What a difference a day makes - almost all snow melted, the sun was shining and it was a balmy 10 degrees! This was taken near our hotel...
After a late night at the theatre last night, it was a bit of a later start today. First we headed downtown on the train to secure tickets to visit the 9/11 Memorial (it's free to go to, although they do ask for donations, you need to either book a time slot online and print your tickets or turn up to book).
We booked our tickets and decided to head to the Financial district to have a look around. We walked down Wall Street to the stock exchange...
And through the streets en route to "The Bull". We couldn't get over the security in the streets surrounding Wall Street. A guy in his luxury car drove up to the security check point near the stock exchange where he popped the boot and a guard with a sniffer dog searched the car before he was waved through. There were police and security everywhere as well. Have a look at these NYPD mini cars that we saw...
We finally reached the famous bull, but this was the closest we could get to taking a photograph without fighting the crowds (we all know what it looks like!)...
We made our way up to the 9/11 Memorial for our scheduled booking - the crowds were unbelievable, people everywhere. We thought the security around Wall Street was tight but the security at the memorial was on another level (understandably). We went through 3 ticket checkpoints and metal detectors (same as the airport) and I think we were videoed as well. We couldn't get over the size of the World Trade Centre site and there is still a lot of construction happening (including the construction of the Freedom Tower, pic below).
The Memorial was finished in time for the 10th 9/11 anniversary in 2011. It is such a lovely tribute to those who lost their lives and we both found it a very peaceful and emotional place to visit. It is made up of two pools - a north and south pool. Around the perimeters of them both, all of the victims' names have been inscribed. There have also been a number of swamp white oak trees which have been planted throughout the memorial and in the middle stands a Callery pear tree known as the Survivor Tree. This tree was planted on the original World Trade Centre (WTC) site in the 1970s. Workers found the damaged tree in the wreckage at Ground Zero. It was nursed back to health and was returned to the WTC site in December 2010. Here are a few photos...
Troy reflecting at the South Pool...
South Pool Memorial...
Path way lined with oaks trees...
Survivor tree...
After leaving the memorial, we headed to Century 21 which is a shopping centre (bit like a Myer but much bigger and with a lot of designer brands at unbelievable prices!) We both bought a few things (ok, I bought a few more things than Troy, but at such cheap prices I couldn't resist!) We ended up spending a couple of hours there and put a nice little dint in the credit card!
Troy being the American sports nut that he is has always wanted to see a live NBA game and tonight was his night! We ended up at Stubhub after shopping - as almost all seats at sporting evens in the USA are sold on a season pass basis and season ticket holders can sell some of their tickets through a website like Stubhub. They also sell last minute theatre tickets too. Here we are at Madison Square Garden, ready to see the New York Knicks take on the Utah Jazz...
So we bought our tickets for one the 'nose bleed' sections (for those who don't know what this is, you can't get any higher than this section in the stadium!) But they turned out to be great seats - on the end of a row with no seats in front of us, so plenty of leg room!
So their warm up finished and then the show began - wow! It was unlike anything we had ever seen. The introduction for the Knicks was unbelievable and over the top! (And it happens every home game!) The performance of the national anthem gave both of us goose bumps and the crowd went wild, cheering and yelling. And then the game began... here's Troy lapping up his first live NBA experience..
The game was a bit of a blow out (Knicks won by 30 points), but it was still fantastic to watch - amazing athletes, such a smooth, slick game and we can't not mention all of the dunks!
I couldn't get over the food there! I went out to get dinner - hot dog and a drink! (no salads anywhere!) and I ordered a beer for Troy. The girl serving asked me for ID - how good was I feeling about that!? I pulled out my Aussie driver's licence to which she told me they only accept passports (ours were in the safe at the hotel), so no beer for Troy. I said to the girl serving "I'm flattered that you thought I was under 21 though!" She replied "We have to ID everyone under 40!" Mmmmm... that made me feel great, she could've just gone along with it!
Anyway, I have to share this picture - there were people walking around the whole time selling drinks and food. The guy in the photo below was selling HUGE bags of cotton candy (fairy floss) - now I have a sweet tooth, but this was ridiculous (sorry for the blurry pic)...
The basketball experience has certainly been another highlight of the trip so far and Troy is so glad he got to experience a game at Madison Square Garden. A lot more sport to come still on this trip though! We walked through Times Square on the way home - Saturday night is the worst time to walk through that area! I thought I had experienced bad crowds until tonight! We got back to the hotel to find a note saying that Daylight Savings starts tonight so we've lost an hour's sleep! Better be off to bed then - another big day tomorrow!
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