New York Trip part three

Monday 

 TS and family wanted to take the boat trip that goes around Statue of Liberty Island. TBH is not a good sailor and I suggested that we went to Washington Square instead and that we could meet up with the rest of the family after their boat trip. TBH agreed that a walking trip would be better than making herself unwell whilst trapped on a boat for an hour or so.   We all took the Hop on hop off bus and parted company close to Washington Square in the rather posh district of Greenwich Village, where I am proud to say my ancestors once lived.

We have just hopped off the hop on hop off bus

Washington Square is not dissimilar to many of the London squares in and around central London, that I am familiar with, but it has one major feature that differs from London.

There is a huge arch at one entrance, looking not unlike Marble Arch in London, but celebrating George Washington.

My maternal Grandmother was born in Washington Square, but I have no idea where exactly and likewise her family, my great grandparents lived in Washington Place, an adjoining street, and again I do not know exactly which house.    After walking around the square, we looked at Washington Place. It consists largely of what are described as Brownstone buildings which were surprisingly similar to the house that my great grandmother had owned in London. I suppose they were a standard design that was built all over the world around the same time.

Whilst houses like this in Greenwich Village may continue to be preserved, my great grandmother's house in London is now a grade II listed building and so will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
After we had walked around my ancestor's home grounds for a while, we decided to get a coffee and a snack to keep us going. Being a rather upmarket part of New York, there were some real fancy restaurants and we had a rather strange coffee in a French restaurant.  Once the inner person was satisfied, we got back on the hop on hop off bus and continued down to Battery Park.
Here we walked around, looking at the open water of the Junction of  the East River and the Hudson and watched the boats and ferries going back and forth.

One odd looking boat was a floating advertising hoarding which simply cruised up and down displaying advertisements on a huge display screen.

The same boat, with two of its repertoire of advertisements

This barge intrigued me, it did not seem to have any cockpit or anywhere for it to be steered from. It is piled high with containers with no obvious cabin.  I looked it up in the shipping registry and it is listed as a cargo barge, but it said nothing about how it was controlled.  There is a guy sitting on a chair at the front, but he does not seem to be doing anything with a steering control and has all the appearance of being a passenger.

We then walked along the Hudson side towards the place we were meeting the rest of the family.

One of the things about New York is the number of places and objects that you recognise from movies, Washington Square has featured in several movies I am familiar with and whilst we walked along the Hudson waterfront, the Staten Island ferry sailed past, which we had seen being chopped in half in a recent movie.

Of course one thing that you cannot miss is the Statue of Liberty.  This is large enough to get a good look from the shore and despite not going out on the water, we got to see it anyway.

 On the way to meet the family we passed several monuments and across the river we could see the old Railway Station that was the main entry point to Manhattan before all the bridges and tunnels were built, where you had to get a ferry to return to the mainland and get a train.

Further on we saw, what is billed as the largest clock in the world, advertising something or other.

 New York like London is full of monuments and further along the river, we found a monument to the Korean War.  The flags of all the nations involved were around the base and there were a surprising number of UN troops involved.  I grew up with this war going on and it seemed to consist of mostly British and American troops, according to the news reels I saw at the cinema, but it was much more of an international effort according to this monument.

We eventually met up with the rest of the family not too far from the Liberty Island tours landing place.

As we left the water front, we came across this, not something that fitted my personal image of the NYPD, but logical when you consider the traffic conditions and the maneuverability of such a small car.

There are some very striking buildings in Manhattan and this one caught our eye.  We had to pass by it and both TS and I took several pictures of it.

After some refreshments, we walked on from there heading for the 9/11 monument.
 I clearly recall the event as must many other people and remember in detail what I was doing at the time.  I was working in my office in Shrivenham College  when someone called us to look at a news stream they were watching and we saw the awful event unfolding.  Ironically, TBH had just booked our air tickets to visit the family that very morning, just before the news broke.

This was a very somber place, although crowded everyone was moving around silently, and I was surprised as to how much it affected me.  Actually being there, at the site of all those needless deaths, with all the names written around the rim of the two towers foundations was difficult to describe.
Each side had a waterfall symbolising tears and I was deeply moved and although fascinated by the whole affair, I did not want to stay for too long.

One thing that I found very sad but thoughtful of them, was that the monument organisers placed a white rose on the names of the victims, on the anniversary of their birthday, .

No relation, but no doubt because there were so many victims, you will find your own family names among those remembered.

Just some flowers, to cheer us up after this gloomy memorial.