze and the downtown view.
We left it after an hour.You can either take a direct ferry back to New York or ferry via Ellis Island where there is an Immigration museum.We did not visit it as we were running out of time.
We then visited Wall Street and the bronze bull at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway.Wall street has become the center of business in the city of New York, and has come to be known as the financial center of the world. The bull is a mascot for traders on Wall street and it is said that rubbing the bull brings you good luck:).
We then went to the wax museum, where we all had loads of fun. The wax statues are really appreciable and one can have fun posing with them for snaps.There is a horror show also where you go into a dark chamber and live actors dressed like ghosts scare you from no where all of a sudden:). The museum has statues of celebrities in various fields like science, research, movies, sports, music and politics. Just before the exit, there is a theatre where a 3-D movie is screened.
The movie gives you the effect as if you are sitting in a buggy and going all around NY city. We all enjoyed the movie and came out looking happy and thrilled.
With this our trip to NY came to an end. One important thing we learnt was that NY city can be covered in two days but one should give lot of margin to waiting time at every place to be visited. We sort of miscalculated that at times and as a result we had to cut short our time spent at each place.