New York city is best viewed from a distance :) The water tours, and taxis, are great.
After the S11 terrorist attacks, all US national monuments are under very tight security. We were all X-rayed and thoroughly searched before being allowed aboard the boat to liberty island.
Although it doesn’t look it, the statue is about 15 stories high. Until the terrorist attacks people could climb internal stairways as high as the torch, but now no-one is allowed inside.
Every bit of rubble from the World Trade Centers had been removed from Ground zero to about two stories below ground by the time I visited, one and a half years after the terrorist attack. A neighboring church that served as a relief center for the 9-11 relief workers is doubtless still completely festooned in memorial banners and flowers as you read this. Many stalls will surely still be lining the sidewalk outside, selling all manner of things. This lady makes her living selling flags bearing the names of the dead.
The Rockefeller Square car park costs about $30/hour but the Square has a sunken ice-rink below beautifully-lit trees, which is very pretty. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to stay that long, and after fighting our way through the seething Christmas crowds, we sprinted back to the car as fast as our legs would carry us …
Not all of New York is NY city, thank God! I visited America’s best farm animal shelter, Farm Sanctuary, in NY state, and found a sleepy rural world of stunning glens (this one went for about 2 km) and beautiful waterfalls. In winter though the snow is about 10 feet deep … I didn’t linger. Farm Sanctuary run some of the best anti-intensive farming campaigns in America, and provide a comfortable sancturary for hundreds of rescued pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, goats ... you name it. Supporters can even sponsor animals, which are housed in wonderful surroundings. The pigs even have their own lake! See www.farmsanctuary.org for more info on this most excellent of organizations!
