Day two. The weather is a littler warmer than previous day. We were up early and took a taxi to down town manhatten, battery park. The taxi driver was very chatty and said we should go half way over the Brooklyn bridge and see soho for more independent shops. The cost of the ride was 20$. We decided to check in at the statue tours a little early as queues were already quite large. We had booked the tickets online in uk and had paid to see the pedestal and crown. Lucky we did as only a small number of these were available and they were all sold out. Having these tickets meant we avoided the worst queues and went to the front. There was airport security again, belts off, watches off, scarves,hats etcetc,having passed all of that we went on board and headed for the outside,

. The boat holds over 690 people but was not full went it went off. It was a great day and the skies were blue. The skylines from the Hudson River was iconic. We could clearly see the 9/11 memorial tower and the Empire State Building. Lots of pictures. Also saw some pesky seagulls, must have followed us from teignmouth!!

The trip is not long and soon we were getting close up views of the Statue of Liberty. It appeared a little smaller than I thought. We disembarked and approached the base of the statue. There was more airport security and we decided we would brave the 160 plus stairs to go to the top. We were told to leave bags and coats behind in lockers which would be opened by martins finger print. Very high tech...

To get up to the crown there were very steep metal steps that corkscrewed up. Inside it was very narrow. Luckily there were stop off points. Inside was very metal and steam punk. When we got to the top there was not a lot of room. There were small windows looking out over the river. We took some photos and made our way down. It was very different to what I thought but still an experience. We also had tickets for the pedestal. This was outside and quite cold.

After all the sightseeing we had a bite to eat at the cafe. Not so good. Piles of chips .

We caught the boat to Ellis Island. The musium was ok. We went outside and it was lovely and quiet and lots of space. It was great to just sit.

We caught the boat back to battery park where we saw a group of break dancers who were very professional. Also saw lots of people dressed as statues of liberty carrying ladders that they stood on.. Very weird

We caught the Sub way to canel street and walked across to soho. Nice shops. Had a coffee and peanut cookie. Tiring we caught another subway to st Columbus which is near our hotel.

I was all tired out by then and retired to bed. A good day was had by all