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Day 18 - New York City (31 October ‘23)

simonmtalbot

Final day of the trip! I can't believe it. It feels like I have been away for ages and also just for five minutes.


We had a great day to end the trip.


We got up and headed out to do Kirstie's birthday present - a helicopter flight over Manhattan, wahey! We arrived at the Helipad in good time (which is unusual for us), we got ourselves all ready for the flight, had the safety briefing and was the next batch to head to the helicopter and then mayhem ensued - some ferry had crashed into the pier that the helipad was on and although it wasn't exactly a disaster, they had to close down the pier to check that everything was ok with it. The man in charge told us it was likely to be a couple of hours, so he rebooked us for 1pm. We decided to walk round the corner to the Staten Island ferry and do a round trip. Another waterfront, another boat trip!


The Staten Island ferry is a great thing. It is provided by the New York Transport Authority for commuters to travel between Staten Island (off the coast of Manhattan) and Manhattan. It goes past the Statue of Liberty and so the boat trip is great for views of Manhattan, Jersey City and the Statue of Liberty. It takes just 30 minutes. There were people outside the ferry terminal trying to sell their paid for tours of the Statue of Liberty - but with a free service on offer, they weren't having much luck.


We boarded the ferry and managed to get a perch spot on the right side of the ferry - which was a bonus. It was a bright and sunny day (which was lucky for the boat trip and the helicopter flight). We had to get off the boat and reboard straight away so we could head back to the helipad for our new booking.


We arrived back at the Helipad and fortunately all was clear and we could reboard. We headed onto the helipad and despite me being much shorter than the bloke who was leading us to the Helicopter who wasn't ducking his head at all as he walked under the blades, I certainly was. There are only six seats available on each flight and one unlucky person has to sit in the middle of a row of three (unable to peer so easily out of the window), we fortunately had two great seats with our own big window to look out of.


The pilot took off and did a route over and around the Statue of Liberty, giving us great views of Manhattan, it then travelled up the Hudson alongside Manhattan up as far as Central Park. We could see all of the skyscrapers, the different areas of New York and as we passed along it was quite cool to see New York as an actual grid - it is pretty much all straight roads going horizontal and vertical. It was a great experience being up in a helicopter - which was surprisingly smooth (despite a few bumps because of the winds) and the views were incredible. At the end of the flight we barely felt the touch down, got off the helicopter, grabbed our stuff and took the subway up to 14th Street to walk The High Line.


The High Line is a park that has been built on a disused elevated train track. It is a long straight path about 30 feet tall and 1.5 miles long which has public art on it, greenery, nice places to sit and various view points along the way. It also runs right next to Chelsea Market which we popped in to - it is a cool indoor market with a few independent shops, food outlets and a makers market, which is a place local arts and crafts people sell their wares. We headed right to the end of the park which took us to Hudson's Yards - a fancy shopping mall. After reaching it, we sat and had a cuppa and a sit down and then walked on up to 34th Street which is home to Macy's and lots of other big shops - kind of like Oxford Street in London. We had a little mooch around and got some last minute bits.


After a quick stop for a bite to eat, it was time to head back to the Hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport. We were pretty tired from walking so a deep sleep is very likely on the plane!


This is not my last blog post - I will do another one with a summary. But for those who have been checking in, thanks so much for reading!


Farewell New York and farewell North America - what a great trip!


Oh hi babessszzzz. View from the ferry.


Manhattan from the water


Coming into land...


Manhattan from the air


New Jersey to the left. Manhattan to the right. Lady liberty at the front.


High Line, built on the train tracks.


A mural on the High Line. New York themed!


High Line.


Nothing to worry about. Just the NYPD Bomb Squad parked up near our hotel...










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