New York City!!!

I was off the ship by 9:00 am, with 7 hours before I had to be at the airport. There is currently an exhibition of artifacts from the great French liner "Normandie" at the Seaport Museum in lower Manhattan. The curator of said exhibit is Mr. Oceanliner, Bill Miller, the excellent lecturer on board the Mary, so of course I had to see it.

I bypassed the taxi line at the pier and walked two blocks to catch a city bus (along with one other passenger and his NY daughter who was very helpful to me).  It went straight to Borough Hall in downtown Brooklyn, where I had a look about, then caught a Manhattan bound 4 train to Fulton Street, which puts you right in the middle of the madness that is lower Manhattan.  You are a block from  Ground Zero, in the photos above, which is in full construction mode now. Incredibly noisy, sidewalks streaming with people of all sorts, trucks and taxis and shiny black cars, and steam from the vents blowing about-- and me rolling my (exactly 50 pound) suitcase around, taking photos and exclaiming wow!