With you wherever you go: New York and back home!

We had an action packed few days in New York which left no time for blogging.

So here's a couple of blogs on the Sunday afternoon after our visit to round off this blog for the time being!

Wednesday

Julie picked us up at 9-00 and we headed into town via her own house where she got a much needed strap and some tape for Felicity's bag. Then it was through the tunnel to Manhattan and Greenwich village.

We did the Dylan Thomas walk which told the story of Dylan Thomas in New York. Having found out that she is Dylan Thomas's third cousin once removed, Felicity has been doing Dylan Thomas this centenary year.

It was a great walk that took us round the streets of Greenwich village to the White Horse Tavern that was his second home in New York. Kept deliberately as it would have been when he last visited, with pictures and memorabilia on the wall it made a great place for a meal at the end of our walk, and none too expensive at that.

We then took the subway to the end of the route and did the Staten Island ferry there and back to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island close up ... and all for free!

We then made our way over to Ground Zero. I had been in two minds whether to visit. Having seen the memorial wall at the Brooklyn Cyclones Ball |Park and having shared in many a conversation that touched on 9/11, not least in the context of my third Bible Lecture, I now wanted to go.

It was moving ... and yet un-nerving. Seeing the scale of all that had happened was very different from seeing it on TV .. the precision of the targetting too.

Moving, but it also left me feeling uneasy. What lessons have we learned?

We decided to take the Bus up sixth avenue and found ourselves walking through Central Park at Dusk. By now we needed to eat and found a Wendy's - next best thing to Macdonald's but a great salad.

We hoped then to take a bus down Broadway ... but we couldn't find a bus stop and so ended up walking past all the theatres as they were emptying and walking through Times Square at its busiest!

We found a subway and it wasn't much before Midnight when we got back to our hotel!

Wednesday

Julie picked us up again and this time drove us over the Brooklyn Bridge to her Riverside Church. Macy showed us round and we took in the pulpit where Martin Luther King had preached five times and launched his campaign against the Vietnam war, the wonderful Christ in Glory, a copy of the Llandaff Epstein, this time in a gold colour ... and the Epstein of the Mother and Child in the grounds.

We went to the top of the Rockefeller church tower for views of Manhattan, the Bronx and Haarlem, including the Yankees' stadium

We bought ourselves a picnic lunch and made our way by Subway back to Central Park where we enjoyed a picnic lunch.

We marvelled at the Manhattan Schist - outcrops of the rock on which Manhattan is built, saw a Ball Park in the Park and some park basket ball, watched chess being played in the chess and chequers house, visited the dairy and had lunch by the pond.

Then it was off to Bloomingdales to do some window shopping. I wanted to get Felicity that 985 dollar leather jacket, she wanted the 300 dollar tee shirt, we ended up not buying anything.

Over a glasss of lemonade we saw Argentina take on Holland in the semifinal of the World Cup.

We then took the subway to the Grand Central Station - and marvelled at the other end of the rail road.

Then we walked to the African Burial ground. Ground Zero marked the place where 4,000 and more died. The African Burial grounds contained the graves of upwards of 15,000 slaves, 450 of whose bodies had been dug up as an office block was being built. The museum was closed, but the memorial was moving, just as moving, maybe more so than ground zero. But not so accessible. And not so much on the tourist route.

We walked past city hall where we had previously seen some great blitz chess.

And then made our way over Brooklyn Bridge - spectacular views of Manhattan and the New York skyline once again.

We took the subway towards our hotel and stopped off at a lovely Italian restaurant.

That left one more mile to walk, passing a game of shuffle board going on in a club on the way home.

It wasn't much before 11-00 when we arrived back at our hotel.

Thursday

Another early start as Julie picked us up and took us to join Edith at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn. It was great seeing around and being introduced to the Minister.

Here Henry Ward Beechher had been one of those to lead the anti-slavery movement. We saw the pew where Abraham Lincoln had sat on one of two occasions when he went to listen to Beecher preach.

We had now reached the end of the Underground Railroad ... or at least another stop on the way to freedom.

It was great hearing the story again.

Julie then drove us over the bridge for one last glimpse of the Manhattan sky line and on to Penn Station, the other end of the Transcontinental railroad.

We spotted the post office building opposite and felt quite at home when on the cornice was an inscription telling of the origins of the post and a wonderful slogan celebrating its world-wide, go anywhere nature. The inscription honoured our very own Emperor Nerva whose statue is on the streets of Gloucestter as he had given Glevym (Gloucester) the highest accolade of the Empire when he had made it a Colonia in about AD 95.