New York, New York

Our first full day in New York started early as we had a booking on the first ferry to Liberty island to see the statue. After a typical New York breakfast (donut and coffee from a street vendor) we queued up for the ferry security check. We then queued some more inside and went through the airport style security scanners, then queued a bit longer to get on the ferry. Once we'd had a stroll round the island we had to queue to put our bags into lockers and queue for yet another security check before being allowed up to the viewing platform. Then of course we queued to get our bags back and queued to get back on the ferry. I think my overriding memory of New York is going to be queuing and being made to feel like a criminal.

After visiting Ellis island (which was mercifully queue free) we got back to Manhattan and had a wander round the financial district, Chinatown and Little Italy. We also saw a big protest outside the supreme court opposing Arizona's new immigration laws, and a much smaller rival protest supporting it. Nice to see the racists are in the minority :)

In the afternoon we visited the planetarium and natural history museum... although our visit was cut short after some confusion on the subway. They've switched all the services round while they're doing signal works so there are various signs on the platform saying "Between 8am and 5pm weekdays line E is now only stopping at line F stations". We managed to get the 'wrong' train again on the way back to the hotel too. Sigh.

In the evening we went for dinner in Greenwich Village. The restaurant recommended in our guidebook was packed so we ended up at a Swedish restaurant instead. The food was delicous although I couldn't help noticing that the meatballs tasted a lot like the ones in the Ikea restaurant.