Day 3: New York

It was pouring with rain when we woke up in New York this morning. After another stop at McDonalds for breakfast, we made our way to the nearest subway station to catch a train back down towards the ferry terminal where we'd caught the ferry to Staten Island yesterday. We didn't fancy another 17,000 step walk this morning!

While we'd seen the Statue of Liberty from a distance on the Staten Island ferry yesterday, the plan for today was to go on one of the official boat tours which take you to Liberty Island where the statue is situated. I'd booked this in advance online a couple of days before we left home and our tickets told us we needed to arrive at 10.30 to pass through security screening before getting on the boat. We arrived on time and joined the queue. It was good to see that guns were prohibited here at least.

Security didn't take as long as I'd expected and we were soon through the other side and queuing in the rain to get on the boat. It was quite a big boat but, as you can imagine, this is a very popular tourist destination and so there were a huge amount of people trying to get on. Once we made it on board, all the indoor areas were completely full with people standing, so we had to make our way to the outdoor deck on the top of the boat. I'm sure on a sunny day this is the most sought-after location, but in today's torrential rain it was fairly empty

Despite being wet, we did have some great views as the boat pulled out of the harbour.

Because the weather was so gloomy, we couldn't see the tops of some of the tallest buildings though.

The huge World Trade Center building that we'd been taking photos of yesterday was almost completely obscured by the clouds.

As we sailed further away from Manhattan we got a view of Ellis Island, the place where immigrants to the USA were historically processed.

And then we got a view of what we'd come to see

Now that we were closer to it, the Statue of Liberty looked a lot bigger than it had yesterday from the Staten Island ferry.

It really is huge; about 93 metres tall from the ground to the torch.

It had been worth standing outside in the rain for these views as we approached Liberty Island.

Once we arrived and got off the boat, we were able to follow a path around the base of the monument.

From here we had some great views upwards towards the statue.

Our tickets allowed us to climb up the pedestal of the statue; before we could do this we had to go through a second airport-style security check. Then there were 195 steps to climb before we reached the viewing platform. I'm sure the view from here must be great on a clearer day!

Once you're on the pedestal it's quite hard to actually see the statue

This is probably the best view we got looking upwards.

We climbed back down the stairs and found a better viewing platform on the way out.

We even attempted a selfie!

It was so exciting to see such a famous monument up close

Once we'd finished admiring the statue we dried out for a while in the museum, where we learned a bit about its history. This model showing how the statue is supported was really fascinating.

Then it was back onto the boat, where we managed to get a seat indoors this time. We had a brief stop on Ellis Island before heading back to New York.

We were able to see the Registry Room, where immigrants would have queued for initial inspections to determine whether they were going to be allowed to enter the USA.

After a look round the immigration museum it was back outside to queue in the rain for the ferry back to New York.

By the time we got on a boat the rain had eased up a bit and we ended up standing on the outside deck again.

It was maybe a little less cloudy than it had been when we departed this morning.

And we had a final view of the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

It was quite windy out on the deck!

As we pulled into the ferry terminal we got a view of the bright orange Staten Island ferry we'd travelled on yesterday.

The weather was drier now than it had been all day, so when we got off the ferry we walked for a bit and found ourselves at Ground Zero. There is a memorial garden here with two square pools of water in the places where the twin towers used to stand.

We continued walking, looking for somewhere where we'd be able to try some New York pizza. We passed quite a few pizza places but they were mainly takeaways with limited places to sit. Eventually we found a place which had tables and tried a selection of different slices. I really liked the pepperoni...