Day 11 - What a day!

Today started bright and early with a shower in our very luxurious hotel bathroom!

We then went and boarded our Grayline hop on hop off tour bus and drove past New York landmarks like the Chrysler Building, Times Square and New York Library (as featured in the Ghostbusters film). 

We decided to get off outside the Empire State Building and make this our first touristy destination. The inside of this skyscraper is so beautiful, the art deco details on all the walls and floors are stunning. The boys were amazed by the speed of the elevator whisking us to the 80th floor - it took an average of 5 seconds to rise 10 floors!! At the top we looked at the exhibition telling us about the construction of the building - most astonishing fact we learned was that it took less than a year to build - wow! The views from the 86th floor were just as stunning as Neil & I remembered from 14 years ago - although the south view looks very sadly different. 

After lunch we hopped back on our bus passing through SoHo, Greenwich village (where Friends was set), Little Italy, China Town and The Financial District passing Ground Zero and Wall Street. 

We then walked down to Battery Park ready for the ferry trip out to the Statue of Liberty. 

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon walking round Liberty Island. Then we had a very distressing incident. Whilst we were waiting for the ferry to take us back across to Manhattan, people on the pier started shouting & we noticed that the ferry was heading straight for the pier at full speed. Everyone began screaming and running back towards the island. I grabbed Thomas by the hand and we ran as fast as we could as the ferry was still coming straight at us. The ferry hit the pier with some force - breaking one of the pier supports, but thankfully (as far as we are aware) no one either on the pier or in the ferry, was hurt. We were all really shaken up and there were lots of children crying - Thomas was really quite shaken, and of course we still had to get back across the river to Manhattan. They moved us all around the island to the New Jersey pier for us to await our ferry.  Thankfully we are now back on dry land, safely on our bus heading back to the Uptown area (and maybe a beer!)