Today, I decided to do the tour to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island. The website recommended leaving nearly 6 hours to cover both sites, so by going mid-morning, I thought that I would have time to do both sites, get back to the hotel, and then go to this evening's game.
This is the boat I travelled to Liberty Island on and again onto Ellis Island. You can stay as long as you like on either island, just catching the next boat to the other island or back to the mainland when you've completed your visit. You can see from the skies in the photograph that it wasn't a sunny day - it was the first really cloudy day that I'd had, and there were weather warnings that had been issued warning of strong winds, heavy rain and the chance of a tornado or two. Whilst it was quite windy all day, and very windy indeed on the boats as we crossed the water between the islands, there was no rain until later in the evening when I was back at my hotel, which was good.
The statue is much larger than I had imagined. It was a shame that the maintenance work being done to the foundations was still going on (it's due to finish any time now) as there were lots of fences around everywhere, although they didn't really block the view of the statue itself.
I walked around the island to see the statue from all the different sides. Although it looks as if it was raining, it wasn't - that was just the spray from the waves crashing into the island!
There is a guided audio tour included in the price of the ticket, so you can go at your own pace and listen to a guide describing the different aspects of the statue, how it was conceived, designed, built, imported from France to the USA and then assembled on the island. Since you cannot go into the pedestal or up the statue at the moment, there isn't actually all that much to do on Liberty Island except admire the statue itself and visit the gift shop and cafe provided.
Next I travelled on to Ellis Island, which was the immigration centre for the third class and steerage passengers on arriving boats (the first and second class passengers generally were admitted after a brief interview on board the arriving ship). The immigrants went through a long process starting with depositing their bags in the baggage room before proceeding up the stairs (being able to climb the stairs was one of the medical tests) to the Registry Room where they queued to be interviewed by immigration officials. It has an impressive ceiling that was so well built, only 17 bricks had to be replaced when the room was restored to become part of the national monument.
There were lots of other areas to see, in particular the medical testing section and mental ability testing. However, I shall have to return to see these areas in more detail, as I had to get back for the evening game as the ferries back become a lot less frequent after 4pm. As you can see from the final picture, the weather really wasn't very good, but at least it hadn't rained during my tour of the islands.
Today, I decided to do the tour to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island. The website recommended leaving nearly 6 hours to cover both sites, so by going mid-morning, I thought that I would have time to do both sites, get back to the hotel, and then go to this evening's game.
This is the boat I travelled to Liberty Island on and again onto Ellis Island. You can stay as long as you like on either island, just catching the next boat to the other island or back to the mainland when you've completed your visit. You can see from the skies in the photograph that it wasn't a sunny day - it was the first really cloudy day that I'd had, and there were weather warnings that had been issued warning of strong winds, heavy rain and the chance of a tornado or two. Whilst it was quite windy all day, and very windy indeed on the boats as we crossed the water between the islands, there was no rain until later in the evening when I was back at my hotel, which was good.
The statue is much larger than I had imagined. It was a shame that the maintenance work being done to the foundations was still going on (it's due to finish any time now) as there were lots of fences around everywhere, although they didn't really block the view of the statue itself.
I walked around the island to see the statue from all the different sides. Although it looks as if it was raining, it wasn't - that was just the spray from the waves crashing into the island!
There is a guided audio tour included in the price of the ticket, so you can go at your own pace and listen to a guide describing the different aspects of the statue, how it was conceived, designed, built, imported from France to the USA and then assembled on the island. Since you cannot go into the pedestal or up the statue at the moment, there isn't actually all that much to do on Liberty Island except admire the statue itself and visit the gift shop and cafe provided.
Next I travelled on to Ellis Island, which was the immigration centre for the third class and steerage passengers on arriving boats (the first and second class passengers generally were admitted after a brief interview on board the arriving ship). The immigrants went through a long process starting with depositing their bags in the baggage room before proceeding up the stairs (being able to climb the stairs was one of the medical tests) to the Registry Room where they queued to be interviewed by immigration officials. It has an impressive ceiling that was so well built, only 17 bricks had to be replaced when the room was restored to become part of the national monument.
There were lots of other areas to see, in particular the medical testing section and mental ability testing. However, I shall have to return to see these areas in more detail, as I had to get back for the evening game as the ferries back become a lot less frequent after 4pm. As you can see from the final picture, the weather really wasn't very good, but at least it hadn't rained during my tour of the islands.
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