I've lived in NYC for about three decades, yet had never seen one of it's most infamous landmarks, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Apparently if you want to get inside the actual statue, you have to order tickets ahead of time, and if you want to climb up to the head you really need to reserve in advance, as in its sold out till late 2012 due to rennovations.
For $20 you get a basic pass to visit the island the statue is on as well as Ellis Island. The starting point is at Battery Point Park in which you have to take a boat ride to the statue. The long lines and airport-style security screening is rather annoying, but it moves along quick enough to live with. The boat ride takes only about 15 minutes, including boarding, travel, and getting off. Not having access to get inside the statue, the most I was able to do was walk around the structure and follow a free tour the park rangers provide. What I learned from the tour is that the offical name of the structure is not the 'Statue of Liberty' as we all refer to it, but instead 'Liberty Enlightening the World'. Also there's a backup piece of the torch on the grounds people can touch, and surprisingly it feels thin as a tin can.
The boats take off every 15 minutes and when I was done with that island, I boarded the ship for the next stop, Ellis Island, which turned out to be the best part of the trip. The reason I ended up liking it more than visiting the statue is that this turned out to be a two-floor museum with many interesting artifacts and old pieces of history to look at. There's even an ancestory look up room in which you can search the Ellis Island database of immigrant names to discover if any old relatives are on record there during a certain time period(I couldn't find any). The park rangers give free tours there as well and take you through the process immigrants had to go through when coming off their voyages. There's also plenty of rooms displaying old clothing, luggage, passports, travel brochures, and even a room dedicated to Alcatraz Island, which is on the other side of the country.
Ellis Island was where I spent the majority of my time and I had to catch one of the last boats out in order to get back to Battery Park. Walking back to the subway station I was about to go downstairs to the entrance when I turned my head right and saw the Brooklyn Bridge. It was still light out, nice weather, since I never walked across that landmark, I decided to add that to my agenda as well. Why not, it's free. There's two paths, one for pedestrians and another for people riding bikes. Other than the annoying of people walking too slow or bikers speeding dangerously fast, its definately a nice short journey worth taking. On the Brooklyn side of the bridge there's a stand selling mangos on a stick for $3, okay so its not a totally free walk, but close to it. I bought one and ate it while I walked back to the Manhattan side. Unfortunately the mango juice was getting too messy so I ended up throwing it out sooner than I wanted to.
Then I was done for the day...
For $20 you get a basic pass to visit the island the statue is on as well as Ellis Island. The starting point is at Battery Point Park in which you have to take a boat ride to the statue. The long lines and airport-style security screening is rather annoying, but it moves along quick enough to live with. The boat ride takes only about 15 minutes, including boarding, travel, and getting off. Not having access to get inside the statue, the most I was able to do was walk around the structure and follow a free tour the park rangers provide. What I learned from the tour is that the offical name of the structure is not the 'Statue of Liberty' as we all refer to it, but instead 'Liberty Enlightening the World'. Also there's a backup piece of the torch on the grounds people can touch, and surprisingly it feels thin as a tin can.
The boats take off every 15 minutes and when I was done with that island, I boarded the ship for the next stop, Ellis Island, which turned out to be the best part of the trip. The reason I ended up liking it more than visiting the statue is that this turned out to be a two-floor museum with many interesting artifacts and old pieces of history to look at. There's even an ancestory look up room in which you can search the Ellis Island database of immigrant names to discover if any old relatives are on record there during a certain time period(I couldn't find any). The park rangers give free tours there as well and take you through the process immigrants had to go through when coming off their voyages. There's also plenty of rooms displaying old clothing, luggage, passports, travel brochures, and even a room dedicated to Alcatraz Island, which is on the other side of the country.
Ellis Island was where I spent the majority of my time and I had to catch one of the last boats out in order to get back to Battery Park. Walking back to the subway station I was about to go downstairs to the entrance when I turned my head right and saw the Brooklyn Bridge. It was still light out, nice weather, since I never walked across that landmark, I decided to add that to my agenda as well. Why not, it's free. There's two paths, one for pedestrians and another for people riding bikes. Other than the annoying of people walking too slow or bikers speeding dangerously fast, its definately a nice short journey worth taking. On the Brooklyn side of the bridge there's a stand selling mangos on a stick for $3, okay so its not a totally free walk, but close to it. I bought one and ate it while I walked back to the Manhattan side. Unfortunately the mango juice was getting too messy so I ended up throwing it out sooner than I wanted to.
Then I was done for the day...
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