Ground Zero

After being awake for 22 hours yesterday, I slept rather well despite the jet lag. This morning we were up early and enjoyed a run around - or a little part of - Central Park. It was teeming with joggers and cyclists, in fact if you did not stick to the jogging lane you were bound to be knocked over by a cyclist!

Gavin then went off to the start of his working day and an early meeting, while Thomas and I decided to rather go to a diner than eat breakfast at the hotel. We had a superb breakfast - he enjoyed his French toast with maple syrup and bacon while I had fruit and oats porridge. We then decided to try and master the subway system. Hmm, nothing nearly as good as the London underground system. For one thing, it is difficult to locate a subway station as there are no signs pointing you in the right direction and then the actual station does not have very prominent signs as we have in London or like the distinctive entrances of the Paris metro system. There are no staff at all, so after buying a ticket from the cash machine - where I was paying by card and the machine prompted me to 'Now dip your card" ? Why can't they just say 'insert your card" - we had a bit of a problem finding the right platform. Helpful commuters told us where to go as again, the signage was poor. But we finally got to downtown where we had to meet for our walking tour of Ground Zero.

We did an hour and a half walking tour of the area, with our rather excellent guide. Rather than just pointing out the facts and history of events he evocatively described how New Yorkers felt on the day of the attack, what they saw, heard and smelt. It all became very realistic and quite moving. We visited the new $4 billion Oculus terminus which is a magnificent architectural building, and heard all the facts about the new Freedom Tower, One Trade Centre. This image is of the 9/11 memorial with all the names of those that died in the tragedy - on certain occasions flags or white roses are placed next to some names. I have added extras of reflections on the new Freedom Tower and of Oculus.

This was followed by a visit to the Ground Zero museum, which again was so worthwhile. It was very poignant and covered all the facts so well.  By the time we came out, I was feeling a bit emotional and quite disturbed by the tragedy. We spent all morning there and then found some food for a late lunch. 

We walked around the financial district where I showed Thomas the famous bull statue, which was surrounded by tourists, and then we walked up to Chinatown which was quite interesting. We walked back towards Soho after visiting some shops along Broadway and by now it was quite late. We had quite a walk back to find another subway and again managed to master the mysteries of the subway system due to the kindness of strangers as no staff were around to give assistance. We got back quite late, after walking 12 km today, and were feeling quite tired.

It was another wonderful day, and the Ground Zero experience was quite memorable. New York is such busting city, so noisy with sirens being heard all the time, and with the weakened pound it is rather expensive, but we are enjoying it very much.