Day Eleven No Sense of Direction Around New York

Well, I didn't wake up til 8:30am - that's a turn up for the books!!! Got up and out and headed towards the World Trade Centre, as was. I went back in the late 1990's and stood up on the observation deck and thought I should go back and check out "ground zero". I signed up for the walking tour and had a mooch around the Tribute museum there for half an hour. It's quite emotional and touching even for a cold hearted English girl like me!!

Then I lined up outside for the tour, at this point I was starting to wish I'd put my coat on this morning when I left the hotel, but put on my scarf, hat and gloves and did up my hoodie zip to keep out the biting chill of the Downtown wind. The tours are run from the Tribute Centre which was started up to support the families and survivors. Each tour is guided by two people who have a special connection to 9/11, either a family member, WTC worker, survivor, local resident. Each tells you about the history and future of the site and also shares their stories. It's very touching and must be quite cathartic for them. My guides today were JeanMarie whose brother worked on the 101st floor of the North Tower which was hit first and Joe who worked for Morgan Stanley on the 72nd Floor of the South Tower and also was there during the 1993 bombing of the South Tower.

Quite an emotional morning and freezing cold to boot!!! I left Downtown and headed towards Uptown Manhattan I took the Subway to Union Station and wondered along looking at market stalls there, probably fortunately I had very little cash in my wallet at this point!!!! I carried on and wondered up Broadway towards 5th Avenue and looked in the windows of all the really expensive shops, no chance of going inside as they can spot a poor chick at 20 paces!!!

Now one of the main shop windows to look at out here is Macy's - it's a bit like Harrods at Christmas. While merrily looking at the windows and trying to dodge other foot traffic and BANG!! I stacked it right outside Macy's and fell on all fours in the road!! Stunningly athletic I'm not and this is about the third time I've done this although before it was when I was running! No major injuries fortunately mainly bruised ego and knees!!!

Stopped at Maccas had a crappy late lunch but mainly went in for the Internet access, to catch up on emails and such like!! Set up a Skype date with my lovely man and so headed back to the hotel. Now this should have been easy but as always I had a confusing subway ride back and managed to get lost coming out to the hotel AGAIN!!

Nice Skype and some Internet surfing for tomorrow's fun packed schedule and I a managed to book a treat for tomorrow night!! Last day in NYC tomorrow so have to make it count! So In Room Dinner and TV and an early night for me!!!

Night night xxx