Day #1 New York City experienced

Today was our first full day of exploring the Big Apple, the City that never sleeps... ... New York City,

This morning we woke early and had a delicious breakfast in the hotels restaurant before heading out and jumping on our first experience in the New York subway. We caught the subway to downtown Manhattan, thankfully with not too many people around. The day was a little overcast, and cool. Around 23c... which make a lovely change from the 35s here in 2017.

Upon arriving down at Chambers Street Station, we headed towards our first sightseeing, the Brooklyn Bridge. Passing by some of the more historical building sites, including the Woolworth building, City Hall, and then up onto the grand walk of the Brooklyn Bridge. With over 20,000 people a day walk on this bridge, it was quite packed with many people enjoying the sights of the southern end of Manhattan Island, atop of this lovely grand old bridge.

After leaving the bridge we headed over to the 911 memorial and looked around at the memorial to this incredible disaster. It was a bit of an eye-opener for the boys as many of them didn't know and didn't appreciate what had happened on this day. As you look around the reflection pools where the two twin towers stood the names of all the people that lost their lives in this tragic incident. Quiet a somber reflective time for all...

Near the Memorials pools for 911, was a recently erected statue of a modern army officer riding a horse. The statue represented the Marines going into battle in Afghanistan, after 911. The current movie "12 Strong" describes the fight for freedom in the initial stages against the Taliban. Funnily enough many of the boys watch this movie across in the plane and knew the history behind the story.

Boys grab the bit of lunch nearby and then we headed down to the financial district of Manhattan's downtown, the Wall Street area. Visiting the Charging Bull, Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, Federal Reserve,  and many other buildings but the one that intrigue many of our boys was Trumps tower here in Wall Street. With many of the boys wanting to get a photo in front of it, for their memories.

Following this we went down to the water side, Hudson River region,  and walked along the park lands around the Battery Park. Located right at the bottom end of the Manhattan Island, this was the location for our next journey, out by ferry to The Statue of Liberty and then Ellis Island. The grand old lady, the Statue of Liberty was originally donated by the French to the USA, as a sign of friendship between the two countries. Once out there the boys got a chance to walk around the island and get photos of themselves in front of one of the iconic symbols of America, with Manhattan's skyline in the background. Then the boat cruise took us also to Ellis Island where it originally was an immigration centre which originally housed all of the immigrants coming to America in the early 1800s.

After a two hour cruise around the New York's Hudson River Harbour, we will return back to battery Park and jumped on the subway back to Penn Station, which is located near Madison Square Garden so the boys got to enjoy the best of both worlds being able to see the garden where the NY Knicks play and also to be able to do a bit of retail therapy to and buy some of their favourite sporting gear and athletic shoes. The shoe shop seem to be a hit so far with many of the boys picking up one or even two pairs of their favourite basketball or running shoes they seem to be significantly cheaper here in New York then back home in Australia.

After a brief rest in the hotel we walked back to Madison Square Garden's Food Hall for a quick bite to eat, and then up to Times Square to jump on the Sightseeing bus night tour which took us again back down around the downtown precincts including Soho, Chelsea, and the China district of Manhattan's south. This is a wonderful way to see what is a very old but a very historical area of this wonderful city. Upon return to Time Square, we finish the night by giving the boys and opportunity to look around, with the many thousands of other people that were there at the time. Certainly some eye-opening sites for our boys to see before heading back to the hotel and getting a deserved good night sleep.

A long day, over 18kms of walking (from my iPhone stats), and certainly a great way to start this tour.

A reminder the photos from the day are added to the Flickr page. (sorry if some of the night photos are a little blurry... I'm trying to get used to a new camera. Should be fine by the end n of the Tour :) )