New York Day 2 :Ellis Island, Queen Victoria, Charging Bull, Manhattan Bridge, The One Observatory, 9/11 Memorial,City Park

Next day morning, we had a basic breakfast at hotel ->coffee, croissants. Then we walked towards the Subway station. On the way, we spotted a shop selling sim cards. We bought sim card for 32$ with validity of 1 month for 7 GB. Then recharged our metro card at Main Street Station and then we started our tour to Liberty Island to visit Queen Victoria. We had to take Line 7 to Grand Central, then change line to line 5 Downtown to Bowling Green.

We reached the Garden and got our tickets. Ticket Price is 24$ for 1 person. To get the tickets at elevator to reach crown of the statue or even the first level, the booking had to be made few weeks or months in advance. There are only limited tickets. These tickets were already sold.

After a long queue and security check like the ones at airport, we boarded a ferry cruise to reach the Liberty Island to see Queen Victoria. You can walk around the statue with a guided tour. The audio guides are given for free. Then there is a museum that was quite interesting too. There is ferry cruise every 20 minutes to pick up from each island.

We waited for the shuttle to take us to Ellis Island. There is another museum, and few films are being screened here showcasing how important this place was for immigration many many years ago. Procedure on how the immigrants waited, and how they got the permit to enter the country was explained. Not very interesting, if you don’t feel the connect.

 

We spent few minutes and waited in the queue to take the boat to go back to New York.

We were very tired walking and had some quick lunch at the entrance of the garden in the Food trucks. Later we used Google Maps to go on a walking tour. We first stopped at the Charging Bull at Wall Street for few clicks. Then walked further to reach the NYC Trinity Church, then the important place of tragic Twin Tower. The place is now a memorial with water flowing into a pool underground with the names of the victims inscribed around the memorial.

There is also a 9/11 museum if you are interested. A Short walk from here is the One Observatory-World trade Centre. Ticket price for the Observatory is 43$.After taxes, it is 52.5$ per person. We can get tickets for the observatory and after security check, you will be taken to the highest level at the 105^th floor. This is the tallest building in New York at the time of our visit. There was a small talk about New York, which was new information, there was a small video and photo session. There are many places in New York where you can visit the observatory to take a bird’s Eye view of New York. This is the present tallest building. After clicking some pictures, we walked to Brooklyn bridge which is in the same area.

We wanted to go here to take some pictures as its quite famous in Indian Films. We walked for some time on the bridge to get a good view, then we returned through City Park. We took the Subway at Brooklyn station to return to Main Street. We had to take Uptown line while returning. We reached the station, then we returned to our hotel room. After refreshing we took bus (2 stops) to visit our cousins. We cooked and had Indian Dinner and returned to hotel.