USA Road Trip: Day 17

This morning we were up early again as we needed to take the subway to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. We had pre-booked tickets for 9am entry to avoid the queues. It was about half an hour on the subway and we just managed to get there on time.

At 1,776 feet tall, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere

There was just a very short queue to wait in to get through security and into the building. I had pre-downloaded the museum app which was really interesting to listen to as we walked around and meant that we didn't need to read all of the information boards - of which there were many, there really was a lot to look at, most of it deeply moving and quite upsetting in places.

8.30am September 11, 2001


The Last Column was the final steel beam ceremonially removed from Ground Zero, marking the formal end of a nine-month recovery effort

The Survivors' Staircase was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the World Trade Center site

Dream Bike

Construction

Donated Thermos flasks from Mohawk Indian Ironworkers

19.8 ft fragment of the 360ft transmission tower - North Tower

Damaged fire truck

This column once stood in the core of the south tower - probably between floors 30 and 33 - extreme stresses during the tower's collapse caused this multi-ton piece of steel to fold over

I stupidly forgot my tissues and thought it was a nice touch how they provided built-in tissue boxes near the most intense exhibits. We spent 5 hours at the museum, it was emotionally tiring, it really brought it home to us, the sheer senseless loss of innocent lives. I am so glad we visited, it's something I am always going to remember.

Tasty chopped salad

First course was far too healthy

One of the caches on the 'to-do list' was a 32-stage multi – we weren’t sure we would have time to do it and only pencilled it in as a 'maybe' if we had enough time time. After visiting the 9/11 museum we were ready for a walk in a park so decided to head to Central Park and see how far we could get with the multi – the listing said not to attempt it after dark as some areas of the park, particularly the North weren't safe in the hours of darkness.

Stage 1 of 32

We spent a couple of hours walking from stage to stage, we had so much fun and it took us on a really great walk in the park going from bridge to bridge.

About 5pm the sky went black – this was after it being gloriously sunny all day – and there was an almighty thunder and lightening storm.

We sheltered under a bridge and then when it seemed to give over we continued around the park for another half an hour or so until the heavens opened again and we had to admit defeat and headed to the subway to shelter, getting absolutely drenched through on the way, it was literally like running through a washing machine, we’ve never experienced rain and wind like it all at the same time.

We decided to dry off in Macy's, enjoyed going up and down the escalators and elevators and having a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel on the citi bikes.