Day 267 - We awoke fairly late - about 9.00am but hey we didn't arrive until midnight and then struggled to get to sleep. The size of the room can only be described as ..., well, small! It just about fits the smallest double bed you could buy and then an extra 3 feet on one side only! No furniture, no decorative features, no wash basin, and no toilet or shower - simply a box with a bed (and not a comfortable one either!). And to think this cost us $100 a night!!! Our budget is now irrelevant but $100!! Even in LA and San Francisco we managed to find hostel/hotel rooms with a Queen or king size bed, lots of furniture and of course ensuite facilities for the same $ or less. Oh well, we weren't going to be dishearterned by this as we intended to spend most of our time outside of the room. Our first stop for the day was Ground Zero and the church close by that displayed some of the support shown by New Yorkers to victims of 9-11. The area where the Twin Towers stood is now a building site. As yet, none of the new building design is visible, but the foundation and ground work is clearly underway. After a solemn start to the day we decided to go the opposite way and indulge ourselves. Of course that could mean only one thing - yep, credit card damage. With no cash left, the credit card has become our best friend!! We proceeded to purchase some essential items from Century 21, a huge discount store - underwear, work shirts for Ricky and underwear and a handbag (yep, hardly essential!) for Lynne. A short walk to Wall Street (for some obligatory photos of the Wall St sign and the NYSE) was followed by a walk around Central Park - a good opportunity to see dog walkers, rollerbladers, runners and cyclists hard at work. In the evening we walked through China Town to Little Italy - our destination for dinner. We found a nice little restaurant and tucked into some good food. On our way back to the Hostel we detoured via Soho and Greenwich Village to take in some of the local atmosphere.
Day 268 - We took the subway to Times Square to explore the area (bright lights, bright lights!) and then headed further downtown to South Ferry. From here we took the Staten Island Ferry (free - bonus!!) to Staten Island and back again in order to view the Statue of Liberty. The weather was pretty good so we got some good photos. We then walked through Battery Park, had a lunch pit stop at TGI's (it's cheap!) and then got the subway back to Times Square to get some discount tickets for a show on Broadway. We decided that the Schubert Theatre and Spamalot would be blessed with our presence. Later that evening we returned to watch the show. We were pleased with our choice as the show was really entertaining.
Day 269 - We took the subway to 34 St and then made the short walk to the Empire State Building. The views from the observatory (on the 86th level) were pretty impressive covering all four sides of the city. We then took a gentle stroll down 5th Avenue and Lexington Avenue - only window shopping mind!
Day 270 - After a lazy start, we waited in the Hostel lounge for our airport shuttle. After about an hour and half we arrived at JFK Airport for our flight to Boston. We caught a taxi to our friends Louise and Bill's apartment (who we hadn't seen in over a year) and were greeted by big hugs and kisses!
United States
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