We ventured down to the first floor for breakfast, to find it was a makeshift buffet with plastic knives and forks, paper plates and outdoor cafe tables. Being breakfast buffet critics (and snobs), we only gave it 3/10. I think we’ll eat out tomorrow!!
Our short walk back to the metro (tube) took us to Grand Central station and from there onto Wall Street. Just by luck we emerged opposite Trinity Church (yes Daniel another location from National Treasure!!). Outside there was a plaque saying The Queen and Prince Phillip were there in 1976. We wondered if they’d have cruised across in Britannia.
A short walk then took us down to Staten Island Ferry terminal. The boys waited excitedly to see the statue of liberty. We hurried off the ferry and with a stroke of luck managed to get back onto the same ferry we’d just arrived on for the return leg. (For those who’ve never taken the Staten Island Ferry, they make you get off and totally clear the ferry at each end before allowing other passengers to board the ferry.
Ground zero was very moving. The footprint of each of the World Trade Centre towers is now a deep pool, into which a little waterfall tumbles. This water effect totally envelopes the entire inside edge of the pool, the walls of which are probably 4 foot high, whilst the waterfall effect drops away to 30 or 40 feet into the pool below. Around the edge of each pool, there are the names of all the firefighters and police who list their lives in the tragedy. We then paused for a few minutes at a memorial shop. On the walls was a timeline, with some photos from the day. It really took you back to the fateful day the towers fell. Matty kept asking why the government and emergency services were slow to respond. I had to explain that he had the benefit of hindsight. At the time they wouldn’t have expected a multi pronged attack, as very often only one terrorist attack occurs against a target.
We ate lunch at Katz deli which was packed to the rafters. It was like a busy and bustling motorway services just down the road from some major sporting event. Every table was packed. People were milling about holding trays of food circling the hubbub of chatting excited people all sampling the excellent pastrami or corned beef (nothing like the tinned stuff we have in UK) sandwiches. Katz Deli prepare all their own pastrami and corned beef. They get through (I’m told), 450 pounds of pastrami and corned beef a day. I struggled to believe that fact until I saw the queue line and the number of people inside the deli itself. They have six or eight guys just putting the orders together, hand carving and assembling the sandwiches. I could go on and on, but suffice to say I thought it was all delicious. We had one corned beef sandwich and one pastrami sandwich, two portions of chips and one coleslaw to share. Yes two sandwiches and two chips were quite enough!! Each sandwich wasn’t assembled in a Grandma type fashion, where you have one slice of meat per sandwich with maybe some tomato or lettuce. You had two slices of bloomer shaped bread (yes, 1 top and 1 bottom) with mustard and then somewhere between 8oz and 12oz of freshly carved, freshly cooked meat per sandwich. They were glorious we all enjoyed it but others found the quantity of meat a little overwhelming as I guess we’re more used to Grandma style sandwiches.
Modells sporting goods was another all round sports shop a little like Dick’s Sporting Goods that we visited in the Florida Mall.
Luke was looking forward to the NBA store. Unfortunately it was being refurbished ahead of the new season and so it was only half size, while the new store was constructed. This didn’t stop him rushing about looking at everything possible.
Matty wanted to go into the Nike store which to be honest was a lot like the one in Oxford Circus.
As we all like the Mission Impossible films, when we found out about the new film and realised we’d be away on holiday we wondered if it would be possible and not too expensive (compare with UK), to see it while we were here. As it turned out the price was very comparable with the UK. We decided to see the film at AMC Lincoln Square cinema IMAX. This particular AMC cinema (on Broadway) was tonight hosting the American Premier of Meryl Streep’s new film “Ricky and the Flash”. There was a massive marquee outside the cinema and lots of people all in party dresses and suits lined the path and inside the cinema. The NYPD were out in force moving people on, to prevent sidewalks being blocked up. I began to worry we wouldn’t be able to get tickets for our film if the cinema had shut down in order to host the premier. Luckily this wasn’t the case, we bought tickets, hurried three streets away, scoffed a quick McDonalds and rushed back arriving just as the trailers were in full flow. We liked the look of the new Bond movie Spectre, which along with Star Wars is on our list for the end of this year. Mission Impossible was very enjoyable with it’s usual blend of action and humour. I won’t say any more – spoilers !!