Day 6:

Jessica was very excited about the possibility of seeing the Statue of Liberty so we took a trip on the Staten Island ferry to take a look. At first it looked like we weren’t going to get too close to the statue but I can confirm that the Ferry gets close enough. The statue had looked tiny when we had seen it from the top of the Empire State building but it suddenly looked all of its 151ft high when we got close. I’m sorry Staten Island, but we did not stay long before we took the ferry back. I guess the Island is quite different in the Summer but there didn’t appear to be much to do in the Winter.

Back in Manhattan we went to see the Brooklyn bridge. This was partly because I wanted to see it and partly because Will Smith was filming a scene for his upcoming film “I am legend” there. Unfortunately we did not see the star but did find plenty of caravans and stage lights near the Manhattan side of the bridge.

Jumping on the subway we found our way to the United Nations HQ on the East side of Manhattan. We paid for a guided tour (about £7 each) which took us round all the conference halls and finally into the general assembly room. We learnt quite a bit about the history of the UN and their current work and excitingly, for the duration of our visit we were on international soil. In the United Nations gift shop (sounds daft doesn’t it) they have a variety of products on sale from the different member nations. We approved of the concept of the UK being represented by a tea set, but they had picked the most garish design possible 🙁

It was now dark so we took a trip to the “Top of the Rock” – the Rockefeller tower in midtown Manhattan. The city looked fantastic at night and visibility was fantastic so you could see for miles. No matter how hard we tried we couldn’t make “Top of the Rock” sound right. The chap who opened the lifts on the (nearly) top floor did it much better with his prepared speech:

(To be said in a strong American accent)
“Welcome to the Top of the Rock! Just two more floors to go…”

Unfortunately I have forgotten the last bit of it! It was very entertaining though. Finally we got some pasta for dinner and retired to the hotel.