The city never sleeps and apparently neither does AFO, it was a late night and an early morning for one of the busiest days of the Tour. There is a lot to see and do in New York and we packed in the best of it for our first full day.
An early breakfast of champions included cereal, muffins and donuts the size of your head. Once the sun cream had been applied and everyone had enough spending money for shopping we head off to the subway. It was almost like being at a Spa, except the only treatment available was the sauna.
We took the trains south of Manhattan to the 9/11 memorial site for a guided tour given by some of the people who were there and experienced the horrors of the day. It was a very emotional tour but overall a very worthwhile experience.
After the tour we headed up the new Tower One. The lift took us up to the 102nd floor in 47 seconds where we were greeted by a fantastic view over New York. We spent a while taking in the view and reflecting on the stories we had heard earlier that morning. We then managed to gather everyone together for a group photo, which with over 90 people can be very difficult.
By this time everyone was very hungry so it was time to head back to the subway for Grand Central Station for lunch. Then all the tour families split up for a bit of shopping. Shops visited included Footlocker, Macys, Sephora and Disney.
After shopping was an early dinner at Dallas BBQ, the plated were piled high with food and it all went down very well. We then took a short walk down to the water to board a boat for a tour around Manhattan, seeing sites such as the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge which all would have been wonderful, if there wasn’t a thunder storm and heavy rain. Some braved the rain and refused to go and sit inside, myself included. But it cleared up about half way round and everyone very much enjoyed this too.
By the time we got off the boats it was after 9pm and there were some very tired member among us. The plan was for us all to head to Times Square, but instead we split into two groups, some headed for Times Square and the rest back to the hostel for an early night.
I was with the group that went to Times Square, it was extremely busy and I a very glad we had our red tour t-shits on so we all stood out and it was very easy to find and follow one another, we took in the sites and snapped a few photos making a few friends along the way. Most notably Logan who tried to photobomb our group photo but was meet by a very different response from the orchestra, I will include the picture of what happened. (Pending)
We headed back to the hostel once again on the subway. Everyone is now happily in their beds and looking forward to a more relaxed day tomorrow.
-Hannah
Quote of the day – “That’s so Logan”
Recent Comments