Day 5 in New York

Sunday our Statue of Liberty mission was finally completed. We were disappointed that there were no tickets left to go all the way up to the crown, but since I had already done it 15 years ago -during a thunderstorm!- and knew you can't see much from up there anyways, it wasn't thad bad... What you most want to see is the statue itself and the Manhattan skyline from the island! We had a hard time getting up in the morning, so we caught the 10.30 ferry out. Security is exactly like in the airport (minus the ID-thing), so that took its time as well. We were lucky with the weather; it was sunny day with a sharp blue sky, but the air was cool and crisp. Once we arrived on the island, we took pictures of us, Manhattan and the statue and decided fairly quickly on NOT going into the museum which is inside the monument once we saw the same security procedures practised there + having to put our stuff into lockers!!! And we knew French people had built it, so what more do you need to know?!! :o)
We got a few souvenirs and a hot chocolate before losing the next ferry to Ellis Island and had to wait 30minutes on the quay before goinf to Ellis Island... Ellis Island was much emptier than I remembered, so we wrapped it up rather quickly.

Coming back to Manhattan, we grabbed a hot dog and found out why we didn't like them that much: they're beef dogs!!! Impossible to find a porc dog anywhere!!! Wonder why... porc is sooo much better!!

We went to see Ground Zero, but there was nothing there to be seen, everything was sealed off!! I don't even remember what they decided to do with the place... It was strange standing there, though: 15 years ago I had done the same trail and had been inside and on top of one of the Trade Center Towers with my sister and auntie!! And now it was all gone!! I really mssed them in the Manhattan skyline - two empty spots in the middle...

Next stop was Empire State Building. There was less queue than we expected, but same security routine as Liberty Island; I'm quite sure 9/11 won't happen again!!! We got a fabulous view over the City and took lots of pics!! We stayed long enough to se the sun going down, although they had made every effort to discourage people from staying too long: nowhere to sit and there were even spikes on every surface big enough to receive a European-sized butt, not to mention an American one!! LOL!!

Cedric had managed to lose his subway card in a the security-mess, so he had to get a new one to be able to pick up one of the pairs of jeans he'd bought the day before: one leg was 2cm longer than the other!!! And I might add that he tried on 4 pairs - same style, same size - and not two of them were alike!! Made in China... or Mexico I think it was... He finally found one that fit, and we could finally go to the sushi place that had closed early the night before. And O-H M-Y G-O-D!! Huge! With huges buffets!! Like 25m buffets!! Cold, warm, sushi in all forms and desserts!!! We ate like we had never seen food before - and all for $32!!! 6 E 32nd St....

Then we rolled back home...