A Green Lady, Ellis Island and an Eclipse

You can’t visit New York for the first time and not do this can you? At some point in your life you’d regret it. So along with what seemed like half the rest of the world stood out in the hot sunshine at Battery Park waiting to be ushered through airport style ‘security’ to the departure lounge ..ie ferry line. Unlike most of the others we were the special ones..we had blue paper bracelets with ‘crown visitor’ on it.
As you can see from the best of a bad bunch of photos, the ferry was pretty packed and full of people holding phones as high as possible. This one was taken on the way back when most were too exhausted to raise their arms. Being packed like sardines was probably similar to the kind of conditions many immigrants found themselves in when they approached the Statue.
On arrival, we walked around the statue and then made our way to the entrance to go inside. There was this locker system for belongings as you weren’t allowed to take anything other than cameras and a bottle of water with you. It wasn’t a complicated process. Pay two dollars, press your finger onto the glass and a locker no. is allocated. You then have a minute to open the locker before it auto locks and you can then only open it once more…so, if like me, you drop your purse, scattering dimes and pennies all over the place, you then have to join the queue, open up your locker, then pay another two dollars for a new one…yes I know, you don’t have to say it. Armed with a bottle of water we went to the usual viewing level and then when instructed started the long climb up the tight spiral staircase. There were small landings every now and again to rest if needed.



Just a small selection of photos outside and inside the Statue. The 162 steps were a doddle compared to the 140 LD and I have to climb to get to our seats for Newcastle matches. It was very hot, humid and not for the claustrophobic. The view from the crown was ok, though I think the outside of the windows were due a clean.. Once back at ground level and fresh air, we noticed the queue for the ferry to Ellis Island was getting pretty long and decided to join it. LD had wandered off so we texted him to tell him where we were. Eventually he turned up a few minutes before we boarded the ferry with two chicken tenders in his pocket! he’d only gone into the cafe for something to eat and didn’t have time to eat it all!



A few months ago I finished reading a book by one of my favourite authors, Edward Rutherfurd called New York. It tells the story of some of the families who founded the city. One of which was an Italian family who arrived at Ellis Island as immigrants and the history of it was told through their story. As we pulled up to the ferry landing I recalled their experience and imagined being in their shoes. Although the buildings have been altered slightly to accommodate visitors and exhibits, the place that held the most energy was the main hall, that had held long lines of immigrants as they were checked and registered. The other rooms held lots of letters, ships manifests and articles donated by those who passed through as well as lots of audio of immigrants sharing their story.
An added bonus that didn’t cost us a cent was the partial eclipse that happened just as we were coming out of the building. Of course being sensible we didn’t look at it, and to be honest it didn’t go dark or eerie as it had the last time we saw one in the UK about seventeen years ago. But the other tourists seemed to enjoy being there to see the bit of missing sun.

Some passengers on the ferry had found it a little more exhausting than others….

Back on terra firma we rode the subway to Times Square and had a wonderful cool pint of Bud Lite in Bubba Gumps watching the world go by…
