Wall Street Shuffle

New York, Monday the 19th of September, 2011 

Momentous day in that we braved the New York Subway for the first time! This initial experience was actually hassle-free thanks to the helpful station attendant who sold us our tickets. I cannot say the same about future ordeals
experiences. Sorry, New York, but your subway ticketing system is confusing for unsuspecting visitors. Every other time we had the wrong tickets, or they expired when they shouldn't have, or they simply wouldn't work when we tried to get through the turnstiles. Fortunately, the helpful staff took pity on our inadequacy and would press a magic button to open a door that allowed us onto the platform. (I think our Australian accents worked to our advantage here) On a more positive note, the trains ran frequently, were on time and were very clean.
Moving right along, our train took us to the Staten Island Ferry terminal where we boarded the ferry and enjoyed a scenic cruise across the bay where we were thrilled to finally see the Statue of Liberty. The girls had no inclination to actually go to Liberty Island for a close encounter so we settled for appreciating it from a distance.

  The receding view of New York City as we travelled towards Staten Island was simply stunning.

After returning to Manhattan, we stopped off for a quick lunch, then headed towards Wall Street. This area was heavily barricaded with a noticable police presence. Not having read newspapers or watched TV for a few days, we had no idea what was going on and only discovered later that this was the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protest.

New York Stock Exchange

We visited the beautiful Trinity Church with its peaceful and fascinating cemetery.

We went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum where people were openly weeping while watching a film of that day's events.

We didn't do the tour of Ground Zero as we were unaware that we had to pre-book. We did see the impressive Freedom Tower.

We admired the stately Court Houses.

We went to Chinatown where I was thrilled to find Mulberry Street. (Made famous in the Billy Joel song "Big Man On Mulberry Street")

Finally, we walked along Brooklyn Bridge for a little bit, but by then our feet were killing us so we decided to head home.

Wow. That was an incredibly full day!