So that was New York!
Hello! As I write I’m in JFK Airport, waiting for my flight home. No delays, always a plus. Flight time is only 6 hours too, which is shorter than I thought. Can’t complain. I just had a Sam Adams…for $10! What a rip off.
This morning I went back to the 9/11 tribute gallery to have a proper look. It’s quite moving actually. The reality of what happened hits you far harder than it does from TV and newspaper reports. There are storyboards, with a timeline of what happened, with pictures and videos to go with it. It’s well worth going to see, and the proceeds go to the families of the victims. It’s on Liberty Street, just near Century 21 and Burger King. There’s also the plans for how the site will be developed over the coming years, which includes a memorial museum, which will replace the tribute gallery. There are messages of condolence from people from all over the world posted on a pinboard downstairs.
I left my bag in the hotel this morning to avoid carrying it round all day, but after the 9/11 tribute center I went back to the hotel to get it. I had to be out of the room by 12…I got back at about 11.55, so it worked out quite fine! Did a quick bit of shopping, bought an NY mug and jumper…has to be done I suppose.
I had planned on going on a sightseeing bus for the rest of the day, to see some things I hadn’t seen but also because it would mean I could see stuff without lugging round my backpack. I only had about 2 hours to kill, and it was $40 for the bus, so I decided not to bother. It’s a shame, it would have been good, but not really worth it for such a short time. Instead I went to the American Museum of Natural History, which you may know from “Night at the Museum.” It’s really good. There is no entry fee; it’s a donation, which they recommend as $15, you don’t have to pay this, but you should. I did – and it was well worth it. There are some galleries which require an extra ticket though, such as the planetarium. You could easily spend a full day there to be fair, but it filled in the time nicely.
After that, it was time to go to the airport. A taxi is $40 + tolls and tips, an airport shuttle is $15 (per person), and the subway is $7 in total (including air-train). I took the subway. Should you ever do the same, one way to go is to take the downtown A train, bound for Far Rockaway – NOT Lefferts Boulevard. You can’t really get mixed up, they are clearly marked. The correct train also shows “via JFK” in it’s window. You get off at Howard Beach/JFK. Again, you can’t miss this station. Make sure you leave a lot of time; I’d suggest allowing 2 hours to get there, it takes quite a while. I was getting a bit worried because I had no idea it would take so long. But yet another friendly local could see I was craning my neck at every station sign, from when I got on the train. After a few stops she asked where I was going…”oh, you can relax for a while, you got a long long way to go, I hope you aren’t in a hurry!” – I wasn’t, so that was OK. Got to Howard Beach and then got the Air Train to the terminal which is $5 (the long subway ride is only $2).
So that’s another trip over and done with, I now have the mammoth task of sorting out all the photos! But I will do that in a few days. In the mean time, I have a flight to catch, and airline drinks to drink!
What a week – New York is every bit as fantastic as I expected – I will be back.
wow, good point of view.